John Dewey, for one. The purpose of “Look-Say,” “Whole-Word,” and all the other non-phonics approaches to reading have all been INTENDED to make people struggle with reading. The goal was that reading would be a chore, thus discouraging independent reading, independent thought, etc.
I learned about John Dewey a loooong time ago. Long ago for me, anyway, I was only born in 1985. I learned about him in grade school, probably around 1995-96.
Is it a good thing I forgot what I learned about him? The lady that used to run the library in that school worshiped him and the Dewey Decimal System.