Nancy Flanagan, retired teacher in Michigan, wonders why the extremist Moms for Liberty have jumped into the reading wars on the side of the “Science of Reading.” The politicization of reading is not new. Phonics has long been a rightwing cause, unfairly, in my view. Every reading teacher should know how to teach phonics.
What’s new is the idea that only phonics can be considered “the science of reading.” This conceit was hatched by the National Reading Panel in 2000. The new Bush administration was super pro-phonics and inserted a $6 billion phonics program called Reading First into No Chikd Left Behind. After six years, Reading First was abandoned because it was riddled with conflicts of interest and self-dealing, and an extensive evaluation concluded that it didn’t make a difference.
Flanagan is especially interested in reading instruction in middle school.
She begins:
I am fascinated by the increasing politicization—no other word for it—of reading instruction. How to best teach reading has always been contentious in the United States, from the 1950s look-say method featuring Dick and Jane, accused of letting Ivan slip ahead of us in the space race, right up until last week, when Moms for Liberty jumped into the Faux Science of Reading (FSoR) fray.
It’s unclear why Moms for Liberty has aligned itself with the phonics-forward FSoR movement. I get that white parents, accustomed to being first in line for educational goodies, feel threatened when they’re told that other children may be having their needs met first. I know racism is a thread that has run through the entire history of public education in America. I also know that many ordinary citizens feel bewildered and angered by rapidly changing social beliefs and customs around acceptance of the LGBTQ+ community.
A friend of my says you can measure social progress by observing who can be beat up on Saturday night without consequences—Wives and girlfriends? Ethnic minorities? Gentle souls like Matthew Shepherd and Elijah McLain? I hate living in a country where threats align with archaic ideas about who’s in charge of our customs and institutions, including public schools. I hate it, but I understand why it happens.
What I do NOT understand is why a far-right, power-grabbing, deep-pocket-funded group of purported “concerned moms” are choosing to endorse One Right Way to learn the skill of reading.
Surely some of their children learned to read using cuing systems or word walls or balanced literacy. Surely some of their children picked up reading quickly and easily reading stories on grandma’s lap. Surely some of their children had caring and creative teachers who employed multiple strategies to nurture genuine literacy.
Which makes me think that a lot of the enmity around learning to read stems from free-floating hostility toward public education and schoolteachers in general, greatly exacerbated by recent events: a pandemic, a child-care crisis, growing and dangerous inequities, and terrible political leadership that plays to the worst in human nature.
Please open the link and read her account of how impassioned this debate has become and her experience teaching music to students in middle school.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Check out Kirk Bangstad of Minocqua Brewing Company. He has started an anti voucher PAC in Wisconsin. Best wishes, Randy Wieck
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Awesome!
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fighting against the oligarchs- good for Kirk
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Reblogged this on dean ramser.
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Unfortunately there are people to the left of center that are enraged by the teaching of phonics. My congregation, unfortunately, has no shortage of them.
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It is unfortunate that teaching phonics has become politicized. “The Science of Reading” (with or without phonics) seems like branded edtech. Linda captures that below in her comment.
I’m puzzled that Moms for Liberty would be pushing phonics for reading instruction in middle school. By then, the need for phonics should be long past. Reading in middle school focuses on comprehension as retired teacher says.
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Dyslexic students need very different word identification instruction than students who are not dyslexic.
The only reason that my dyslexic child learned to read is because of the Wilson Language certified tutor.
Many dyslexic children never get diagnosed because their parents can’t afford private testing.
Many dyslexic children never learn how to read.
Sorting students by birth year is junk science.
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‘Good teachers at all levels and subjects set kids free, tapping their natural abilities and making things joyful.’
This has always been my guiding principle. Students do better when the learning is interesting and appealing. The whole science of reading agenda forces students to slog through “barking at letters,” whether they need it or not. Flanagan compares it to teaching learning to play an instrument note by note. Students can learn to read through different approaches, and what matters is that students master the material and move forward. As Flanagan notes, middle school students should have mastered the sound-symbol system and should be focusing or reading to learn, otherwise known as comprehension or understanding. When students achieve fluency, all they have many doors open to them. One benefit of reading fluency is that reading becomes an enjoyable life skill.
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This ear worm entered my head as I was reading (as did video worm):
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GregB Well . . . finally . . . we put THAT one to rest. CBK
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Like Nancy, I teach beginning band to 5th grade students who are filled with wonder and enthusiasm, but often balk at the task of having to operate a machine while controlling small and large muscles AND listening to the sounds they are creating. Then to add music literacy and interpretation, only some students would stay with it unless you take a diverse approach to the entire literacy/performance.
Like verbal literacy, musical literacy starts with sound before sight. My students begin with sound production and physical training with simple games that set up future symbolic reading transitions.
We do a practice regimen (we call it a workout) that covers diverse learning styles and interests where those who latch onto tone building and range enjoy the long tone/endurance exercises. They all do them, but some find more enjoyment in these than others—usually it’s the athletes who are interested in competition and strength training.
We work on articulation studies both by rote and by students who play (improvise) these rhythmic patterns from whatever comes to their mind. These articulation activities set up a rhythmic pattern vocabulary (not unlike whole language) as well as train the tongue or sticking pattern prowess to practice the art of clarity at the attack. It’s the facilitating of musical content from the mental into the physical. Not only does it set up the skills and the physical training, it teaches students to listen and respond to one another which is an important skill in any kind of performance including solo performance. How do we critique our own selves if we don’t know what to listen for?
We then work on small snippets of reading exercise patterns that are the “sight” that go with the small portions of the performance examples just practiced. These are the literacy transition activities that put the emerging skills into reading contexts. For pitched instruments, the positioning of pitches on the staff are discussed and practiced with small intervalic differences at first with a lot of compare and contrast. Similarly, rhythms are quantized by comparison studies and presented with many life experience examples, such as beat positioning and value being similar to students lining up at the door and spacing themselves.
We finish with analysis of score reading (very small bites) to discuss how the symbols represent the very same patterns just practiced. This is an extension of the pattern reading activity. Natural rhythmic accents to which they have previously been introduced by rote are explained in rhythmic organization study. Students play more musically when they understand this nuance in the beginning stages of their study. This portion is the one that grows exponentially as students phase into actual repertoire reading which is the application of all prior practices skills.
Once students have mastered the reading on a basic level, they rehearse as a band to solidify the reading/performance skills. After their first performance, we have a second performance opportunity in middle school outreach where they read and play more difficult music. Their literacy skills are tested and most start to “figure” out the new music on their own falling back on the skills—both performance and reading—that they have built.
The multi-phased approach shows students that they can be successful somewhere in the lesson and home practice activities. Students need to build skills before they could be expected to simply read and play music, but most importantly, they need to be engaged so they progress. Teaching them one way would cause so many to lose interest and frankly, they wouldn’t have the skills as whole musicians without a multi-skills approach.
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LG Thank you for the interesting note on teaching music. I find it also interesting (and probably related?) that children learn to speak/hear the meanings of language long before being able to read meanings as written text. CBK
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Thank you, CBK. You are on the money because that is definitely a parallel in music teaching: sound before sight. Trying to immerse the student in the language and execution of such aurally is a tenet of early childhood music education that can be translated to any level.
If I may indulge in a personal take: I was taught to simply read and operate the instrument simultaneously which—in my professional hindsight—was not the best approach. If only I had learned to control my instrument and find success with making music with it before being expected to read, I probably would have been much further along in my studies than I was. Luckily, I had support from home to never quit. What worked for me was immersion and experimentation during home practice mostly during those long summer months when I wasn’t being forced to prepare anything to perform.
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LG Thank you for responding. I’ve seen some research recently in the firehose of stuff I read that talks about infants and their responses to the rythems of music which, of course, is WAY before aural learning of language (like ma-ma or da-da) and years before learning the written word.
How wonderful to put them all together for children, and in the right order, and according to each child’s specific development. CBK
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But that isn’t how they learn to READ!!
https://www.weareteachers.com/scarboroughs-rope/
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it depends on the child. That is how I taught myself to read when I was 3.
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I also learned how to read on my own, very young, many kids do not learn the way we did and must be taught explicit phonics. All kids are entitled to learn to read and they aren’t teaching the teachers how to teach the kids. The reaction from teachers when they discover the science of Reading is primarily anger that they weren’t adequately prepared in college, many of them have a MASTERS in education.
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Jacquilen,
I have been a supporter of phonics for many years. But phonics is not the “science of reading.” There is no “science of reading,” just as there is no science of teaching math, science of teaching history or any other subject.
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“There is no “science of reading,” just as there is no science of teaching math, science of teaching history or any other subject.”
This is a CRUCIAL distinction. There IS a science of reading. There is NO science of TEACHING reading. If you want to know about the science of reading, read cognitivie scientist Mark Seidenberg’s Language at the Speed of Sight: How we read, why so many can’t, and what can be done about it and neuroscientist Stanislaus Dehaene’s Reading in the Brain: The new science of how we read.
This is the science of reading. It’s real. It exists. And it is very important that you get your terminology straight.
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“The reaction from teachers when they discover the science of Reading is primarily anger that they weren’t adequately prepared in college, many of them have a MASTERS in education.”
I had lunch yesterday with my younger son’s first grade teacher (now 80) who described in agonizing detail how she was inadequately trained and then–to add insult to injury–was given professional development in exactly the types of methods that do not promote reading development. She felt lost and helpless because she wasn’t reaching all of her students, and–like so many of us–had to dig deep into the research on her own to discover how to help students crack the code through quick and efficient word recognition while simultaneously building their background knowledge so that they can comprehend what they read. To say she is angry is an understatement.
People forget that we are real teachers out here teaching real students who have really been failed by the system. All of us should be championing any cause which seriously investigates the research behind reading acquisition. Does that mean blindly accepting everything under the ‘science of reading’ umbrella? Of course not! It means being a critical consumer of research. It means doing the work.
If we really care about our kids.
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Harriet, do you think there is a “Science of Math,” and a “Science of History,” and only one right way to teach every subject?
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Hello Diane Please don’t throw me off the site, but the term “science of math” shares the same problem of a lack of differentiation in its expression. . . in the case of math, there are several aspects of general mathematics as such, and there are applications of it in the real world, which require that we take general mathematics to the details of where, how, when, and in what context it is applied, which is a changing field, and a completely different arena of thought.
For the science of history, we go to the generalized foundations of it (a big field); whereas, in its correlate to “applications,” history is a series of detailed and quite different interrelated events which require us to “think into” them for adequate “applications.” History shares its structure with ethics, about which Aristotle says, in its application, there are “no fixed data.” (Most teachers “get” this idea right away, but they often also have a bias against theory.)
When we get to the similar misnomer, “the science of reading,” we have the clarity of (a) generalized cognitional theory as distinct from (b) the pedagogy needed to teach reading. The NAME itself confuses general theory with methodological concerns. The cognitional theory is also a theory of learning, or how consciousness works (sans the details of history), which is directly related to philosophical theoretical ideas of, for instance, what is knowing? or epistemology.
Whereas the applications dimension of it the pedagogy for teaching reading, answers the question: How best to teach reading, which of course should correlate with the best general theory(ies) from the legitimate science of cognition or, again, learning theory. And again, with children, as most teachers know, there is learning theory and there are things about real children where the general theory holds, but, like history, there also are “no fixed data” in the particular, and so teachers have to develop pedagogy with their finger on the historical pulse of each student in terms of their specific situation–this, btw, is the grand oversight of Bill Gates et al.
So in one sense, you are right that “there is no such thing as reading theory,” precisely because the term tries to hold the complete generality of theory/science together with the details of pedagogical aspects of teaching it which, even though there are generalized theories of pedagogy, when you get to real students, the teacher has to understand that, in fact, there are no fixed data; and that each student needs to be understood on their own terms.
I’m pretty sure that’s what Harriett was trying to get at; and she says so in one note; but saying that “there is a science of reading” only compounds the problem. There is operating there an important distinction with a huge difference. Just trying to help. Don’t throw me off the site. CBK
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CBK, I would never throw you off the site. Sure, there are many theories of how to teach reading. My objection is to the term SOR, which implies there is only one way to teach reading and all
Others are wrong.
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Hello Diane Thank you. I appreciate that.
FWIW, in that longer note that went to mediation, I offered distinctions that are missing in that confusing term: The Science of Reading, with the hope that, in many such cases, differentiation is the key to clearing up such confusions. CBK
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Diane I was not aware of the history of the term “science of reading” until I read your note about its beginning. It seems to have taken on a (foul) life of its own as it has become a part of the common discussion, even though it confuses theory (science) with pedagogical methods. Wow . . . what a mess. CBK
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Diane In moderation, though you may want it to stay there. CBK
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Diane A longer note went to moderation; however, your point at the end of your note answers the question about WHY outsider intrusions into the classroom and into the active relationship between a live-teacher and her/his students . . . which occur in way too many forms . . . is a travesty beyond measure (pun intended).
As Aristotle says about ethics, there is an element of “no fixed data” in ethics, as is also the case with much of what happens in the classroom minute-by-minute on any given day. That daily arena is where the teacher wisdom comes into play and where intrusions are on what is, in fact, sacrosanct about education, especially in the younger grades, but not only there. CBK
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What a great question! Let’s take history, which has to do with acquiring and analyzing knowledge. What’s different about reading is that our brains did not evolve to recognize letters. In order for this to happen, we take the part of our brains that recognizes objects and ‘force’ it to recognize letters and to convert those letters to sounds. If you look at Nancy Young’s ladder of reading, you’ll see that this process varies by child, but around 60 of children need code-based instruction in order to make this transformation in their brains.
Click to access ff7f1a_0907efb358234fde9dc8f78c9d9f89e2.pdf
One of the problems is that an object (like a spoon) remains recognizeable regardless of the rotation. However, if you rotate a ‘b’ it becomes a ‘d’ and a ‘p’ becomes a ‘q’, which can be confusing fo children.
In Reading in the Brain, neuroscientist Stanislaus Dehaene says:
“The goal of reading instruction becomes very clear. It must aim to lay down an efficient neuroal hierarchy, so that a child can recognize letters and graphemes and easily turn them into speech sounds . . . Considerable research converges on the fact that grapheme-phoneme conversion radically transfomrs the child’s brain and the way in which it processes speech sounds . . . The acquisition of reading entails massive functional changes in children’s brains . . . A true mental revolution will have to take place before the child finds out that speech can be broken down into phonemes.”
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jacquilenhardt5598 Thank you for the link. Here is a clip from it, which is what I said in my note:
“Phonological Awareness” . . . “Put simply, phonological awareness is about understanding that words are made up of sounds. Kids learn to speak without ever needing to see a written word. But when they learn reading, they need to recognize that the sounds they make with their mouths correspond with the words they see on the page. This is a very early skill that sets the stage for what follows.”
Here’s what I wrote: “I find it also interesting (and probably related?) that children learn to speak/hear the meanings of language long before being able to read meanings as written text.” CBK
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phonics is insufficient
pronounce “ghoti”
it can be pronounced as”fish”
gh as in laugh
i as in women
ti as in nation
or how do you pronounce ough?
there are SIX different pronunciations of that set of four letters. Can you name them all,
Simple letter combinations do not necessarily map so specific sounds. That is part because English is a mix of many different language influences.
And that is even BEFORE we get to pronunciation of certain proper names, where by the way the British and American pronunciations can be radically different, eg Gloucestershire or Worcestershire (although the Massacchusetts communityof Worcester is pronounced in the British fashion.
One more key point – insisting on only phonics presumes a deaf person cannot learn to read, which having taught totally and severely deaf students in regular classrooms, including at the AP level, I know is not true.
Phonics is a tool but only one of many, in learning to read.
By the time I was four I could recognize the letter combination of S-i-o-u-x as the name of a Native American people who called themselves as ( later learned the Lakota. But I sould projounce it phonetically as See-ouwx not as Soo.
Make of it what you will.
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Ken Bernstein aka teacherken They probably should have written an addendum such that: “Put simply, phonological awareness is about understanding that words are made up of sounds” . . . (adding:) but awareness of the meanings of language also can come from sight and touch, for instance, the famous example of Helen Keller.
What they say in that quote is quite true but, as you suggest, certainly not comprehensive to the act of understanding that occurs at the center of such awareness. I didn’t read much of the site, however. They MAY refer to other ways of gaining awareness of language that I overlooked in my brief perusal of it. CBK
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Ken,
I wholly agree with your wise comment. Phonics is an important tool but one size seldom if ever fits all.
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“I find it also interesting (and probably related?) that children learn to speak/hear the meanings of language long before being able to read meanings as written text.”
Absolutely, which is why you may appreciate this 20-minute video on Anne Fernald’s research with infants (more science of reading) about the importance of child-directed speech and how it affects vocabulary and processing speed–both important in future reading ability.
Yes–there IS a science of reading (if we can just agree to this fact and move on to discussing its implications for the classroom), and this science is happening in universities across the country. But are we paying attention to it?
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Harriett Janetos Thanks for the video. . . . so much good stuff going on. CBK
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Diane Ravitch, you are so correct! Thank you for stating it in no uncertain terms. There is no “Science of Reading” nor science of teaching English lit, chemistry, etc. “Science of Reading” is some hokey buzzword that some have seized upon, like a panacea.
Reminds me of Common Core’s flawed approach to math education! Learning the basics by rote (times tables, long division, fractions, exponents) is okay for 1st – 7th grade. Later, for algebra, trigonometry, calculus, it was a blessing to be able to near-unconsciously draw on basic concepts, while focusing on learning more advanced topics! I am so grateful for my wonderful public school education of the 1970s – 1980s.
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The term “Science of Reading” is derived from a report written by the National Reading Panel in 2000. There was only one school based educator on the panel—Joanne Yatvin. The panel was selected by Reid Lyon of the NIH. He became George W. Bush’s reading advisor. The initial NCLB contained $6 billion to promote the “science of reading.” Evaluations showed that it didn’t make any difference. Also there was financial scandal, self-dealing, conflicts of interest. The program, called Reading First, was canceled.
I support phonics. Although I learned to read with the Dick and Jane books, which were based on whole-word, not phonics, I have always believed in the importance of phonics.
But we are now in a pendulum swing where phonics-first-last-and-only has been called “The Science of Reading.” Phonics is one good method, but teachers should not be told that there is only one and everything else is non-scientific.
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“Phonics is one good method, but teachers should not be told that there is only one and everything else is non-scientific.”
Whatever you’d like to call it, teachers need to be told that most children require extensive practice in matching phonemes to graphemes through blending and segmenting activities. If code-based instruction is not happening in the classroom, the instruction is not scientific.
Natalie Wexler (The Knowledge Gap: The Hidden Cause of America’s Broken Education System–and How to Fix It) has done an excellent job explaining how code-based instruction is necessary but not sufficient to gain reading proficiency since we must make sure we are building knowledge in order to facilitate reading comprehension.
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Thanks for the very interesting and useful pieces of wisdom about teaching and learning an instrument.
I play clarinet and share your sentiment that “If only I had learned to control my instrument and find success with making music with it before being expected to read”
I played in school bands and orchestras through high school, playing purely based on reading music.
But it was only years later when I started to play along with songs on cds and YouTube “by ear” that I really learned to play, in my opinion.
I haven’t played by reading music in years, but I have a feeling it would be much easier because I now have a much better appreciation for the whole concept of playing in different keys.
Anyway, sounds like you would be a great band teacher to have.
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Until I started playing by ear, I never really knew why it mattered to memorize all the scales.
I think it always helps to know why something is important when you are learning it.
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Thanks, SDPoet. I have to admit that I learned a lot about how my students approach their study through the practice of virtual teaching. I was able to break everything down in such a way that students could find the pieces that spoke to them and build upon those. Also my students sent me practice videos where I could watch their practice process and see, first hand, what deficiencies in their performance and understanding I could help with and what they found success doing. It was such a valuable experience and one that band teachers never get unless they are home with each student during their practice. I was also able to curate so many resources they could access and also pick a lot of other teachers’ brains during this time. I also taught general music for ten years prior to moving back to band. The lessons you learn through teaching other areas can serve.
Keep playing that clarinet!
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CBK, love if you could share some of what you’ve read on this topic. Music is a natural language in and of itself in regard to the natural vibrations of objects (see the harmonic series) and the sounds of animals and objects set into motion by the natural movement of the planet and the air or water movements they result. There are even some who are studying the vibrations of plants—fascinating. Our celestial science has found ways to measure sound and light waves that emanate from deep space. Differentials in frequencies actually produce beats that can be measured. When two sounds are in complete frequency harmony, the beats disappear, and we say the pitches are in tune with one another. Rhythmic waves that pulse in a repeated fashion actually do produce audible pitches to our human ears thus the rhythmic connection to pitch. To any living organism that produces sounds, these wave-producing actions are so interconnected to their very being, it makes perfect sense that babies and young children respond to expressive variations in sound as a precursor to language development. I find it fascinating how languages all over the globe unite us by their expressive elements of pitch and rhythmic variation.
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LG Actually, I have been working on a long-term project concerning cognitional theory that is often referred to as “insight based.” So, it’s aimed at relatively “new” movements in the theoretical basis of what is, in its lesser definition, “reading theory” or the science of reading (as you say) as distinct from pedagogies for it.
Also, my work puts human learning in the context of empirically established (establish-ible) interior structures that are in the context of cognitional, metaphysical and epistemological developments, rather than as either avoiding that context, or coming at it tacitly as if we all (as humans) were somehow outside of being (as such), looking at it as merely objectified, instead of our already being a part of it and ourselves developing in terms of its rhythms.
That’s a mouthful; but to your point, interior order and its dynamism . . . including rhythms, both consonant/resonant and dissonant . . . communications with ourselves (the depths of our interior dialogue), and with others, are at the center of my work. And so, I am aware of (relatively) recent references to intelligible and intelligent communications between plants, animals, and us, and of the fascinating intelligible orders and movements of the universe that you also refer to.
I think there is a missing piece, or more likely several missing pieces, in our understanding and so in the research; and so that’s what I am “up to” discovering.
Music, then, is a natural key; and we have the responses of infants and young children, right from their get-go, to give provenance to that key, especially where movements of wonder and albeit primitive comprehension are concerned or: to read the universe and us in it. This makes the slow but consistent misapprehension and even loss of the arts and humanities in education nothing less than an historical travesty. And so, in part, that’s why I appreciated your note on music so much. It also points to utterly depraved elements of an otherwise vibrant democracy in decline.
Further, we have a mandate from a famous scientist: Einstein said not to pay attention to what scientists say about what they are doing when they do science. Rather, pay attention to what they are actually doing. The theoretical base that I draw from, however, does not come from “reading theory,” but is the philosophical work of Bernard Lonergan, whose main writing is “Insight: A Study of Human Understanding” (2000), but also several of his “Collections.”
So that’s the crux of it. I appreciate your and others’ honesty in what I “hear” coming from many on this site concerning reading. And I think your distinction between (1) a cognitional theory (including learning how we learn to read); and (2) the various pedagogies, is essential to getting some clarity about our ongoing understanding of education. CBK
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CBK, I do hope you are able to uncover the missing pieces.
Did humans learn to utilize sounds they would later develop into language from listening to animals? I’m sure the research on that topic isn’t too difficult to find although I haven’t attempted beyond my lazy afternoon musings. I would imagine that animals across species can (and maybe even do) communicate effectively in nature beyond instinctive necessity—that is, in the sense that they make choices as to what to say. I am inspired by this notion as I sit on my porch swing while listening to the neighbor’s little dog bark and the birdsong that is accompanying it. The dog has finally ceased its yapping (did they let the poor pooch inside?),and the most vocal birds have also stopped their loud repetitive songs. It was quite a concert whether orchestrated by chance or by choices.
Now if only the dog or the birds could read…
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I definitely communicate with my dog.
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Haha! I believe that we do communicate with our pets, Diane. My cat comes when I call him. He’s also a very needy old boy who craves attention. BTW, the bird started up again after a 20 minute rest. My guess is that earlier, it was telling the dog to be quiet so it could take a nap.
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Of course we communicate with our pets. I shower them with love and they give back love in return. You can’t do that with a rock or a shoe.
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But do animals effectively communicate with other animals across species? My cats have a conversation daily, but they both speak cat, so…
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LG My guess is, and it’ only a guess, that there is some refined research somewhere on that; but just as a commonsense observation from my own experience, it seems to me that it would be silly to think that animals don’t communicate in several ways about several things. CBK
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My dog communicates with my cat. “Run or I will kill you!”
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Moms For Liberty & their tyrannical financial backers do NOT want children or youth to read deeply, easily, creatively or critically. “Barking At Letters” is their version of Abu Ghraib. Eventually the cognitive/imaginative body gives out, collapses, complies…or so they hope.
But Langston had the right of it.
HARLEM
By Langston Hughes
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore–
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over–
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
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I just don’t understand the problem with balanced literacy other than it being a grear scape goat. First of all…I have a hard time believing any teacher can use balanced literacy due to all of the mandates from above since nclb.
Kids have been inundated with a phonics only system for many years as it’s the easiest thing to collect data on. That and fluency and word accuracy.
But balanced literacy does include phonics thus the name balanced.
But kids have not been getting a balanced literacy approach. But sor is an easy way to move to a cimplete computer based reading approach.
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Recommended reading- an internet search of Science of Reading Catholic schools-
SOR will be used as a marketing tactic to attract consumers to Catholic schools? Part of selling is distinguishing a brand – the private, tax-supported religious indoctrination schools now have a Silicon Valley network of influence to promote them?
A few headlines from the internet search- “A dramatic boost: Catholic school reading levels on the rise” (Catholic Schools Center of Excellence) and, from Arkansas Catholic, “…science guides new Catholic schools reading initiative,” and, from the Columbus diocese…”curricular materials aligned to the Science of Reading. (We) support using Lexia and Renaissance Lalilo as supplemental digital products…” Renaissance is owned by private equity.
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“A few headlines from the internet search- “A dramatic boost: Catholic school reading levels on the rise” (Catholic Schools Center of Excellence) and, from Arkansas Catholic, “…science guides new Catholic schools reading initiative,” and, from the Columbus diocese…”curricular materials aligned to the Science of Reading. (We) support using Lexia and Renaissance Lalilo as supplemental digital products…” Renaissance is owned by private equity.”
Two questions: 1) Do you dispute this claim that reading levels are on the rise in Catholic schools? 2) Do you object to using any educational products that are developed by private equity?
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Renaissance doesn’t teach anything. It just collects data about the students with timed multiple choice questions. Fools fall for the company’s sales pitch.
That leads to why an astroturf group like Moms (not really) for Liberty (not really) supports the Science (not really) of Reading. They go for what their dark money funders want, the monetizing of children.
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Harriett Janetos Do you mean in your questioning of Linda that, just because it’s a “Catholic” school, we need not think of it as all about religious indoctrination rather than about actually educating children? . . . CBK
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Harriett-
There have been enough lies and distortions from education grifters that neither the “research” that purports to claim causation nor correlation should be believed just because someone thought it would advance his/her agenda
or self-interest to report it.
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Linda Ha ha ha ha! CBK
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“There have been enough lies and distortions from education grifters that neither the “research” that purports to claim causation nor correlation should be believed just because someone thought it would advance his/her agenda
or self-interest to report it.”
Absolutely agree, Linda, which is why it’s our job as serioius educators to look at the research cited and evaluate it as all studies in all fields should be scrupulously evaluated. Do you think Black educator Dr. Tracy Weeden (Nyhaus Education Center), a proponent of the science of reading movement, is just trying to “advance her own agenda or self-interest”? Please watch beginning at 19:00 her keynote address, Literacy: The Civil Right of the 21st Century.
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Harriett Janetos Nicely said. CBK
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Not fair, CBK. We have reams and reams of virtual pages on this cite of public relations being used to hide motives and truth. The recent discussion of Kristof’s “Mississippi miracle” was about just that. I don’t remember you dismissing the factual information about how it was anything but a miracle.
Linda is quite clear here about how things are described in the media. We read a lot about Christian fundamentalism, but nothing about Catholic complicity and support. I think that is a valid observation. The enemy in this case is religious fundamentalism and the authoritarianism that is implicit in every strain of it, be it Christian whatever, Protestant/Lutheran, Catholic, Jewish, Mormon, Jehovah’s Witness, or any other sect. Followers will deny what they see, wait to make an opinion, or even go against their personal belief if an authority of their “church” tells them to do so. People who make excuses for this behavior while maintaining membership might want to examine their own motives.
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GregB Same-ol same-ol. For instance, you say: “. . . but nothing about Catholic complicity and support. I think that is a valid observation.”
AGAIN, I have NO problem with relevant omissions, and even though there are many differences that come into play and are not addressed, for instance, like the U.S. Constitution about religious tests which I have quoted here, not to mention that the history of the Catholic Church is quite different from other religious forces that, again, are rarely if ever brought into the arguments.
What I DO have a problem with, and which I have said here over and over again, is with the other side of THAT extreme effort of misinforming by gross omissions . . . deliberately narrowed contexts and quotations, as well as the constant innuendo, cherry-picking and even blatant distortions about Catholicism rendered as some sort of cultural poison administered as propaganda during Catholic K-12 years.
Fairness? You’ve GOT to be kidding, GregB. Take off your own blinders please? It’s an obvious obsession, not to mention the person in question constantly uses the same logical fallacies that fascists are finally becoming famous for.
And it appears Harriet Janetos sees through the generalized blather anyway. So pulleessee, try real fairness; and I’ll go back to my delete button. You have NO IDEA the ignorant oversights that regularly occur in this context. CBK
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Greg B My other note went to moderation, but I have never “made excuses” for the bad behavior or even doctrines of the Catholic Church. Your own assumptions about that are your own biased blinders that go to work apparently as you read my notes here. And how dare you think I don’t reflect on such issues. Your last comment tells me that you are considerably more ignorant than you know. CBK
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And the idea that reading can be “taught” through “sequential” methods learned in education seminars is ridiculous. Access to, time for, and respect of the written word has somehow survived all these years. Harriett will argue to the death for a method to teach reading that she was NEVER (NEVER I SAY!) subjected to, but thinks it’s existential!
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GregB I used to tell my teachers (so to speak) that the first thing teachers need to remember, and the first thing we all seem to forget, is how long it took and how hard we worked to get to know even the little that we do actually know.
I KNOW Bill Gates et al suffer from this teachers’ “disease” of the memory (especially and apparently since his kids are taught differently from what he wants for everyone else under the sun); but also, from what I’ve seen here and elsewhere about various reading theories–there are criteria for judgment that are even closer than having taught in a classroom–our own memory of our own schooling. CBK
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No thanks, Harriett.
The following is a general assessment. It does not, in any way, relate to any person you have cited. Early in the privatization campaign, the self-appointed reformers with money decided on a plan to use Black people to promote their talking points with legislators. Media reported about it. It introduced skepticism to profit-taking under the guise of civil rights. So, at this point, we’re pretty much past the notion that race automatically confers credibility or altruism. A family that appears (IMO) to have gained advantage by civil rights adjacency is the Edelman family (Marian Wright Edelman, and sons, Josh (worked for Gates) and the other one who founded (Stand for Children). Non-profits can provide good incomes? In terms of Black organizations, the NAACP has stayed true to its values. Others have been influenced by money.
Diane Ravitch’s research and the opinions it has informed, reflect intellectual honesty and integrity. She has sacrificed to do what is in the best interests of this and future children and public schools which are the foundation of democracy.
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Harriett
Who funds the Neuhaus Center? Who is John Neuhaus? How much of Weeden’s career was at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt?
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“In terms of Black organizations, the NAACP has stayed true to its values.”
Okay, Linda, how about any of Kareem Weever’s videos, beginning with this one for 4 minutes. He’s part of the Oakland chapter of the NAACP, which sued the Oakland school district for ineffective reading methods and materials.
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GregB
Except in some denominations it is the Clergy being led by the nose ring by the Parishioners. A White fundamentalist preacher who preaches “compassion and equality ” is likely to be very lonely, left wondering where the flock has gone.
In a sense it is Darwinian. Only the most revolting survive. That may not have been the case 40 years ago. The culture has overtaken the Religion.
That is not the case where a rigid hierarchy exists. IMHO But I am the last one to ask about this. I avoid all of them.
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Well, CBK, on this issue, you are quite the martyr. My individual salvation, so the thinking must go, is different from the others who are in my club, the one’s who do that bad stuff and I listen to selectively. Do you also happily pay their bills and legally-mandated fines when the collection basket comes by? Send some money to Knoxville!
https://harryshearer.com/le-shows/july-02-2023/#t=22:10
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GregB I think you’ve gone off the rails. Take care of yourself. CBK
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Joel, I would argue this is not the case for the Catholic Church. It’s authoritarian leadership quite clearly has control of its message and ignores any dissent, even mild rebukes from the pope. As far as Catholic grassroots movements, the liberal wing has not effectiveness because it will not engage in a full divorce with it’s most evil wing unless that get away with no accountability or financial cost. The right wing is given tacit and open support from leadership at it makes alliances of convenience with reactionaries and fascists with fundamentalists of other religions and political creeds. One can’t exist without the other. I would guess the voting preferences of fundamentalist Catholics and Mormons line up pretty closely.
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https://harryshearer.com/le-shows/june-25-2023/#t=29:40
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GregB
I think I acknowledged that.The rigid hierarchy I was referring to was the Catholic Church. It is certainly top down. You may be correct that the progressive faction pays lip service on issues while it tolerates the right wing of the Church making some of the most repulsive alliances religiously and politically.
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Joel and GregB The Catholic Church is a huge, complex, multi-country religious organization that has roots that go back through all sorts of cultures and that dates back to centuries before Muslims every existed, not to mention protestants. It might be good to understand more about it before making what must be at best speculative, negative or positive, or covertly biased judgments, about it.
And someone here made the cogent point that Leonard/Leo, who has steered much of the right-wing packing of SCOTUS with oligarch money, is apparently a founder of the Federalist Society but is not a member of the clergy. CBK
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Harriett
The video clip you linked to – where’s my clue as to what Weaver advocates for? I heard a lot about process. His Linked In page described his time at New Leaders for New Schools (the brain child of Harvard Business School and Rand Corp.) And, Weaver spent time with LeapTrack Learning System (is that copyrighted as a brand?). Diane has posted about personalized learning products several times.
If the NAACP is promoting SOR, I’ll admit to losing respect for the organization. It Oakland and other chapters have gone rogue, I’ll be less disillusioned.
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Harriett,
UMass Prof. Michelle Hosp was listed as a speaker (Education Week announced a SOR conference scheduled for 4-18-2023). In the blurb about her credentials, Dr. Hosp is described as a Director of Foundational Literacy at Renaissance Learning. Would you be able to direct me to her on-line c.v. that lists grants, etc.?
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“UMass Prof. Michelle Hosp was listed as a speaker (Education Week announced a SOR conference scheduled for 4-18-2023). In the blurb about her credentials, Dr. Hosp is described as a Director of Foundational Literacy at Renaissance Learning. Would you be able to direct me to her on-line c.v. that lists grants, etc.?
Linda, I have no idea who this professor is, but I know who I am: a reading specialist who was poorly trained during my reading specialist credential program and had to discover the research on my own so that I could help the struggling readers I work with. Here’s a short blog, Getting Reading Right: On Truths, Truce, and Truce, where I wrote about what I discovered.
https://pamelasnow.blogspot.com/2023/01/guest-post-getting-reading-right-on.html
You seem to think that SOR is some kind of monolithic movement and that those of us who follow evidenced-based reading instruction must be beholden to billionaires.
My advice is to step away from your preconceived biases and examine each assertion for what it is–not for links to nefarious connections.
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Was going to leave it. But what does this mean: “Catholic Church is a huge, complex, multi-country religious organization that has roots that go back through all sorts of cultures and that dates back to centuries before Muslims every existed, not to mention protestants.” What is the point? What’s the significance of “a huge, complex, multi-country religious organization”? Does that mean it’s so big we can be held responsible for the parts we don’t like? Is this a justification for criminality and lack of ethics, morals, and basic decency for a certain portion of credentialed officials? What does this even mean: “that dates back to centuries before Muslims every existed, not to mention protestants”? Egyptians had a religion long before Jesus was a gleam in God’s eye. Does that give them more legitimacy? What does “It might be good to understand more about it before making what must be at best speculative, negative or positive, or covertly biased judgments, about it” even mean? Or the paragraph after that? Never mind. This is cultish gibberish at best.
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GregB It’s an interpretive lens that beats the hell out of making judgments from ignorance, whichc is what your recent notes sound like to me. For instance, most if not all “religions” are “top-down” structures. And the history of the Church (that I referred to in my note) makes for “huge” distinctions with similarly huge differences from the history and flow of what’s going on with White-nationalist Christians. Most if not all religions are “top-down” orders.
I also think that Leo and company are like the dog that finally caught the car . . . we’ll see how THAT works out . . .and the last time I looked, corruption in the Court or anywhere, including in their own house, is not exactly a heralded aspect of Catholic doctrine.
And BTW, while you are riding “Linda’s bias horse,” if anyone here complained about people in power who (OMG!) have a Jewish background or attend the Synagogue, they’d rightly be called anti-Semitic. CBK
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GregB Of course, anything you don’t understand must be “cultish gibberish.” I usually like what you have to say on this site but, in this case, I am embarrassed for you. CBK
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can’t be held responsible
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Harriett,
“The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior.”
Bill Gates’ zealots, part of the Impatient Opportunist network, cast their shadow over SOR. Approaching project evaluations through a discrete approach as you and profit-takers in education suggest, works well to cover up bigger schemes. The Gates-funded co-founder of New Schools Venture Fund (also, Bellwether, TFA and Aspen Pahara)
said in an interview that the effort’s goal was “brands on a large scale.”
There is no getting past the Pavlovian response of private equity in education when they see the assets of communities. Nor, should we get past it. What is the profit potential for SOR’s products? The investment of Zuck and Gates in the for-profit Bridge International Academies was projected at 20% ROI.
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Tribalists can’t be weaned from flawed thinking because their analytical processes aren’t engaged. As example, a tribalist can’t distinguish between the politicized, right wing Catholics driven by their advancement of the sexist, homophobic “kingdom,” including the well-funded and organized political apparatus of the Church and, an apolitical opportunist seeking a profit.
Religionists expect to be revered or tolerated, which they were until the public square reflected the success of their biases. Diane Feinstein’s religion, or lack thereof, is irrelevant. “The dogma lives loudly within,” describes the verdicts of Barrett, Alito, and Thomas. It doesn’t describe Feinstein.
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Catherine Blanche King
I may have made the point that Leo et al are not members of the clergy. That does not mean that they are not expressing the views of significant portions of the Clergy.
You are correct that the Church is a multinational very large organization with a long history. Like any organization there are competing interests within the body. Telling the story of the Church is not much different than telling the story of the Nation. The hard truths are not pleasant to hear and every effort is made to see that the story is never told. Or told through rose colored glasses.
This is not to say that the Church and members of Church and the Nation historically and currently have not done aspirational things as well.
Linda is right to point out that the Catholic Church has gotten a pass in the culture wars. While they piggybacks with White Nationalist Protestants on issues from Abortion to School Choice. She is completely over the top (putting it pleasantly) in tying every issue to a PAPAL conspiracy because a Catholic (or group of) lay or Clergy takes a particular position.
Members of the Clergy have historically given their lives in defense of Human Rights in places like Nicaragua while other members have given blessing to the tyrants committing those murders.
It is complicated as is most of history. People want simple.
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Joel Thank you for your note of sanity. I have never tried to defend the indefensible here or elsewhere about the Churches’ activities but rather tried to expose the biases so evident here–ongoing for a long time on the part of Linda, but apparently just under the surface of many others. In doing so, apparently, I am quickly interpreted through already-smeared “glasses,” to use your metaphor, as supporting those same indefensible activities. I don’t. (I even get the sense that GregB is disappointed that I don’t fit into his preconceived and long-held anti-Catholic and even anti-religious bias. I hope I am wrong in this “sensing,” but I don’t think so.)
Also, earlier I quoted the “no religious test” part of the Constitution as the reason Supreme Court justices were not drilled about their religion in their Congressional hearings. But it seems giving that point of fact was thought of as evidence that I “defend” the Press as they avoid mention of Catholic influence, infringement, and outright overreach on American politics. (Fortunately, Leo is being forced out of his hidey hole by the Press as we speak. We’ll see where that goes.)
But my quoting the “no religious test” of the Constitution was about a fact accorded to democracy and with regard to the separation of church and state itself, and that the questioners were well aware of it. On the other hand, I don’t know anyone who would openly endorse the proposed Justices lying to Congress about their regard for precedent.
But if the Press gives deferential “room” to the Catholic Church, or to the Jewish faith, or to Muslims or others, while, in comparison, they openly criticize protestant churches for their political overreach, I cannot answer WHY, except to relate it to your point about the “other side of the coin” (about martyred priests) and, again, to the severe historical differences between the first three very old WORLD religions (not to exclude others), and the fourth, e.g., evangelical right-wing Christians and so called White Nationalists, which BTW are in fact anti-Christian, even by the criteria drawn from a cursory coverage of the New Testament. I thought perhaps starting with the facts of the “no religious test” clause might shed some light on an ethos that may flow from that Constitutional reality. But NOOOOOO. I’m “excusing” the Church.
If there IS deference, I seriously doubt that it is only about Catholics (as Linda continually insinuates), or worse, that the Press are all covert Catholics involved in a conspiracy (with Jesuit educations, of course) and trying to hide Catholic overreach.
It’s not for Linda’s reporting of the indefensible, which I support, but because of her “cricket” omissions, constant anti-Catholic harangue, and “forever” supply of logical fallacies (directly from the fascist playbook, BTW, for a long time before you started posting more regularly here) that I just delete her notes now, along with Josh’s and a couple of others. Nothing was “going in” with Linda, and the repetitive narratives here were distracting from other interests and concerns.
Thanks again for your levity. CBK
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Joel-
A couple of questions-
What “issue” or view attached to a segment of clergy or lay have I commented on other than the following- political action that promotes school privatization, is homophobic or sexist or that has involved a legal cover-up? Also, I have suggested a review of Catholic organization actions in the context of racism, in the US, past and/or current e.g. the 1953 occasion of the first Black person admitted to Georgetown and the reaffirmation of the hiring of Ilya Shapiro, by Georgetown, after his comments about Ketanji Brown. In support of Jefferson’s warning about despots, I have drawn connections to the Koch network.
I don’t know anything about Vatican power. I know that Notre Dame (in Indiana) hosted a summit in Rome at which Alito boasted about the SCOTUS wins in Roe, etc. I believe it to be pertinent information and leave it to others, more knowledgeable, to assess its significance. As example, people could conclude different things from a Trump trip to Russia where he extolled the ways in which there had been gains related to the views of Russia as a result of his actions.
The second question is- based on your agreement that the Catholic Church is getting a pass on its involvement in the advance of the right wing (culture) religious agenda, how do you suggest the message can get out- you have seen the tribalist reaction at this blog.
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Joel Try to get past the cherry-picking, omissions, inuendo, and reams of twisted logic. Good luck with that. I tried for a couple of years, but NADA. Thank good-old-technology for the delete button. CBK
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Joel
Please tune back in when my comment leaves moderation.
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Linda At least it’s an “equal opportunity” moderation. CBK
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Joel, as we usually do, we are in complete agreement on the virtually all you write. I’m betting CBK agrees with me since that’s the part of your comment she chooses to ignore. I do have a differing opinion on one point, however, which you summarize succinctly. Sad that we didn’t have it that way before. You write, “Linda is right to point out that the Catholic Church has gotten a pass in the culture wars. While they piggybacks with White Nationalist Protestants on issues from Abortion to School Choice. She is completely over the top (putting it pleasantly) in tying every issue to a PAPAL conspiracy because a Catholic (or group of) lay or Clergy takes a particular position.” That really sums up what the whole hoo-ha is all about.
The first sentence is on point and indisputable. Those posts do us a valuable service to connect the dots on the narrative around which this blog is loosely based, as you state in the second sentence. Next comes our point of disagreement, which between us is subtle, with those incensed, it is existential and the whole point. I disagree that “every issue” is tied to “a PAPAL conspiracy” but agree with the rest of the sentence. I see no conspiracy nor do I get that message in the posts, as seemingly many do. The criticisms point to policies and public statements, not some unprovable allegations. The point being made is that the connection to one formal religion’s influence on the things we liberals purport to oppose is never made as clear as it is with other religious denominations or those that are not. Christian fundamentalism is universally recognized as an integral influence on the rise of fascism in the world and this nation. Catholics make up a large part of it that is denied by their followers actions, not their language, and they are outraged when it is made public. The tenor of the posts are being attacked by the outraged and distracting. The facts are not.
Also, our host, I think, has chosen to not post two links to Harry Shearer’s podcast, LeShow. You can go to his website to go to each show. I highly recommend seeing out the “News from the Godly” segments to better understand why I am outraged at the lack of outrage expressed by the professed followers.
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GregB Not everything that happens regarding the Catholic Church or criticisms about it reaches Diane’s blog, as you seem to imply. Are you THAT arrogant that you presume Catholics on this blog have to tell you everything that’s going on in their religious or political lives?
Also, what is this about: “I’m betting CBK agrees with me since that’s the part of your (Joel’s) comment she chooses to ignore.” Maybe so — I don’t know what part you are talking about. Regardless, so what? We’re all supposed to comment on everything we agree with here?
As I write this, I’m trying not to be snarky, but it’s difficult.) CBK
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Joel
On Aug. 8, Ohioans will vote on an issue described as a dagger to the heart of democracy. The League of Women Voters sent postcards to voters asking them to reject Issue 1. The intent of the democracy-crushing referendum is to prevent a winning vote in November regarding abortion access.
A reference to Nicaragua, at this time, is tone deaf.
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The Ohio Republicans want to change the state constitution to require a 60% majority for a referendum to pass.
The purpose is to make it harder to pass a referendum overturning the state’s abortion ban.
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The Department of Education must be sued into oblivion, or this educational malpractice will never end. Our kids go to Paulo Freire Schools, thanks to the but Henry Giroux. Paulo was a Marxist who believed that “Wenmust first read the world before reading the word” and “students must first be concientized to their oppression, before learning to read”, therefore they don’t have TIME to teach phonics to first graders!
I know it’s sick, They claim to love the kids, but they refuse to teach them to read. A certain number of kids will figure out the code on their own, but many will not. And they wonder why people are flocking to charter schools and homeschooling.
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jacquilenardt5598 Neck deep. CBK
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I am not aware of any Paulo Freire schools. Can you name some? I don’t know of any first grade teachers who refuse to teach their students how to read. Please give names.
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Diane, you are being more polite than the comment to which you are responding deserves I know that is how you are, and I respect it.
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Ken,
There are people who drop in and say things to stir a reaction. I curb any impulse to be rude and ask for evidence. They change the subject.
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Greg
Thank you for the link to Harry Shearer’s explanation about priest exploitation of the vulnerable (and, its perpetuation through cover-up) in New Orleans. A significant number of parishioners in the country have left the church as a result of what was uncovered by the Boston Globe’s Spotlight, etc. Those who left because of that and those who are leaving because of the right wing politicking of the Church deserve some recognition for the what must have represented a sacrifice for them.
The Church hierarchy will not miss those parishioners because they have their wealthy and powerful despots, Republicans like Charles Koch. The Church will not miss the principled who leave because it will continue to attract sexists and homophobes. A review might add anti-Black as a segment attracted to the sect. The fact that other Christian sects may be as bigoted doesn’t negate two points. First, the public is well aware of the politicking of protestant right wing churches because it is covered by media. And secondly, the conservative, protestant churches don’t have a rate of similar success in implementing the right wing agenda in the public square.
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Last Time, the Religious Right Told Us Not Only What We Can Teach but How to Teach It
By Alfie Kohn
https://www.alfiekohn.org/blogs/conservatives-and-pedagogy/
Christian conservatives are banning books and censoring school curricula — and not for the first time. Materials dealing with sexuality and sexual orientation have always been popular targets for them; indeed, researchers have found that literally nothing outrages highly religious people more than “violations of conventional sexual morality.”1 Their earlier attempts to restrict what can be taught in science class (such as how life evolves), meanwhile, have given way to prohibitions on what can be taught in history class (such as the prominent role that racism has played in American history).
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You are correct.
Worth a read, “The new official contents of sex education in Mexico: laicism in the crosshairs.” The article is much broader than the title suggests and references the US.
Jefferson warned, in every age, in every country, the priest aligns with the despot.
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“The Fairfax group, and its neighboring chapter in Arlington, Virginia, are among a growing number of NAACP organizations that have in recent years turned their attention to how reading is taught in school. They are part of a nationwide movement to embrace what cognitive science shows us about how students learn to read, particularly about the role of phonics—and they see this as a path toward social justice.”
https://hechingerreport.org/naacp-targets-a-new-civil-rights-issue-reading/
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Harriett,
In a different comment thread, you identified two people who are from the corporate environment. How aligned with corporate interests are the NAACP chapters you mention?
An analogy- consumers can enjoy and can be coaxed to buy brands like Coca-Cola. On the other hand, water (until it’s privatized) can be delivered in various forms and is more beneficial and lower cost.
Btw, thanks for not calling it a grassroots (or, astroturf) “movement.” I use the word, “campaign” when its driven by private equity, profiteering privatizers and self-serving churches.
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Linda, I take your point that money is often the invisible (or visible!) motivator for many people. My support for the science of reading, however, arises from my experience as an educator (no big bucks there) and from reading a lot of the scientific literature myself as well summaries from researchers themselves. I have reached my own independent conclusions about its merits, often using my classroom as a laboratory, and in order to have a good faith conversation I think we should discuss the science of reading on those merits. The brain changes as a student learns to read, and both neuroscientists and cognitive scientists study these processes. In addition, there are empirical studies of teaching methods showing that those that are consistent with the brain science are effective (see link below for an example). Altogether, these researchers have produced a scientific literature (complete with caveats and contradictions as all scientific investigations are) that provides a ‘science of reading’. Is there a particular part of this that you disagree with or a particular area of the scientific literature that you take issue with?
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10888438.2013.819356?src=recsys
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Ken, the flatterer, I’m sure Diane appreciates it.
There are actual Paulo Freire Schools, schools named after him. Paulo Freire is the third most cited “thinker” in sociology, so I know that you know him. When I say that our kids are in Paulo Freire Schools I am referring to his ideology. He was the guru to Henry Giroux, someone else you are aware of. Unfortunately for us Henry was successful in getting Paulo’s Marxist ideas into our colleges of education.
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don’t know why I am referenced since you are replying to a comment I did not write. As for my complimenting Diane, she has been a friend for years and I respect her, expecially because she changed her mind looking the evidence
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“Diane, she has been a friend for years and I respect her, expecially because she changed her mind looking the evidence.”
This is very important. The evidence for what exactly? Changed her mind how? Thanks for clarifying.
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Harriett, I was a conservative for many years. I worked as Assistant Secretary of Education in the first Bush administration. In 2010, I published a book called “The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice are Undermining Education” in which I did a 180.
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Thank you for clarifying. I have never been a conservative. It saddens me that trying to do what’s best for children has become–like everything else–a polarized issue. And that promoting the science of reading is seen as a sign of conservatism. That’s why looking to the research is so important, now more than ever, because research is neutral. And our students depend on it.
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I will let Diane respond to this if she chooses. There is a famous comment she made in the porocess of summing up a conference
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I was at Teachers College Columbia University for many years before I worked in the first Bush administration. Then I was at NYU School of Education for 25 years. Those are both prominent Ed schools. Neither was offering any courses about Paulo Freire.
Do you have any evidence for the claims you make?
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“…researchers have found that literally nothing outrages highly religious people more than “violations of conventional sexual morality.”
It’s not like Alfie Kohn to be so imprecise. He knows perfectly well that such people don’t give a rat’s rear for sexual morality – look at the massive child sexual abuse scandals of the Catholic, Mormon and Baptist churches, among others. What these xtians care about is conventional sexual *attitudes”. They don’t care what good xtians actually do as long as they claim to be opposed to abortion, homosexuality, transgenderism, etc. and make life extremely difficult for women and LGBTQ+ people. But it’s no big deal when those good xtians are actually caught with underage girls (or boys) whom they are definitely not married to.
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I think this piece published by Psychology Today may provide the answer to why Fascist Moms for Subjugation (Moms for Liberty real title that’s hidden from view) wants to control hor all children are taught to read.
“Will Our Kids Become Fascists or Support Democracy?
Citizenship can and should be taught and experienced at school.”
“Fascist? Religious theocracy? Democratic? Populist? Children are taught the values of their leaders through the subtlety of everyday lessons.”
In this case, when it comes for Fascist Moms for Subjugation, let us emphasise the word “subtlety”.
This is the first paragraph in that piece:
“I’ve heard it said that an extra-terrestrial that arrived on Earth could easily find out what kind of government we humans prefer by visiting an elementary school in any country. Watch closely what the children are taught in their classrooms and one can quickly tell what kind of government is in power. Fascist? Religious theocracy? Democratic? Populist? Children are taught the values of their leaders through the subtlety of everyday lessons. How we ask them to sit. To memorize. To think. To talk to authority. Pray. Tolerate others.”
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/nurturing-resilience/201811/will-our-kids-become-fascists-or-support-democracy
“See Spot run…” may be replaced with “See Trump run and win the election but lose because of fraud” or substitute Trump for DeSantis (any fascist name will do).
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We need to get back to teaching civics as learning to be a good citizen is a must for a functioning democracy. If we can cut back on testing, teachers will have time to teach civics and history.
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Why do Moms for Liberty have cauliflower for brains?
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Why do they show up at school board meetings sprouting nonsense?
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Do you know any members of M4L or have you attended any school board meetings where some have spoken? Many are very articulate and are fighting to retain the innocence of their children. They only ask for age appropriate literature and the right to be heard. They are the ones responsible for their children. They want you to keep sexual education out of the classroom until an appropriate time that should be determined by their Board of Ed (not the state or feds or some liberal teacher)
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These Puritan fudnamentalist American Taliban book burners and book banners and the ignorant, backward NAZI LEMMINGS WHO FOLLOW THEM need to get TF away from our schools and leave teachers and librarians free to carry out their jobs.
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/book-burning
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April, as someone who worked in the textbook industry, often at quite high levels, for many years, I am intimately familiar with fundamentalist American Taliban book burners. I’ve dealt with these morons all my life and know them well.
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A few examples from over the years.
I worked at a small textbook company that spent a LOT of money to develop a superb Health text for a Texas adoption. Texas did not approve the book for adoption because it contained the sentence, “Humans and other mammals lactate.” They were horrified at the perfectly normal mention of lactation in a Health text, but what really got them is the reference to humans as mammals. But, of course, that’s simply what we are. We are members of the Class Mammalia, one of the characteristics of which is lactation.
Or there was the American Taliban superintendent of schools in Missouri who returned a huge order of a literature series I had developed because the 11th-grade book contained the James Thurber classic “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” which contained the word damn, as though 11th-graders have to be protected from ever encountering that word. BTW, how many times does that word appear in the freaking Bible?
I could go on all day with such stories of fundy idiots depriving teachers and schoolchildren of essential resources.
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Who bans , To KIll A Mockingbird, idiot Newsom and the dems. Moms are not banning books; the left has been banning, censoring, taking down statues for the thug pig George Floyd.
What books are these mom banning, trans, sexual books?
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Taking down statues for George Floyd?
What on earth are you talking about, Josh?
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I believe Josh is referring to the statues of historical figures who were prominent in states that illegally seceded from the Union and fought for the Confederacy. These statues were removed during the summer and fall of 2020, following the death of George Floyd.
Perhaps he is referring to the far less justified removal of statues and depictions of Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, and George Washington.
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Ah, “taking down the statues for George Floyd” is means, in Josh’s rant, taking them down in anger over George Floyd, in retribution for that. Thanks for the clarification. Hard to tell sometimes. The characterization of Mr. Floyd is, of course, extraordinarily obscene revictimization of the man.
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This reading didn’t occur to me because it is so bizarre. It’s difficult, sometimes, to put oneself into the racist mind. Ofc, the removal of the statues wasn’t in retribution for or out of anger about Floyd. It was because THESE WERE FREAKING STATUES TO PEOPLE WHO COMMITTED FREAKING GENOCIDE (Columbus) or FOUGHT TO PRESERVE ENSLAVEMENT OF FELLOW HUMANS (all those Civil War generals).
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“perhaps” = whataboutism/bothsiderism gold! “Perhaps” means anything you want it to! Example:
Billy shouldn’t have put his wet finger on the exposed wire in the socket. Perhaps he had a new theory of conductivity. He believed it, by God!
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Thanks for the rapier wit, Greg.
Josh and Ellie –
Many of those statues honoring confederate traitors were constructed in the 1920’s to legitimize the KKK’s terrorism.
You can’t have it both ways- is there an explanation for why Christian White men would rape women who they claimed were 3/5 human? Does the Bible call for bestiality?
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At the slave auctions, the good Christian white men would save the sale of the young black women to the end of the day. Men like those “honored” in those statues. This had NOTHING to do with George Floyd, Josh. Get a clue. It had to do with these people being perpetrators of genocide and enslavement. Evil f___ks.
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Not persons to be celebrated
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But thanks for the explanation, Ellie. That is what he meant, of course, as bizarre as the claim is.
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https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/obama-65000-hot-dogs/?fbclid=IwAR2Q634RZ6tjbGaCA-WexZiD7SKGS9FUfmXxR98JbvdSoifxjqg-RzC7ZOQ
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I hadn’t heard the insane 65,000 hot dogs conspiracy theory. That’s up there with the Jewish space lasers.
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The leftist want to have total control over what our kids see and hear; they believe it is their right. Mom’s for Liberty want our kids to have access to the good, true, and beautiful. They want to select the BEST for their kids not dreck. Libraries are limited by size, education is limited by time; because of this we must be selective, let’s put the very best in front of our children.
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sorry, but my read is that Moms for Liberty wants to impose their view of the world on everyone else
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Someone always decides. The moms in Mom’s For Liberty want their kids to learn to read and the Science of reading is clear.
https://www.weareteachers.com/scarboroughs-rope/
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Bob, once you understand and maybe wake up before it’s too late, there is a worldwide pedo/human sex trafficking ring. Being led by the CIA, epstein, weinstein, many leaders around the world, both democrats and republicans. Epstein and many others blackmailed leaders, politicians, and celebs who went to the island and were caught on camera. Celebrities like Madonna, johnny depp, tiegen, and thousands of others are scared Trump will expose them all. Obama had 65,000 hot dogs.
650 billion dollar industry child sex trafficking, which your buddy biden is apart of.
Trump will win 2024 with the dems plotting ww3, cyber shut down or anything they can do like the plandemic to win.
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It is doubtless the case that Epstein’s deeds have been covered up. Every one of his homes was wired with still and video cameras and had media centers for capturing and storing those recordings of his many famous visitors–royals, politicians, academics, business leaders, entertainment celebrities, celebrity lawyers. And the press reported on that blackmail infrastructure when the case first broke. Now, poof. All the hard drives, all the photos, all the witness testimony from people who saw this stuff happening–has disappeared, has been suppressed. Not one person who observed the Epstein operation involving a famous person testified in Maxwell’s trial, for example. This is all extremely disturbing. It’s all been swept under the rug.
None of that, ofc, justifies the fevered Reich-wing imaginations about pedo pizza parlors.
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My goodness, josh, wherever do you shop for your tinfoil hats? They are just darling, and you simply cannot find that quality anymore these days.
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actually Trump is terrified that (a) he will have to go to priosn; (b) he can no longer intimidate people to keep them from testifying against him; (c) even with the Saudis bailing him out he is headed for going broke as his debts come due. He is a very weak man, who used to brag that he hired the best people and now he trashes all those people when they openly say how weak and flawed he is. Given what Diane thinks of Trump and of the kind of rhetoric you are spewing I am wondering (1) why you bother to come to this site, and (2) why you bother to post this kind of drivel. Bob is correct – regardless of what you have to offer about Epstein, which MAY be largely correct, it is totally irrelevant to what Diane shared from Nancy. Give your blood pressure a break and disappear.
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I guess phonics is now right-wing extremism.
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No more so than the CDC guidelines and findings you ranted against were left wing issues.
Of course you never would understand that Mud for Liberty could not give a crap about phonics nor educating all children Their objection is to the the perceived enemies among the educators.
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It must be, which is tragic because the leftists control the vast majority of education and the training of teachers.
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Bill Gates is a libertarian who supports regressive taxation.
The pretense that he is on the left is well-crafted PR.
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I thought M4L would hate anything with the word “science” in it, including, and especially, conscience
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Beautifully said, TOW!
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Reblogged this on What's Gneiss for Education.
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In other Florida news:
I am a cliche. Retired in Florida. But outside my window is a large lake with herons, snowy egrets, roseate spoonbills, terns, mallards, Muscovy ducks, cottonmouth moccasins, moor hens, huge snapping turtles, otters, bass and perch, gulls of various kinds, ring-necked snakes, opossums, raccoons, black racers, sandhill cranes, pileated woodpeckers, doves, bluejays, ravens, many more creatures. I was remarking about this to a friend recently and saying that oddly, I had never seen a field mouse here. That afternoon I stepped outside, and there was a field mouse looking up at me as though to say, “You called?’
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This is compensation for the pablum-brained Moms for Censorship, uh, “Liberty,” uh, the freedom to read what some brain-dead, semi-literate fundamentalist or Gov. Ron Ron of the white go-go boots thinks you should be allowed to read.
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While we are on the subject of great teaching, I thought I would share this brief history of England for you to share, in turn, with your students. Wraps it all up quite succinctly:
https://wordpress.com/post/bobshepherdonline.wordpress.com/1469
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Oops. Here’s the correct link:
https://wordpress.com/post/bobshepherdonline.wordpress.com/1469
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Still not right. My apologies. Here:
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Okay, while I am certified as a Social Studies teacher and have also taught English at the Middle School level (relevant), my undergraduate major nad first graduate work was in music, Maryland says I only need Elementary Methods to be certified in music, I have taught music appreciation at the HS level, and have done musical theater as musical director both at the hs andc college levels.Nancy is a friend – we were among the organziers (as was Anthony Cody) 0f the Save Our Schools rally and conference in 2011 among other overlaps. I respect her work immensely.
Perhaps also relevant given some of the other commentary on this thread – I am dyslexic although I have always read ABOVE grade level, and taught jyself to read both words and music when I was 3. I have also coached sports, both as a camp counselor and as a teacher, from kids grades 3 through HS.
Let me deal with the last first. Teaching kids to hit a baseball required me to observe and recognize where their deficits were, which were often questions of large muscle movement with vision so they could actually make contact with the bat – that meant the stance at least at first had to be very different depending on the deficit, as did how the bat was tilted. Only after they knew HOW to make contact could we work on how to hit with more power.
It is somewhat similar in working with students on writing, both in middle school and in high school – and social studies should require a LOT of writing. Some are more naturally gifted with using a rich vocabulary but struggle with structure, whilce others can think very logically but have trouble converting their logical thinking into prose that draws in the reade4r and/or keeps his attention.
The point of these examples comes back to a common basic principle – we are teaching students, which to be effective requires that we adujst what we are doing to where the student is when s/he enters our instruction/classroom To give a fiurther parallel from coaching – I might as a soccer coach have a preferred formation to use, but if I do not have the players that can make that formation effective, I need to adjust formation to match the skills of the players I have even as I work on improving their range of skills.
Thus as a teacher – and a coach – I need to develop a wide repertoire (as a musician I love that word) of instructional approaches to which I can turn to meed the needs of the young people before me. That applies where one is teaching reading, writing, how to play an instrument or to play a sport.
I remember walking out of a presentation to National Board Certified Teachers by Bill Gates when he tried to argue for standardized approaches ato teaching by comparing students to electrical plugs – I am NOT making this up. Those who insist there is only one way of doing something in a classroom are missing the point that our goal should be to empower our students to given them choices, not to indoctrinate them either as to method or to content and attitude (very relevant in social studies).
When I am asked what I teach, my immediate response is always the same – I teach students, regardless of grade level or assigned content area. I have taught 7th grade special education students through four different AP courses in high school. That answer is always the same.
Those who insist there is only one way of doing anything with respect to teaching or coaching are demonstrating either or both of the following – they are too limited in what they can understand and/or they are fearful that they cannot control and indoctrinate.
I thank Nancy for her post, and Diane for sharing it.
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Ken,
I attended the same NBCT meeting in DC where Bill Gates praised standardization and compared teachers and students to electric plugs. Plug them in anywhere and they work. He was selling Common Core. Everyone should have gotten up and walked out.
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These folks just like the idea of anything that sounds “sciencey”.
like Christian Science, it just sounds impressive.
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Raw Story reported today that Steve Bannon hosted a former NBA player on his program. Earlier, the player made the news for wearing a hat that said, “Trump Won.” The conversation included the following, “…rude, white, rural Christians (Bannon is Catholic), heterosexual male nationalists…focused on their wives being too mouthy.”
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If they are not taught in early grammar school then they have to be remediated in later years, often too late. It’s criminal.
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And, is what trump did, criminal?
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LOL, What did President Trump do?
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Do you watch news on TV or read newspapers? If you did, you would know that Trump was indicted for taking home classified documents and refusing to return them.
Read the indictment so you know what happened:
Click to access trump-indictment.pdf
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PBS Newshour just interviewed Karen Lewis, Director of the test-centiric Center for School and Student Progress, an affiliate of NWEA, and “lead researcher” at NWEA, an organization owned by Houghton Mifflin. She propagandized that there is widespread four months of learning loss from the pandemic and sold the idea that that requires more time with interventions (using Houghton Mifflin products, of course). She knows nothing.
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Wait for a great review of the NWEA claims on Thursday
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Great indeed!
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