Educators
"I was a primary school teacher for twenty years from the mid-sixties to the mid-eighties. During that time I saw many changes to the educational curriculum. I think some of these changes were disastrous; the 'whole-word' method of teaching reading being one of those disasters.
One of the outcomes that was brought about by the 'whole-word' method is we now have a generation of teachers educated and trained in this method. Many of these teachers have a very limited understanding of word construction and phonics and the importance of these methods to the teaching of reading. The 'old' method of phonics needs to be brought back into the classroom.
Another one of these changes was to let the child write with a free flow of ideas in written work. The concept was not to inhibit the child’s free flow of thought, however, punctuation, spelling and grammar became a casualty of this method.
I have been briefed by Alison Tarrant from Applied Scholastics Western Australia and I thoroughly endorse their phonics method of teaching reading."
- EW
