“Someone who knows phonics, will write down what I did. Unless they are taught that berd = bird, they aren’t going to be able to decode it. You have to start with the sounds.”
Wow, I never thought we’d find someone on this site arguing for whole word. You’re lucky to even find them on left-wing sites. I suspect the real supporters are the education establishment, and they have their own-password protected sights where they strategize on how to deal with trouble-making parents (similar to Journalist). This guy almost sounds like a troll, but I suspect he simply doesn’t understand the difference, and actually did teach his kids sounds (or someone else did). They certainly wouldn’t be reading by now otherwise.