Friday, May 15, 2020

The Naked Emperor: Not Wanting to Know What We Know



The ‘Naked Emperor’ is a deeply insightful story that exposes how we can know something yet refuse to acknowledge that we know it.

On 29.3.2020 Sue Lloyd of Teaching Children to Read and Write (“TCRW”) tweeted as follows:


These studies demonstrate that dyslexia does not develop when children begin with a good synthetic phonics programme. 

My comment now: By dyslexia, I believe she means kids who are unable to read. Children who are not taught correctly end up being unable to read. In my opinion, it does not matter what type of phonics we teach as long as we teach the correct pronunciation of the phonemes.


tcrw @suelloydtcrw  Mar 29 Replying to @luqmanmichel

Agree that it is important to pronounce the letter sounds in a pure way but in my experience the children who disengage do not know the letter sounds and have not had enough blending practice. 

In an email to me Sue Lloyd said:

I think it is important to encourage good pronunciation but, I believe, much more is needed for avoiding reading and writing problems.

Sue Lloyd and Stephen Parker are proponents of Systematic and Synthetic phonics (SSP) who are adamant that the only way to teach kids is via SSP. They keep insisting that Dolch Words should not be taught to be memorized even though I have explained to them that many children around the world learn to read using whole word. 

I have corresponded with Sue Lloyd since 2018 and I think she is a very nice lady. It is just that she has promoted SSP for many years and clings onto her belief that it is the only way to teach kids effectively.

Do read her comments in my blog post and my detailed response to her.

Another person who falls into this category is our Pamela Snow from Down Under who not only deceives herself but the teachers and parents who think highly of her. She has not bothered to respond to any of my comments on her Blog which I will write on soon. Here is a blog post in response to her post I wrote in 2018.

Educators, such as Diane Ravitch, Robert Slavin and many others who support Science of Reading are addicted to escaping reality.

Is it any wonder why the Reading Wars have been ongoing for decades?







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