[John H K]

Current research indicates there is no single right method for teaching reading, for example, and that a balance of phonics and "whole language" methods is appropriate, according to the International Reading Association.

Yeah, it's real tough for me to buy into the whole "phonics" thing, but it's my own personal experience and I'm kind of a weirdo.

I was reading at age 4, was never specifically tought to read (but was read to a lot), and NEVER EVER EVER EVER "sounded out" a word at any time....read on a 12th grade level by the third grade, and ended up with a 780 on the Verbal SATs.

Learning to read by sitting down and sounding out letters just seems like a gigantic painfully slow waste of time to me.

[A. Pole]

Yeah, it's real tough for me to buy into the whole "phonics" thing, but it's my own personal experience and I'm kind of a weirdo.

"Phonics thing" is the original traditional method of teaching reading in the non-ideographic alphabets. The "whole word" method was introduced by leftists decades ago in United States and some think that it is the standard. This "whole word" was first tried by Soviets before WWII and ended in a complete disaster.

It is true that a large part of students can manage to master reading through "whole word " method, but they do it despite this method and they are not necessarily more talented. But many fail and we all pay very steep price.

[jacquej]

well, sweetie. I am pushing the big 60 this fall, and learned to read via phonics, back before it was "declasse", ya know? When I raised my four younguns, I taught them at home, before kindergarten, how to "sound out" words... It is the easiest and best way to teach the kidlets.

Every trip to the supermarket is a "learning opportunity", and no li'l one is too young to teach. Parents are the most important link in teaching, and if we each do our jobs at explaining the importance of readin, writin, and rithmatic to them... we will have done our job!

Parenting is a job, "seriesly"! Anyone who has raised more than a couple can tell you that a nice hot shower is a super treat for a parent at the end of a long hard day!

[zechariah]

Yeah, it's real tough for me to buy into the whole "phonics" thing, but it's my own personal experience and I'm kind of a weirdo.

I'm not an educator and I don't know anything about teaching someone to read, but I'm naturally suspicious of people who insist on method for method sake. I care about results. That seems to be a fundamental difference between Government and private schools. Private schools care about results and don't have any problem using phonics if it achieves results, while Government schools focus on method and wouldn't be caught dead using an "unapproved" method.

[z]

[Irene Adler]

The point of phonics is that English words are not pictograms. My experience is quite different from yours. When I was starting school, the school system was in the process of abandoning phonics. Only the older teachers taught it using the older materials they had saved since the school no longer supported phonics. My mother told me later that she thought I would NEVER learn to read using "look-say" methods and "Ted and Sally" readers. In third grade, I finally had a phonics-teaching teacher. Phonics made so much sense that I finally learned to read with lightening speed and have been a constant reader ever since. By fourth grade, I was reading at the 9th grade level. There is nothing slow or laborious about phonics. You learn to decode syllables, and it goes fast. The only time "sounding out" is used occurs when the student meets up with an unfamiliar word.

[Irene Adler]

The point of phonics is that English words are not pictograms. My experience is quite different from yours. When I was starting school, the school system was in the process of abandoning phonics. Only the older teachers taught it using the older materials they had saved since the school no longer supported phonics. My mother told me later that she thought I would NEVER learn to read using "look-say" methods and "Ted and Sally" readers. In third grade, I finally had a phonics-teaching teacher. Phonics made so much sense that I finally learned to read with lightening speed and have been a constant reader ever since. By fourth grade, I was reading at the 9th grade level. There is nothing slow or laborious about phonics. You learn to decode syllables, and it goes fast. The only time "sounding out" is used occurs when the student meets up with an unfamiliar word.

[Irene Adler]

The point of phonics is that English words are not pictograms. My experience is quite different from yours. When I was starting school, the school system was in the process of abandoning phonics. Only the older teachers taught it using the older materials they had saved since the school no longer supported phonics. My mother told me later that she thought I would NEVER learn to read using "look-say" methods and "Ted and Sally" readers. In third grade, I finally had a phonics-teaching teacher. Phonics made so much sense that I finally learned to read with lightening speed and have been a constant reader ever since. By fourth grade, I was reading at the 9th grade level. There is nothing slow or laborious about phonics. You learn to decode syllables, and it goes fast. The only time "sounding out" is used occurs when the student meets up with an unfamiliar word.