More discussion of our illiteracy problem.

Most memorable paragraph:

“Probably the most revealing event in American education occurred in 1928. That’s when Dr. Samuel Orton, a neurologist working with a Rockefeller grant, concluded that Whole Word (often called sight-words) did not work. He got the grant because his sponsors assumed he would endorse Sight-words. Instead, he trashed this method, adding that it would damage children’s minds for a lifetime. But our Education Establishment, convinced by the stock market crash of ’29 that Karl Marx was right after all, moved aggressively to expel phonics from all American schools. This expulsion has been quietly but ruthlessly sustained to this day. Point is, all the top people in the field of education always knew, thanks to Dr. Orton, that they were selling snake oil.”

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Concluding paragraph:

“When the schools don’t do a good job, parents and community leaders must step up their game. Oppose the bad stuff. When feasible, create alternatives. Millions of young Americans have been effectively kept from reaching their potential. This is a national scandal. Children don’t under-educate themselves. You need adults to do the dirty work.”

https://lobbyistsforcitizens.com/2021/04/08/hey-cleveland-why-do-you-hate-your-children-part-2/