Blumenfeld doesn’t know what he is talking about. I know because I have one child with severe dyslexia and dyscalculia and one with minor dyslexia and dysgraphia and my husband has both dysgraphia and minor dyslexia.
The child psychologists who tested my son in pre-school were able to predict that he would have these problems due to the fact that he was left handed and right footed, indicating that both sides of his brain were equal, rather than having one side stronger than the other. It actually made him ambi-dextrous. He writes equally poorly with both hands. It’s great for sports though, batting either side, etc. It’s not great for golf, though.
Anyway when he was in kindergarten, he once wrote a whole sentence in mirror writing like Michael Angelo in the Davinci Code. Dyslexia is a very real disability that kids are born with. It is not just one thing, it involves the way the brain sees letters and interprets them. My son often cannot tell the difference between a two and a five if he is working too quickly. It’s the same for letters. Phonics just didn’t work at all. I tried it with him when he was about 4 or 5 and he just looked at it like I was nuts, but picked up the sight reading very readily.
I’ve found that it’s rather impossible to discuss this subject with people who have been told by “experts” that they or their children have so called “Dyslexia”.
So called “Dyslexia” happens as a result of being TAUGHT reading through the Whole Language scheme. Historically, no records of “Dyslexia” exist anywhere before the mid 1930’s. Why? Because true Phonics was widely used before then. But when the Whole Language scheme, or
Look-Say method became wide used all over America, especially after 1950; and it so obviously failed to teach reading, indeed, rather created an obvious dysfunction in how letters are decoded..then the Pedagogical “experts” invented a new “illness” to blame, namely “Dyslexia”.
Eva, please understand that Blumenfeld is NOT saying that a child with a reading disability does NOT have that reading disability.
He IS saying that the cause is NOT a made up illness called “Dyslexia”. He IS saying that this reading disability can be REVERSED through teaching true Phonics.
Blumenfeld is not the only person who is saying this. There are many others. Do your own research. Read Blumenfeld’s books.. but there are others who have been saying the same thing for many years.
The Educational Establishment have their goals. Those goals do not include teaching children how to read, write or do arithmatic..rather, these goals include creating a completely compliant child, without the ability to think critically, who will gladly join others in continually voting for, and supporting Socialism.