[nicmarlo]

A report released Thursday said that, by the age of 11, children taught by the phonics method are typically three years ahead of others in reading ability. Jim Rose, a former director of the Office of Standards in Education and the report's author, also found that synthetic phonics works best when used alone and not in a combination of methods, the Times of London reported.

This is a proven method of instruction. California threw this out years ago, and the children there paid for it....dearly. In standardized tests, after using the "whole language method" California children scored lowest in the entire nation, scoring above only Guam.

But the NEA and other liberals keep pushing the "whole language" guessing approach anyways.

[rampage8]

Whole Language is a joke. It teaches "creative spelling" rather than just teaching kids that there is a right and wrong way to spell. Heaven forbid we damage their self-esteem. I taught Language Arts in AZ for 7 years during the height of the whole language movement. I hated it, and was very happy when my principal took it upon himself to switch to a phonics-based program.

[Lx]

You're right, 'whole language' is B.S. Luckily, they didn't institute this crap until I was long out of school.