Phonics Claimd To Be Pushed By Feds

[Herbert Stahlke]

The Bush support of phonics as the only way to reading proficiency is an old
story.  As governor he spoke out strongly, insisting that phonics is the
only scientifically valid approach to the teaching of reading.  His
comprehension of what scientific validity might be is worth questioning, but
it's another case of his ability to making a thing so by saying it.

Herb Stahlke

> From the Washington Post:
>
> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A59455-2002Sep9.html
>
> The Bush administration is making a concerted effort to promote the
> teaching of phonics in America's classrooms, and in the process, some
> educators charge, advancing specific commercial reading products.
>
> Administration officials say they want to end a national crisis in
> which almost 70 percent of low-income fourth-grade students cannot read
> at a basic level, and they deny usurping local authority by telling
> schools what specific programs to use.
>
>   "We can't do that nor would we want to," said Susan B. Neuman,
> assistant secretary for elementary and secondary education at the
> Education Department. "What we want is a proliferation of excellence.
> We want more programs out there that are doing wonderful things. And we
> would be crazy to narrow the field."
>
> Some educators, however, charge that the Education Department is so
> narrowly prescribing what states can do with new federal reading funds
> that the federal government is violating the clause in the country's
> new K-12 education law that bars federal authorities from involvement
> in local curriculum and instructional content.
>
> --
> Grant Barrett
> gbarrett at worldnewyork.org
> Small Business Apple Macintosh Support in New York City
> http://www.worldnewyork.org/
>