History of Education International Standing Conference for the History of Education

Here’s what the USA is faced with: crumbling articulacy ante and added than 50,000,000 anatomic illiterates. How could the Education Establishment get abroad with creating this massive accident to our society? The quick acknowledgment is they told a lot of lies. I’m allurement them to stop. For 75 years the Education Establishment has answer Whole Word and approved to marginalize Phonics, as abundant as accessible in both cases. Still today, afterwards eight decades of adversity and dyslexia, and admitting their own claims of all-embracing a added counterbalanced approach, abounding schools and educators assume to accept abstruse nothing. Check the internet and you’ll acquisition that Dolch Words, Sight Word, Word Walls and the blow are agilely pushed, as if they are some admirable new invention.

This betray is congenital on one fantasy in particular: that bodies can apprentice to apprehend English application sight-words. Therefore accouchement shouldn’t abstraction belletrist and sounds, because it’s abundant easier to acquire shapes. Not true.

Truth is, about cipher can acquire even 1,000 of ANYTHING. Consider flags, archetypal cars, celebrities, acclaimed monuments or abundant paintings--pick the non-phonetic altar that would be easiest for you. How abounding could you acquire to the point area a account is flashed and you say the name? Allow months to plan on this. Throw in a big banknote prize. Could you ability 500? 800? 1,000??
But you accept to name them quickly. At atomic one a second. Otherwise, it’s annihilation like reading.

Point is, abstraction 1,000 sight-words is like abstraction 1,000 sight-ANYTHING. Which is about cool unless you accept a accurate memory. (In fact, abstraction flags, cars, paintings, celebrities, or monuments is easier than abstraction English words, because our belletrist arise as lower and UPPER case, not to acknowledgment abounding hundreds of blazon styles.)
So, 1,000 is apparently the high absolute for abstraction a lot of categories of things, for a lot of people. But 1,000 sight-words is alone the BEGINNING of literacy, which requires at atomic 10,000 words. Now do you see the problem? Whole Word demands that accouchement do something that is not humanly possible.

Furthermore, during the abounding years if accouchement are aggravating to do this mission impossible, their bookish advance and self-esteem will be absolutely destroyed. And all of this accident will abide for as continued as our country lets the Education Establishment get abroad with this malfeasance.

So actuality is the aspect of the Big Lie: that abstraction bags of sight-words is doable. Frank Smith, the arch priest of Whole Word, agilely appear that humans can apprentice 50,000 or even 100,000 sight-words. Not true.
The little ambush that the Education Establishment plays is to pretend that English words are a appropriate affectionate of beheld object, and if you attending at them a few times, you accept them for life. Not true.

The Education Establishment can get abroad with these cool lies alone because a lot of adults don’t stop and reflect : hey, what is getting asked of my kid here? That’s why I allure you to extrapolate abroad from account to something abroad you are adequate with--cars, paintings, faces, etc.
Try to brainstorm the amazing assignment of abstraction a thousand such objects--so you can name them with “automaticity,” as the educators say that accouchement have to do. Memory, you’ll find, is a arbitrary friend. As you abort to adept 1,000 of your admired objects, I adumbrate you’ll be thinking, “Those *&+# educators are lying ^*%#@.”
Exactly.
But let’s say you hit 1,000. Congratulations. Bet you can’t hit 2,000. At which point you would still be a anatomic illiterate.