The tutor sized up the kid as “smart.” That’s why the tutor thought the story was interesting.
Also, let me apologize to all the grammarians commenting on which vowel does or does not do the talking. Frankly, I don’t know. I’m not myself much of a grammarian and never learned or understood this generalization.
Right or wrong, the tutor used it; and it prompted the boy to say, “What’s a vowel?” The tutor and I had the same basic reaction: just three little words perfectly captured a huge national problem.
No need to apologize. You are right about those words sizing up a problem. After years of frustration with whole words, some teachers will return to phonics, however rules like the “two vowels walking” cause many to think that phonics doesn’t work. When a child runs across words like ‘steak’, ‘fruit’ etc, they are confused and the teachers don’t know how to explain. They then throw out the phonics and go back to what they know best. That is why I recommend Wanda Sanseri’s speech. It addresses not only the illiteracy problem but a true solution to the problem. Fake phonics with bogus rules is not going to help.