Challenging the Reading Wars

Visit my bookstore at:  https://payhip.com/LuqmanMichel                                                              

 

Why Experts Ignore Evidence on Phonics and Dyslexia

The ongoing "Reading Wars" – the fierce debate between advocates of systematic phonics instruction and proponents of balanced literacy or whole-language approaches – have persisted for decades, leaving many children struggling with reading and labeled as dyslexic. Over the years, I've documented interactions with prominent educators and researchers on my blog. These posts highlight a frustrating pattern: questions rooted in real-world teaching experience and student evidence are often met with evasion, silence, or outright dismissal. This blog post summarizes five key entries spanning from 2020 to 2025, revealing a core issue that could potentially resolve much of the controversy.

Paul Thomas: Five Years On, Still "Navigating Research" on Why Kids Crack Nonsense Words Despite Flawed Phonics?

 

Prof. Paul L. Thomas (@plthomasEdD) of Furman University has long been a voice in the education wilderness—pushing back against the hype of "science of reading" mandates, defending balanced literacy, and calling out phonics zealots for oversimplifying complex kids. As a high school English teacher turned professor, his blog Radical Scholarship and tweets cut through the noise with data-driven skepticism. I've cited him approvingly in my own fights against PAD dogma and "cuh-ah-tuh" blunders. But when it comes to my core question—how do multilingual kids (and even fluent adults) nail nonsense words like "scrab" or "thake" despite kindergarten phonics gone haywire? —he's been radio silent. Or worse: a mute button.

Phonics screening

                   

Yesterday, 11.8.2023, there were the following tweets and my comments.

londonjohn@londonjohn9:

Some schools in England start preparing children in January to reach the target of 80% of the class getting 32 out of 40 correct responses to alien and real words in the June test (sorry, Screening Check!).

The nonsense words were; woid, ump, proy, luft, shrop etc.

My thoughts:

I have said it several times and I will say it again; I don’t agree with creating nonsense words as there are enough words in the English language to test kids. But, I thought this is another American or perhaps British invention to get teachers to continue arguing.

But all the same, I used a list of nonsense/pseudo words to prove that college students who were taught the pronunciation of sounds of letters wrongly could still read the nonsense words correctly and read fluently. How were they able to read the nonsense words correctly? This is what I asked our education guru Paul Thomas who told the world that he could navigate research to find out. That was 3 years ago. Does anyone know how a kid learns to read? Definitely not! Listen to the two college students who pronounced the letters with extraneous sounds but were able to read all the pseudo words.

‘Stupid and uneducated’ people preferred' - Tunku Ismail

 

Here is a Tweet and comments I read this morning which started me pondering.

Prof. Feynman @ProfFeynman (9.8.23)

When you're stupid, you think you know everything, without questioning and when you're intelligent, you question everything you think you know.

The wisest people are often those who are open to new ideas and perspectives, even if they challenge their own beliefs. @ravisama5

Ignorance boasts unwarranted confidence; intelligence thrives on relentless questioning. @FindTimK

Maybe I'm just smart enough to know that I am not smart enough to understand how one can be both stupid and intelligent simultaneously! @Naveen_Srini_