A Strange Fact About not Learning to Read

Politicians, policy-makers, and media in the United States claim we have a “reading crisis” (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development 2000a, b). They argue that lots of children are not learning to read well enough. Traditionalists argue that this is because children don’t get enough overt instruction on “phonics”: that is, the relationship between sounds and letters (e.g. the fact that the letter “a” stands for different sounds in words like “bat”, “bate”, and “calm”). More progressive educators argue it is because schools are too centered on meaningless and unmotivating skill-and-drill.