Sold A Story

Where Reading Eduction Went Wrong

I have three little kids, the oldest of whom is in first grade. Being lifelong readers ourselves, my wife and I believe that reading and reading comprehension are very important for our kids. We read to them every night and frequently chose books that push their abilities. We talk about different words or phrases they might not understand fully. We talk about what things in the story mean and how the kids feel about what we just read. We try hard to instill an interest in and love of reading in our kids, even when we’re busy and just want them to go to bed so we can take a breather.

One of my worst fears is that my children won’t be able to read.

Reading has brought such joy to my life. It is the simple pleasure of just sitting down with a book, turning pages or advancing my Kindle, and letting this incredible movie play in my mind. Reading is a wonderful, immersive experience and I want those experiences I had for my children.

And honestly, my fears are almost entirely unfounded. My first grader can read above his grade level and my three-year old is starting to recognize words, knows her letters, and is working on sounds. As much as people like to make fun of the public education system here in the US, my children’s preschool, pre-K, and elementary education has been superb. The teachers are hard-working and supportive and care a great deal about the children entrusted to them.

Unfortunately not everyone is as lucky as we are. Last year I ran across a podcast series called Sold a Story. I think I saw it on a random Twitter thread, but I can’t remember exactly where. If I did, I’d thank that person for opening my eyes to the absolute dismemberment of reading eduction in the United States.

Your Children Are Not Being Taught to Read

That’s the tag line for the podcast series. Horrifying, right? For me it certainly was. My wife and I listened to this series shortly before my son started school for the year, and to say it prompted us to ask a few questions of the teacher is an understatement.

The host, Emily Hanford, interviewed a man named Lee Gaul who was listening to his child’s class while using Zoom during Covid. He says (I’m paraphrasing slightly), “It didn’t sound like they were being taught to read. It sounded like they were being taught to sound like they could read.”

Do you remember phonics from when you were a kid? I do. “Hooked on Phonics” was a big deal when I was in elementary school. Well, it turns out that phonics was replaced almost wholesale across the country by what is called the cueing method (or whole-language method) developed by a New Zealand woman named Marie Clay and made popular across the US by Lucy Calkins and a number of others.

Briefly, the cueing method is the idea that children can use context clues to figure out what the word is. Look at the first letter. Look at the other words in the sentence. Look at the picture that is on the page. Can you come up with a word that makes sense in this sentence given those clues?

According to this theory there’s no need to sound out words. Kids learn to read just by guessing and using context clues. No phonics, no sounding out. My wife and I were driving in the car when we listened to this part of the podcast.

This sounded good to a lot of people. At the time there didn’t seem to be a good grasp of how kids actually learned how to read. So the idea was embraced. Widely. All over the English-speaking world this idea took root and took over reading curriculum after reading curriculum.

The only problem is that it doesn’t work. At this point I had to pause the audio because I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs.

Back to Basics

As I said at the top, we have been very happy with our children’s education so far, especially in reading. And there’s an interesting reason why. About three years ago, the year before my son started Kindergarten, our school district made a drastic revision to the reading curriculum. The cueing method was minimized and phonics was brought back. This was done because the district’s reading scores were terrible.

And now? Three years later the students in my son’s 1st grade class can almost all read independently.

Phonics can’t do everything. There are numerous words in English that you can’t sound out or are ‘trick’ words. In our district’s reading program they use ‘sight’ words that you just have to memorize. But phonics is the core of the instruction. And I find that encouraging. Because it shows that educators can learn lessons and make adjustments.

If you have young children, or are thinking about having children, I encourage you to listen to Sold a Story. And maybe ask your kids or their teacher what their reading curriculum is like. I’ll link the show here again. You can also find it on Apple Podcast, Spotify, and other podcast apps.

For me, reading was a gateway to the universe. I traveled the stars, surfed the currents of hyperspace, fought aliens, and discovered wonders never seen by the human eye. Reading is important to me, and I hope it will be important to my kids. But it doesn’t just happen. It requires effort. From parents. From teachers. From all of us.

What were your experiences with learning to read? Did you use phonics? If you have children, how did they learn? I’d love to hear from you in the comments.

Until next time, thanks for reading!