Return-Path: <nifl-aalpd@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id h3N19GU27953; Tue, 22 Apr 2003 21:09:17 -0400 (EDT) Date: Tue, 22 Apr 2003 21:09:17 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <20030423010518.43517.qmail@web14306.mail.yahoo.com> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-aalpd@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-aalpd@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-aalpd@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: tom zurinskas <tzurinskas@yahoo.com> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-aalpd@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-AALPD:249] who would be against "scientific studies?" X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Status: O Content-Length: 4288 Lines: 102 Excerpts from “The Century of Miseducation of American Teachers” by Robert W. Sweet, Jr. http://www.nrrf.org/essay_Century_of_Miseducation.html (Robert Sweet is a former senior official at the U.S. Department of Education, White House domestic policy advisor to President Reagan, head of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency under President Bush, and former high-school teacher. In July 1997, he resigned as President of the foundation to become a professional staff member on the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce. He is Co-Founder & Former President of The National Right to Read Foundation, 1996) “We have had almost a century of education malpractice when it comes to teaching our children to read. We must apply some common sense and stop the academic child abuse that goes on under the guise of what today is called "whole language," and in the 1920's was called "look and say" reading instruction. The overwhelming evidence from such prestigious sources as the National Assessment of Education Progress, (2) (which found that "70 percent of fourth graders, 30 percent of eighth graders, and 64 percent of 12th graders did not... attain a proficient level of reading") cannot be ignored. Even more troubling are the findings of The Orton Dyslexia Society, that illiterate adults account for 75 percent of the unemployed, one third of the mothers receiving AFDC, 85 percent of the juveniles who appear in court, 60 percent of prison inmates, and nearly 40 percent of minority youth.” "Whole language" relies on whole word memorization, but the words memorized are whatever happens to be in the "authentic literature books" the children are required to "read." "Whole language" theorists believe that children learn to read just the same way they learn to speak. Medical and linguistic research have conclusively refuted such a notion, (17) but "whole language" advocates ignore such research because it upsets their theory of learning. They continue to believe that we are born with the ability to read, and all that is required is to surround children with books, reading to them and watching them become readers by osmosis. States like California, stung by the effect of falling literacy rates, have taken action to reverse the trend by passing legislation to require that explicit, systematic phonics be taught in their elementary classrooms. (20) Texas, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Florida, Virginia, Maryland, Massachusetts and Ohio are among the leaders in requiring direct phonics instruction as a first step in teaching children to read. (21) There are several large roadblocks that remain if we are to return some common sense instructional practices to our schools. Most important is the denial by the education industry that there is a problem. (22) Second is the ignorance and unwillingness of teacher trainers to apply the research available today, to make sure that any prospective teacher of reading is well grounded in the knowledge of the alphabetic principles and how to teach these decoding skills to all first-grade children. Can all children be taught to read successfully? Yes they can. Ask the teachers and parents at Barclay school in Baltimore, Maryland. As John Leo of U.S. News and World Report describes it: "Barclay is a rigorous, back-to-basics public school, that combines confidence building with high expectations. It gets results that elite private schools would be proud of, and it gets them from inner-city students, 85 percent of them black, 60 to 65 percent from single-parent homes. Barclay's approach is a rebuke to the reigning theories at our education schools. Barclay ignores "whole-language" theory. It believes in "direct instruction" (a dismissive educational term for actual teaching). It doesn't build self-esteem by excusing or praising failure. It ignores "learning strategies and multicultural claptrap. All it does is churn out bright, achieving kids." (23) Tom Zurinskas Truespel.com ===== Read all about truespel at truespel.com. Convert text to truespel USA accent by copy/pasting it at: http://www.foreignword.com/dictionary/truespel/transpel.htm __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? The New Yahoo! Search - Faster. Easier. Bingo http://search.yahoo.com
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