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Phonics Resistance or Shutdown Sparks Ignored? Different Perspectives:
Tweets That Prod the System
Good evening, readers. In the ever-escalating reading wars, few voices slice through the noise like Karen Vaites (@karenvaites)—a tireless advocate for evidence-based literacy, math curricula, and systemic reform. As founder of the Curriculum Insight Project and a prolific K–12 commentator with over 50,000 followers, she’s on a mission to dismantle “broken” programs: balanced literacy relics, discovery-based math flops, and anything that fails her HQIM mantra. Her rallying cry? High-quality instructional materials aren’t optional—they’re the fix for kids who “can’t read, guess, or hate to read.”
But our sporadic Twitter tango since 2022 reveals a deeper fault line. While Karen targets curriculum culprits, I keep nudging toward the elephant in the classroom: shutdown of innate decoding potential via poor sound modeling. Why the crickets when I prod for open dialogue?
🧵 Flashpoints and Silences: A Timeline of Prods
August 2022 – Lucy Calkins Reckoning I tweeted frustration over educators only now embracing decades-old phonics research. Karen replied:
“It’s a fair question, but when a woman at @Columbia@TeachersCollege tells you her program is evidence-based, I can understand people getting hoodwinked.”
Fair. I unpacked it in my blog “Has Lucy Calkins hoodwinked anyone?”—but no follow-up. Her lens zooms on materials; mine on teacher-delivered sounds. LINK
June 2023 – Brain Science and Phonics Karen shared Stanislas Dehaene’s piece on rewiring via explicit instruction. I responded with “Learning to Read Changes the Brain – Richard Gentry”, agreeing on phonics but challenging SOR hardliners for dismissing discovery. Kids aren’t blank slates—they spark with clean modeling, not just drills. Again, no dialogue.
December 2024 – Curriculum Overhauls as Boston Globe and APM reports hammered non-phonics curricula, I replied:
“You think schools that did not use those curriculums had all children reading about grade level? See if you understand my post…”
Silence. Is it just the books—or teacher habits sabotaging sounds?
October 2025 – Broken Curriculum Post Karen’s project featured her alongside Wexler and Lane. I replied:
“Stop barking up the wrong tree. Is curriculum the problem?”
No bite.
October 27 – Early Gaps Data Karen amplified Chad Aldeman’s “Do. Not. Wait” post. I replied:
“NOTHING that has not been said in decades… Why can't educators accept this?”
Spot on—but why ignore shutdown signs from schwa-mangled modeling?
November 2 – Math-Literacy Crossover Karen slammed Carnegie Learning’s discovery pitfalls. I asked:
“Why can't teachers unanimously agree that letters should not be taught without extraneous sounds?”
Her thread exploded—my tag vanished.
Today – Parent Bombshell Karen posted:
“More than half the class parents told me their kids couldn’t read, guessed, or hated to read…”
I quoted instantly:
“I know why they can't read. Who is listening? Want to discuss openly?”
🔍 Curriculum vs. Sound Modeling: What's Missing?
Karen’s October 31 post nails it:
“The Reading Wars are over(ish)... we are in our Implementation Wars era... The tribalism in the Science of Reading spaces has always felt tiresome.” Amen.
But implementation wars demand more than curriculum swaps.
Her April 2023 tweet—
“Phonics should be the only focus in kindergarten”
—aligns with my sound-first ethos, yet overlooks why kids rebel against rigid sequencing or thrive without decodables.
As I’ve argued in “Can Dyslexia Be Artificially Induced in School?”, poor instruction—especially sound modeling—can induce aversion. Curriculum alone won’t reboot that spark.
📣 Open Call: Let’s Unpack the Full Picture
Karen, your stories gut-punch because I’ve lived them in shutdown classrooms. What’s the data showing curriculum swaps fix “hate to read” without sound-modeling PD? Let’s unpack. Your followers deserve the full picture.
Readers, does curriculum fixation sideline teacher training in your world? Or am I barking up the innate tree?
Comment or @MichelLuqman
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Luqman Michel Dyslexia Advocate | Author of Shut Down Kids Subscribe to the Blog | Follow on X | My Book
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