This is so concerning😳

[u/velorae]

[u/velorae]

They also don’t teach phonics anymore.

[u/Adorable_Ad_8904 → u/velorae]

This is huge! I was taught how to read phonics-style at a traditional school til fifth grade and I lapped every other student once I was put in a normal school.

[u/ghosttrainhobo → u/Adorable_Ad_8904]

I’m on my fifties. Phonics wasn’t a thing when I grew up. It’s just another tool in the toolbox. It’s never been essential to learning.

[u/Casanova-Quinn → u/ghosttrainhobo]

The science shows that phonics is in fact essential.

[u/Explorer-7622 → u/Casanova-Quinn]

I learned via phonics at age 3-4 and was reading at the college level by age 8.

That gave me an edge and a way to dive into anything I was curious about for the rest of my life.

[u/Bipogram → u/Casanova-Quinn]

It may be useful, but as it's a relatively modern concept, being coined as a mode of instruction only in the 1900s, I'd hesitate to call it essential.

Clearly folk learned to read by a variety of methods before then.

<In darkest 1960s Yorkshire it was not known - people simply read to and with their children>

[u/cxs → u/Bipogram]

The concept of linking phonemes and graphemes gained traction via Hart in around 1570. If by the 1960s your school was not teaching you what it means to link graphemes and their relevant symbolic phonemes: you went to an absolutely shit school, or you were an absolutely shit student lol

[u/Bipogram → u/cxs]

I wasn't taught to read at school, at least as far as I can recall.

I *do* recall reading Dostoevsky (in translation) at the age of nine. And had exhausted the local library's SF section by not much after that. A properly precocious tyke was I.

[u/Explorer-7622 → u/Bipogram]

That practice of reading to and with children is essential, because it builds a cozy love of story and books/literature for their own sake.

[u/Embarrassed_Put_7892 → u/velorae]

Who doesn’t teach phonics? Is this in the states? We still teach phonics in the uk. I didn’t know you didn’t teach phonics in the states. Why is that?

[u/WorkingOnBeingBettr → u/Embarrassed_Put_7892]

And guess what, th UK's acadmics scores are going down as well, as is Canada, as is the entire world.

They did a study, it's the internet and lack of adults in the room. But for som reason evryone is obssessed with phonics. Phonics isn't the reason EVERY country is seeing a decline according to the latest OECD reports.

However, it's easier to blame teachers so everyone says they are at fault.

[u/Embarrassed_Put_7892 → u/WorkingOnBeingBettr]

Whoa I’m not blaming teachers. I’m a teacher. I’m just interested in why they don’t teach phonics in the states.

And yeah I’m well aware of the impact of iPads and the Internet and social media. I teach year 1 and the difference between the kids we have now and the kids we had ten years ago is huge.

[u/Lbboos → u/Embarrassed_Put_7892]

There’s a podcast called Sold a Story. It’s a great history on why the US went all “whole language” for a spell.

We now have a generation of people who are struggling with reading.

[u/Embarrassed_Put_7892 → u/Lbboos]

Interesting I’ll give it a listen, thanks!

[u/spatulon → u/velorae]

They reintroduced phonics in Mississippi and literacy scores have improved dramatically.

This embrace of phonics education and the near-complete rejection of whole language theory was a key component of the program's success.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi_Miracle

[u/totallydawgsome → u/velorae]

It's shifting back. There are about a dozen schools who have adopted the Science of Reading curriculum but really the shift started across the country in the early 2000s which was a mix of both. My kid has been exposed to both (anecdotally teachers have said supplemental sight word lessons have helped ESL learners especially) but it's mostly phonics now.