From the Academy

After much hammering, some genuine reforms slowly are penetrating into the American petrified forest of primary education. The look-say illusion in the teaching of reading—Dick, Jane, and Spot, you know—is on the defensive, praise be, as people begin to understand once more that the phonetic method is the only sound way, after all, to teach children to read. And some firms are bringing out good basic readers, after decades of dreary “real life stories” and social-adjustment pabulum.

The old firm of Lippincott is doing Well in these fields; Appleton-Century-Crofts, too, should be commended. Just because a textbook publisher claims to be offering (reluctantly) a “phonics approach,” don’t rejoice, however; caveat emptor. And never, gentle reader, swallow the facile argument of publishers that their series “combines the best features of the phonics and word-recognition approaches.” That is like combining the best features of Beef Stroganoff and mud pies.

RK

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Russell Kirk

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After much hammering, some genuine reforms slowly are penetrating into the American petrified forest of primary education. The look-say illusion in the teaching of reading—Dick, Jane, and Spot, you know—is on the defensive, praise be, as people begin to understand once more that the phonetic method is the only sound way, after all, to teach children to read. And some firms are bringing out good basic readers, after decades of dreary “real life stories” and social-adjustment pabulum.

The old firm of Lippincott is doing Well in these fields; Appleton-Century-Crofts, too, should be commended. Just because a textbook publisher claims to be offering (reluctantly) a “phonics approach,” don’t rejoice, however; caveat emptor. And never, gentle reader, swallow the facile argument of publishers that their series “combines the best features of the phonics and word-recognition approaches.” That is like combining the best features of Beef Stroganoff and mud pies.