LETTERS: PHONICS AND READING

To the editor:

Are your kids or grandkids being abused? Before you answer, consider this: If your are mature, you most likely learned to read using the phonics method that was used for years. It resulted in a remarkable national literacy rate. Gradually it was displaced, often without school board or parental knowledge or consent.

Now most kids are taught to remember how a word looks instead of how it sounds. This is called whole language (look-say), and it leaves children unable to tell, without pictures, the difference between horse and house.

Where officially adopted and documented, the effects have been dramatic. In the San Diego Unified School District, there was an alarming drop in reading scores. According to the San Diego Union, "In 1990, 51 percent of the students scored above the national norm. In 1991, only 25 percent did so."

This is dumbing down and is abuse of the very young. The effects are wide-ranging and long-lasting, as reflected by SAT scores, the growing need for remedial classes and the current graduation of functional illiterates.

The future of children depends on their ability to read. The whole-language experiment has been a catastrophe for too many children. We must restore phonics to give each child a better chance to learn.

JOSEPH BLUME

St. Louis