Fake Reading Instruction is Biggest Con of all

religion.rantrave.com ^ | Feb. 6, 2016 | Bruce Deitrick Price

[BruceDeitrickPrice]

Quora, a discussion forum, posed the question: what are the biggest scams/cons in modern history?

Dozens of smart, entertaining answers have been left: sale of the Eiffel Tower, bottled water, Scientology, military deceptions, Madoff, the diamond engagement ring, etc.

One respondent says the central banking system is a huge con, which may be true. Trouble is, financial matters are very difficult so the con may not be obvious even after the matter is explained.

So that leaves one clear winner. The biggest con is making 50 million Americans totally or partially illiterate by using a method known not to work.

Rudolf Flesch wrote a famous book entitled 'Why Johnny Can't Read' explaining this matter in 1955. Furthermore, all systematic testing, going back a century, has shown the superiority of phonics. Anybody who studies the matter for 10 minutes will see the con.

And yet, and yet, this countrys Education Establishment has kept the scam in play since 1931. Crime-wise this is a remarkable achievement. Battered kids, unable to read, have poured out of the schools by the millions. The phony methods are under constant attack from many directions (for example, one of the main reasons people homeschool their kids is to save them from this con). I've written 25 articles myself, all intended to stop the public schools from continuing this abuse. You're now reading another one of those articles. But the scammers are somehow able to stay one step ahead of the law.

To fully appreciate the grandeur of the scam, consider the typical six-year-old. He shows up at school able to articulate thoughts and sentences like this: 'Some people think the Denver Broncos have a great defense but I think Cam Newton and the Panthers will pull it off.'

This kid is a fully formed 'native speaker.' He is in command of the language to the extent that he could tell a person from a foreign country how to speak the language. Research shows that this kid has a recognition vocabulary way over 15,000 words.

In a 1996 article, Phyllis Schlafly explained the beautiful significance of this foundation: 'The typical first-grader already knows the meaning of thousands of big words, such as hamburger, basketball, birthday, toothbrush, and even hippopotamus and Philadelphia. But the child will not be able to read those words unless he is taught the skills of sounding out the syllables. That's what we call phonics.'

Here is where the con comes in. The Education Establishment figured out a way to stop reading in its tracks. Children are made to memorize so-called sight-words. That is, you memorize a word not as representing sounds, but as a graphic design. This sort of visual memorization is very difficult and tedious. Many children cannot master even 100 sight-words in their first year of school.

Think about the dreadful significance of this factoid. The child knows many thousands of words but cannot read even1% of them, although they are in front of his eyes. If you don't have the key, you can't open the lock.

Sight-word instruction (also known as look-say, Whole Word, Dolch words, etc.) consumes a huge amount of energy and emotional involvement, but rewards the child with almost no progress. It is quite common for children to be declared failures by the second grade and to be placed in remediation classes. If their failure and frustration are more pronounced, the children are put on Ritalin. Note that drug companies are making money. The remediation industry is making money. Tutors are making money. This con is very lucrative for many people.

Think about this especially evil aspect. The average victim of the average con is an adult who can go to the police and complain. But here we have young children who have no idea what has been done to them. The children are miserable. All the fun of going to school has been destroyed. But even grown-ups can be slowly poisoned by a spouse and never know. That's the predicament of these children: damaged without recognition, recourse, or hope of rescue. And this damage, once inflicted, is usually lifelong, reducing career options and salaries.

Should you want to stop this crime and help the children, there are two options:

If you have children of your own, teach them to read at home when they are roughly five years old. This is quite doable and you will prevent the school from hurting them. [See article below.]

If you are worried about the community's children, you should ask the local schools what methods are being used. If lists of sight-words are being sent home with children in the first grade, you know a school is lost and corrupted. The way to stop this con is quite simple: no more sight-words.

Fight back, citizens.

There's a lovely little video on YouTube called "Reading is Easy." This shows you what should be normal, and will be again if we can stop this con.

VIDEO: Reading Is Easy, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JV0tPGn-Ws

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ARTICLE: Teach your child to read early: http://www.improve-education.org/id81.html

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(Quora link: https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-of-the-biggest-scams-cons-in-modern-history

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[Robert DeLong]

I'll defer to you because my knowledge on the subject is very limited. However, I do believe teaching your children to read at any early age is not only sound but smart advice as well. It not only rewards the child, but society too, at least the majority of the time.

That was the whole point of my original post.

[kalee]

One of the top reasons to homeschooled.

[kalee]

Homeschooled should have been homeschool. Pesky autocorrect.