Phonics: A Key Element for Building Cultural Awareness

We have been training teachers to work in diverse communities for a long time, and in fact, teacher preparation institutions have stressed matters relevant to cultural diversity for decades. But if children, especially at-risk children, are to have the capability to independently access this knowledge, we need to provide them with the essential tool for doing so. That tool, as the data shows so irrefutably, is direct and systematic instruction in phonemic awareness and phonics. Makes sense. Would you be able to learn about your family background by reading symbols you are incapable of decoding?