Phonics had been used successfully in the USA and Europe for many years to teach children how to read. It supplies the student with tools to expand their vocabulary. The look-see or whole-language approach (also known as "psycholinguistics"), developed by modern psychologists, denies the students these tools, and instead forces them to learn through rote memorization. Find out details about both, and why students read poorer due to being forced to "learn to read" with the look-see methods.
Given its importance, it is not surprising that the dispute over the teaching of reading is the site of some of the most intense and emotional battles in the school wars. Reading is at the heart of education, the basic skill upon which all others are built. The most dramatic declines in the achievement levels of American students have been in their literacy. SAT verbal scores have reached historic lows, while national surveys have put the number of functionally illiterate Americans in the tens of millions.
Find out why modern psychological theories fail to educate but still receive continual endorsements.
The Reading Wars - In the mid-1950s, Flesch warned in the best-selling book Why Johnny Can't Read that American schools would produce a generation of illiterates if they continued to rely on faddish techniques for teaching reading. At the time Flesch wrote, American education was dominated by the "look-say" method of teaching instead of teaching children how to sound out words, the so-called phonetic method that had been used for generations, students were encouraged to look at and recognize the whole word. Read the whole story.
The Look-Say Reading Scam - A detailed look at the method, what it is, how it is used, and why it won't ever work. The look-say reading methods were developed around 1810 for deaf mutes. The system works well for deaf mutes, but there is no obvious reason to use it for those who have the ability to hear sounds. Read how and why it became adopted for teaching normal students, and why it disables effective learning.
Functional Illiteracy - Dyslexia, and other Reading Difficulties "Caused" - A detailed look at how the psych-oriented whole-language method, subverts reading ability and, in fact, causes numerous modern reading disabilities. In addition, these reading problems are promoted as having other causes, genetic and biological, which are "treated" primarily with drugs. This further harms the ability of the child to ever be able to read and learn, because the drugs given (which don't cure anything at all), act to add further cognitive dysfunction, cloudy thinking, and emotional numbing.
Dyslexia: The Man-Made Disease - the kind of reading difficulties afflicting perfectly normal children in our schools today are being caused by the teaching methods and not by any defect in the children themselves. The educators have been telling us for years now that the reason why so many children are having problems learning to read is because of a learning disability they've been born with. Read the facts.
Suggested Reading List - the Demise of the Educational System - OBE (Outcome-Based Education), NEA (National Education Association), educational psychology, German psychology & influences, demise of public education, educational sabotage, Wundt, Pavlov, Dewey, Skinner, Watson.
Say NO To Psychiatry!
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What's Wrong with Psychology?