In today’s world of education and par- enthood, we see an increase in chil- dren diagnosed with dyslexia. As a baby boomer, I don’t remember hearing this word until adulthood. Understanding that there are some medical conditions
causing this, my focus is on the dyslexia
pervasive throughout both public and private schools and increasing every year;
could there be help?
I first discovered Dr. Samuel Blumen-
feld in the 1980s. He would be the first to
tell you that he is not an educator, but an
objective researcher of education. What his
research demonstrated was both alarming
and well-documented in his book, The New
Illiterates and how to keep your child from
becoming one (1988).
In his book, Blumenfeld reveals Thomas
Gallaudet (the founder of Gallaudet
University for the Deaf) as the originator of the Look-Say Method (LSM), which
Gallaudet developed in order to teach deaf
children how to read. He ultimately decided
this might work well with hearing children
Mother’s Primer, and distributed it to public
schools around 1836. After a year or two of
use, many school systems abandoned this
method because it proved detrimental to
children learning to read, subsequently returning to the intensive phonics method,
which had been tried, tested and successful
since at least the 8th Century B.C.
Of particular note is the Lincoln School,
an experimental school for Teacher’s College, which opened in 1916 with support
from the Rockefeller General Education
Board. John D. Rockefeller, himself, sent
www.TheOldSchoolhouse.com
Language Arts: Phonics
Intensive
Phonics for
Dyslexia
by Ruth Sundeen
Dr. Seuss said, “. . . I think killing phonics was one
of the greatest causes of illiteracy in the country.”
