I’ve also followed the Reading Wars.
Phonics is based on “sounding out” words. Eventually who can read everyone learned phonics, but it is WHEN you learn it and whether some other crap has been put in your brain first that will determine what kind of reader you are for life.
WHOLE LANGUAGE was 180 DEGREES OPPOSITE of Phonics. It basically went like this: If you put a kid in front of some of the great works of literature, they will literally ABSORB the skills needed to read. Just read plays from Shakespeare and Plato to the kid, and they’ll be reading Chemistry books in no time. Sounds nuts, but that is exactly what Whole Language was. Needless to say, the Education Establishment LOVED IT - since they didn’t have to do that yucky ‘drill and kill’ associated with Phonics and could instead ‘enjoy’ their literature while they taught it to their kids.
It took a generation of illiterates to finally convince parents that Whole Language was a bad thing, but the reason you don’t hear about it anymore is not because it’s gone, but because it has morphed into SIGHT WORDS (i.e., the subject of this article). Sight Words, I guess are a little better, as they don’t dump King Lear on to the laps of 6 year olds and then call those kids “Special Needs” when they can’t read a Chemistry book the next week, but it’s not much better.
The problem is that people cannot learn to read by sight before learning phonics. They may be able to memorize a hundred, maybe a few hundred words by sight alone (for real smart ones), but only if the FONT IS IDENTICAL, there’s no italics, no plurals, and God knows what else. You don’t learn reading by only knowing a few hundred words.
So INSTEAD of kids learning phonics at an early age, they given Sight Words, which not only delays the inevitable, it also CONFUSES THEM as they struggle to try to figure out how to approach new words (is it one of my Sight Words, or should I sound it out). FINALLY, in 4th Grade, they learn phonics, and with that will be slow readers for life - as most normal kids can learn reading at age 4 (if someone bothers to teach them), and virtually all normal kids can learn reading at age 5. The kids who’s parents made the effort to teach or have them taught reading at those ages are the ones that populate our top universities.
But I know, WHO AM I TO SAY, so go back to helping your kids Sight Word homework, but don’t blame me when they’re still trying to figure out what career they want when they’re living at home, playing video games, at age 26.
We were reading to our kids very early and they wanted to learn how to read just before they turned five. I taught them phonics first and they were reading in no time. Now I am reading to my one year old grandson who gets so excited when we open a book!
Learning phonics provides a basis to learn multiple languages. The mechanics vary by language, but the principles are stable. Reading Kanji is a different process. You have to build a significant mental dictionary to be proficient. Sight words on steroids.