Learning to Read

Posted on March 9, 2007
Filed Under Language, Reading |

Does anyone think that children learn to read exclusively phonetically or exclusively by whole word recognition? Well, yes, I suppose some poeple do, mostly people who have a financial interest in selling reading curricula to schools. And apparently the Bush administration believes in phonics. Believes in it enough to create a rigid ideology of reading instruction & impose it on state education systems. More likely, the phonics lobby just had more money & better connections to the Republican Party. Good for Wisconsin for sticking with what sounds like a reasonable system of instruction & refusing to take tainted money to pay for bad pedagogy.

There is a kind of mind that prefers rigid ideological constructions to pluralistic & flexible ones, even when the constructions are ineffective & mal-adapted to getting things done in the world — like teaching reading. Consider abstinence education, bans on stem cell research, outlawing abortion . . . It’s a very long list, but what all the items have in common is a preference for simple answers tol complex questions. And in this administration, any business willing to pander to this nearly hysterical need for ideological rigidity & obedience is all set to make a lot of money. The Bush administration: both weak-minded & corrupt. A twofer.