pRIMrose
02-07-2003, 05:29 AM
Cal Thomas
February 7, 2002
Townhall.com
NEW YORK - "Reading Is Fundamental, " says the bumper sticker. "If you can read this, thank a teacher, " says another. Whom do you thank, or blame, if you can't read or read well?
New Yorkers can thank (or blame) the new "phonics " program embraced by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and School Chancellor Joel Klein. It is not a true phonics program, but a witch's brew of small amounts of phonics and heaping doses of the failed "whole language " approach that is increasingly being abandoned in school districts across the country.
G. Reid Lyon, a researcher at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, is President Bush's top reading advisor. He says New York City's new reading program has no proven track record. He suggests that its adoption might cost the city millions of dollars in federal assistance.
Lyon told the New York Times (Jan. 24): "We can find no published research indicating that this program has been tested with well-defined groups of kids and shown to be effective. " New York State is about to receive nearly $70 million out of a total of $900 million earmarked for reading instruction this year. Most of that allotment will go to New York City, which has the nation's largest school system. Shouldn't the taxpayers expect a better return on their education investment?
In New York City, 60 to 70 percent of African-American and Hispanic children are illiterate. (http://www.townhall.com/columnists/calthomas/ct20030207.shtml)
The DOE = the government's version of Enron. http://gopusa.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tqrolleyes.gif To think I was taught phonics nearly sixty years ago and it only cost pennies. Another case of fixing something till it's broken. http://gopusa.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/sarcasm.gif
February 7, 2002
Townhall.com
NEW YORK - "Reading Is Fundamental, " says the bumper sticker. "If you can read this, thank a teacher, " says another. Whom do you thank, or blame, if you can't read or read well?
New Yorkers can thank (or blame) the new "phonics " program embraced by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and School Chancellor Joel Klein. It is not a true phonics program, but a witch's brew of small amounts of phonics and heaping doses of the failed "whole language " approach that is increasingly being abandoned in school districts across the country.
G. Reid Lyon, a researcher at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, is President Bush's top reading advisor. He says New York City's new reading program has no proven track record. He suggests that its adoption might cost the city millions of dollars in federal assistance.
Lyon told the New York Times (Jan. 24): "We can find no published research indicating that this program has been tested with well-defined groups of kids and shown to be effective. " New York State is about to receive nearly $70 million out of a total of $900 million earmarked for reading instruction this year. Most of that allotment will go to New York City, which has the nation's largest school system. Shouldn't the taxpayers expect a better return on their education investment?
In New York City, 60 to 70 percent of African-American and Hispanic children are illiterate. (http://www.townhall.com/columnists/calthomas/ct20030207.shtml)
The DOE = the government's version of Enron. http://gopusa.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tqrolleyes.gif To think I was taught phonics nearly sixty years ago and it only cost pennies. Another case of fixing something till it's broken. http://gopusa.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/sarcasm.gif