Really? I learned to read in the fifties, and while we learned to recognize some words initially, we learned to read by phonics. We learned the alphabet and the sounds of each letter, including when letters were "silent." Then, "Sound it out" was the standard instruction. We also learned at an early age to use the dictionary and the pronunciation guides for words. Everyone of us became effectively literate readers.
Same here and it is painful to watch 2nd graders who can read a few dozen words and the ones they have not learned as “sight words” are just smudges on the paper to them. It is incomprehensible that “educated” educators would think that the way to teach an alphabetic language is to treat it as if it were Hieroglyphics or Kanji.
Please understand it’s a huge country with lots of local variations. I have to generalize in order to write an article. In fact, Flesch’s book “Why Johnny Can’t Read” came out in 1955, when the damage had become sufficiently bad that millions of people bought the book because they knew there was a serious problem.
QED: You were one of the lucky ones who lived in a district where people resisted Dick and Jane.