Word: flesch
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...statements recently made in criticism of the public schools,' none has stirred up quite such an argument as the sentence in Rudolf Flesch's bestselling Why Johnny Can't Read: "The teaching of reading-all over the United States, in all the schools, and in all the textbooks-is totally wrong and flies in the face of all logic and common sense." How accurate is Flesch's gloomy picture? Last week, in the Chicago Sun-Times, a onetime assistant professor at Western Reserve who is now a reporter spoke up for the educators. Flesch...
...Though Flesch cites statistics to prove that children taught by phonics read better than those taught by the word method. Reporter Dunbar has her own sets of figures to prove the contrary. But statistics aside, her major charge against Flesch is that he has grossly overstated his case. If she does not succeed in demolishing Flesch entirely, she does succeed in placing the battle in perspective. "Flesch's hue and cry about no phonics in the schools," says she, "is directed at a straw...
...Baby & the Bath. "Had Flesch written his book 30 years ago, he would have been on sounder ground. He might even have saved American schools from a bad blunder. Phonics, the prevailing system of the past, was kicked out the door of the little red schoolhouse in the mid '20s. New research-especially on eye movements and on the psychology of learning-convinced educators that there was a better way of teaching reading. It was learned that the mature reader does not spell his way through words, letter by letter, but reads by phrases. Besides, educators found that...
...Flesch adds, U.S. educators by and large refuse to recognize the word method's shortcomings. Reading failures are merely blamed on "poor eyesight ... or a broken home ... or an Oedipus complex or sibling rivalry...
...teaching of reading be improved? In essence, Author Flesch urges a return to the old phonetic method still used in Europe. Reading should be taught like shorthand, i.e., by writing and reading at the same time with "pure, unadulterated, old-fashioned drill" in the ABCs and the sounds they make. When the child can write each letter and knows its sound, he should go on to letter combinations. Moreover, the five-year-old can start right in on nursery tales and fables, e.g., Henny Penny and The House That Jack Built. With this "phonics" method, says Flesch, educators and parents...