Actually the poster was describing the two main methods used to teach reading.
I went to elementary school in the late 50’s early 60’s and the Dick and Jane books used the whole word method, sometimes called the sight method.
See Dick Run, See Jane Run, See Spot Run...they taught you to recognize certain words and then repeated them over and over in books, constantly adding more words to each new book.
My first grade teacher also taught phonics,(thankfully.) And that way you learn the sounds of different letters and are able to “sound out” words, even if you haven’t seen them before.
Most kids do better with phonics, but I have run into kids who just can’t master a phonetic approach to reading and have to learn through the sight method.
One of the more memorable school moments. I remember thinking something like, "oh, so this is school. Their stories are different from regular stories."
My kids were raised on phonics and taught to read at home in a total of ten hours each, at age 4-1/2. They thought Dick and Jane books were exceptionally strange.
FYI, Dr. Seuss got his start because of whole language, although accidentally. His publisher told him that he had to write a children's book with a limited number of words (around 30). They gave him a list including the words, "hat," and "cat." You know the rest of the story.