Leaving Johnny Behind

During my 35 years as a teacher and principal in an economically depressed area, I witnessed firsthand the scourge we inflict upon our most vulnerable citizens because we failed to provide them with adequate literacy ability. In many cases this lack of an essential skill has been a death warrant to those who might otherwise have led productive lives and contributed meaningfully to society. Too many of our most promising youngsters turn to gangs and drugs because their literacy inadequacies essentially rob them of their freedom to make wiser choices.

Reading Malpractice

After three years of intensive research, I have found that the empirical evidence that undergirds reading pedagogy is so consistently powerful that those who reject it are akin to geo-centrics and flat-earthers.

Tragically, anti-science factions have denied countless children reading instruction with the clearest and most unassailable link to actual reading ability, methods that require direct and systematic attention to precursor skills such as phonemic awareness and phonics.

Holistic practitioners continue to take exception to that but in so doing fail to see the symbiosis that exists between the two constructs. Failing to take advantage of that middle ground on behalf of children who need us the most is unconscionable. In fact, attorneys have a word for it; they call it malpractice.

Bridging the Gap Between Phonics and Comprehension

Perhaps the greatest obstacle to reading comprehension is that traditional reading programs fail to adequately address precursor skills - phonemic awareness and phonics taught in a direct and systematic fashion. Those two function as an aid in allowing students to derive meaning from print, the ultimate purpose for reading. Holistic practitioners will probably take exception to that but in doing so fail to see the symbiosis that exists between phonics and comprehension. You can't comprehend what you can't decode. If we could bridge this chasm, we would see that phonics opens doors that allow children full participation in a whole language world.