Classroom Chaos, Covid, and Automatic Promotion: Why So Many “Disruptive” Kids Are Actually Victims of Broken Teaching

 

In a recent discussion on Twitter (Now X) a teacher Jen@jenteach13 said:

You want to fix education?

Let teachers remove kids who make it impossible for everyone else to learn.

Why Modern Pinyin is Failing Our Children: The Rise of "Instructional Dyslexia"

 

Recent studies show a startling trend in China: reported dyslexia prevalence has jumped from roughly 3.9% a decade ago to as high as 12.6% in recent urban research. While the biological traits of dyslexia remain stable, our instructional methods have shifted, creating a generation of students who appear to be struggling with reading but are actually victims of a confusing phonetic hybrid.

The Rise of the "Phantom Vowel"

How the Brain Learns to Read — And Why We Keep Getting It Wrong

 

We know the brain can learn to read. Some children, like Emma Hartnell-Baker, pick up Enid Blyton at age three with no instruction. But most aren’t so lucky. They need teaching — and the science is clear: everything hinges on connecting letters to sounds.

Education: The Only Profession Everyone Thinks They Can Run

The following tweet captures a maddening truth: 

Education is one of the few fields where people with no training feel entitled to dictate methods, policies, and “best practices.” Nobody would let a passerby advise a surgeon mid-operation or redesign an engineer’s bridge. Yet in classrooms—especially in reading instruction—voices from policymakers, academics, influencers, and even trainers who’ve never sat with a failing child often carry more weight than those who have.

SPM Results Expose the Bopomofo Betrayal

 

The Star today reports a dual crisis for Chinese students in Malaysia: fewer candidates, fewer top scorers in the SPM. The shock is palpable. But let’s be blunt—this collapse didn’t come out of nowhere. It is the direct consequence of wrong teaching imported from China, and the silence of educators who refused to confront it.

The Bopomofo Infiltration

Challenging the Phonological Awareness Deficit Theory of Dyslexia: Lessons from Teaching 80 Struggling Readers

 

In 2004, I began teaching a bright young child to read. Like many educators at the time, I turned to the internet for guidance and encountered countless articles claiming that the primary cause of dyslexia was a phonological awareness deficit. This idea—that children with dyslexia struggle mainly because they can't properly perceive or manipulate the sounds in spoken language—dominated the conversation. 

Why Many Intelligent Kids Misbehave – And Why Adults Rarely Discuss the Real Reason

 

Not a single adult has ever openly discussed why many kids misbehave. Many who misbehave are intelligent kids.

This observation comes from years of working with struggling readers. The pattern is unmistakable: bright, capable children are often the ones who act out the most in class.

Why “Charlie and the Alphabet” and Similar Videos Cause So Many Kids to Shut Down – And How to Prevent It

 

Early wrong input is hard to undo. Claude Bernard saw it in the 1800s. Thorndike proved it in 1913. Charlie Munger explained why the mind closes the door.

For years I have been warning about instructional videos that teach consonant sounds with extraneous “uh”. These videos don’t just confuse children — they cause many to disengage completely from learning to read.

The Myth of “400 Exposures

 

A respected teacher recently posted:

“A dyslexic brain needs about 400 exposures to a word to anchor it in long-term memory.”

 

It sounds authoritative. It sounds scientific. But is it true?

Part 7: R-Controlled Vowels, Syllable Division & Fading the Supports

 

Welcome to Part 7 of How to Teach Dyslexic Kids! By now your student has built strong foundations in phonics, multisensory techniques, and the finger-blocking method for spotting reliable patterns like ee, oo, and other vowel teams.  This stage focuses on two powerful unlocks:  R-controlled vowels (the “bossy r” sounds) 

Syllable division rules — the key to cracking longer, multisyllabic words.

Don’t Judge a Book by Its First Chapter: Why Many Haven’t Bought My Reading Program

Now I understand why many parents and teachers of dyslexic kids have not bought my book, Teach Your Child to Read — which is a complete programme with a QR Code for each chapter.

A few days ago, I found myself in a thoughtful LinkedIn exchange with R. Janet Walraven, M.Ed., an international award-winning author and passionate educator. The topic? Helping children—especially those who struggle—learn to read confidently and correctly.

Part 6: Mastering Vowel Teams & Digraphs – Expanding the “Blocking” Technique

 

Welcome to Part 6 of How to Teach Dyslexic Kids! We’re building directly on the finger-blocking method from Part 5. Once your student has solid success with ee (the long /ē/ sound), it’s time to introduce more common vowel teams and digraphs. This keeps the momentum going while systematically expanding their ability to decode thousands of new words.

Vowel teams (two or more letters working together to make one sound) are a frequent sticking point for dyslexic learners because English spelling is inconsistent. Explicit practice with the blocking technique turns confusion into confidence.

The Question No One Has Asked

 

I have written several articles explaining that many children shut down from learning to read because they have been taught letter sounds wrongly — that is, with extraneous “uh” or “huh” noises tacked on, which makes blending almost impossible.

So here is the obvious follow-up question that almost no one ever asks me: If your hypothesis is correct, then how is it that many children who attend schools where “correct” pure sounds are supposedly taught right from Grade One still leave school as functional illiterates? If wrong sounds are the main culprit, shouldn’t every child succeed?

Part 5 (Continued): Teaching Dyslexic Kids to Decode New Words

 

The “Blocking” Technique & Digraph Mastery

One highly practical strategy is helping children confidently tackle unfamiliar words is by spotting reliable letter patterns. The book Teach Your Child to Read introduces a simple, tactile “finger-blocking” method starting around Chapter 20.

This technique builds directly on phonics knowledge and gives kids a concrete, hands-on way to isolate and recognize common digraphs (two letters that make one sound) like ee, oo, ea, ai, etc.

The Nail in the Heel: Why Educators Defend Failure Instead of Fixing It

 

Here is my reply to Allie and Emma Hartnell-Baker

I hear you, but you're still missing the point.

You're describing a kid limping because there's a nail embedded in his heel — and instead of pulling out the nail, you're listing a dozen other possible reasons: wrong shoes, poor nutrition, weak muscles, bad posture, lack of motivation, etc. Sure, those things could matter in some cases. But when 20% of kids have been leaving school as functional illiterates for decades, year after year, with the failure rate barely budging, it's time to stop the excuses and remove the damn nail.