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Pardon me, but it was my understanding that the government schools turned away from phonics some years back for some unproven, liberal alternative and it was collossal failure with huge illiteracy rates. At least with phonics kids can learn to speak/spell out words. Someone tell me what the deal is? Maybe someone with a better understanding of education than myself?

You're right in that phonics was tossed out for whole language. Some areas in the USA have brought in a 1/2 and 1/2 of phonics/wl.

The public school kindergarten classroom I visited 8 years ago used whole language...what a joke, imo.

I also visited a private school using phonics...guess where my daughter attended kindergarten?

About 5 years ago on a 60 minutes type show, the level of success was documented contrasting phonics and whole language. Phonics won out big time.

Good thinkers are free thinkers and less easy to manipulate.

I am sorry but teaching reading is easy if you use the phonics method. Even when whole language is successful it doesn't prepare a kid for new words. I taught my kid to recognize the alphabet by the time he was 16 months old. We went right into phonics after that. Little bitty kids are capable of doing it, pre preschool even. Every parent should teach their kid how to read BEFORE kindergarten, imo. Then the schools can't mess 'em up.

And all the "readers" I've seen are BORING!!! My kid loves to read precisely because I never bored him with readers. There is a mountain of fantastic children's literature out there. No one should ever need stupid readers that ask stupid questions that supposedly get the child to "think." Kids brains are amazing little sponges and they all have a tremendous, natural love for life and learning. Give them quality material, present it in a logical manner, and success is easy. Bore or defeat them early and you may never capture their attention again. They will learn. The question is what will they learn?

You know, this hits close to home.

I have one son who is a remarkable reader, way ahead if his peers. My other, struggles everyday with reading. Both went through the same program...and it was phonics based.

After years of dealing with this exact issue, I think I can speak from a base of experience.

Phonics works with a majority of the kids in school. That is why it's utilized in the public school system. They have to produce the most benefit for each class. The problem comes with thosae who struggle with phonics....I call them "sight readers".

Some children, my son included, don't have brains which are wired to "assemble" words from their phonic pieces. They need to "recognise" each word as a whole and its meaning. In other words, the old memorization method. So we work on vocabulary memorization. A slower method, but working.

I don't know what the answer is for the public schools. They need to benefit the most kids with their programs, but the programs designed for kids who have trouble reading, are sorely lacking.

Oh, I should also say that the school district my kids attend is the top rated district in the state. It's just a function of how to benefit the maximum number of kids with the resources provided.

I'm not an education expert, but I can go by on what I have experienced.

I was taught by my mother and then school the phonics method. In school we had to wear these huge headphones and listen to the lesson plan and then follow along. 6 of us could go through the short lesson at a time.

By the time I hit the third grade I was reading at college level and writing at a high school senior level.

My younger sister was taught that whole language crap and suffered for it.