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Talk:Mystery:Why is Phonics Taught in the UK but not the US? (view source)
Revision as of 09:54, May 13, 2008
, 09:54, May 13, 2008no edit summary
::One of the [http://www.syntheticphonics.com/articles/Sound%20Sense.pdf external links] from the [[Phonics]] page is to an interesting article which states: "In many [British] teachers minds, phonics equals right-wing, traditional, drill and skill, boring, anti-child-centred Gradgrind education. Over in the United States, phonics is portrayed as being closely aligned to the Christian fundamentalist right. The No child left behind act mandated phonics. Hell, Dubya loves phonics, so it follows that all right-minded progressive folks need to be against them." [[Image:User Fox.png|10px]] [[User:Fox|Fox]] <small>([[User talk:Fox|talk]]|[[Special:Contributions/Fox|contribs]])</small> 10:20, 12 May 2008 (EDT)
::One of the [http://www.syntheticphonics.com/articles/Sound%20Sense.pdf external links] from the [[Phonics]] page is to an interesting article which states: "In many [British] teachers minds, phonics equals right-wing, traditional, drill and skill, boring, anti-child-centred Gradgrind education. Over in the United States, phonics is portrayed as being closely aligned to the Christian fundamentalist right. The No child left behind act mandated phonics. Hell, Dubya loves phonics, so it follows that all right-minded progressive folks need to be against them." [[Image:User Fox.png|10px]] [[User:Fox|Fox]] <small>([[User talk:Fox|talk]]|[[Special:Contributions/Fox|contribs]])</small> 10:20, 12 May 2008 (EDT)
==Follow the money==
Robert W. Sweet, Jr., the President of the (US based) National Right to Read Foundation pointed out back in the late 90s that psycholinguistics teaching is big business, and has been since the 1930's when the basal reading series for elementary schools were introduced. Every year the publishing companies compete for the adoption of reading programs in states like California and Texas where millions of dollars of expendable "look-say" workbooks are purchased every year. ''Dick and Jane'', ''Alice and Jerry'', ''Janet and Mark'', ''Danny and Sue'', ''Tom and Betty'' are cash cows just like ''Barbie'' and ''Ken''. Quoting Sweet: "The 1986 National Advisory Council on Adult Education report, "Illiteracy in America" cites several examples of how the cost of reading instruction can be reduced, while at the same time improving reading scores:
"In her book, "Programmed Illiteracy in Our Schools," [Mary Johnson] says that: 'The workbooks to a sight method ['look and say'] basal series soon become superfluous whenever phonics is taught by a direct method... the annual expenditure on workbooks was more than four times greater than that on hardcover readers [used in a phonics-first program]. (The look-say workbooks have to be replaced each year because the children write in them.)'"
The Superintendent of Schools in Seekonk, Massachusetts hired a private-sector organization to train his primary-grade teachers in intensive systematic phonics. The cost of reading materials to implement the new program was eighty-eight percent less per pupil than the "look and say" or "whole language" reading program previously used in the district.
"Mr. H. Marc Mason, Principal of Benjamin Franklin Elementary School in Mesa, Arizona, said that in 1978 his school spent $23.42 per student on reading materials. In the same year, his teachers were trained [to teach phonics]. By 1981, expenditures for reading materials had dropped to $8.50 per student, [while at the same time] achievement scores . . . surpassed the national, state, and district norms in language as well as in math."
[[Image:User Fox.png|10px]] [[User:Fox|Fox]] <small>([[User talk:Fox|talk]]|[[Special:Contributions/Fox|contribs]])</small> 05:54, 13 May 2008 (EDT)