Monday, June 19, 2006

Why Johnny (or Chloe) Can't Read

In 1955 Roudolf Flesh wrote a book titled Why Johnny Can't Read: And What You Can Do About It. This book, approved by the U.S Dept. of Education and reissued several times over the past half-century, sparked a revolution in the phonics method of teaching language arts in the public schools to combat the growing problem of illiteracy in its day. Over a half century later, however, the problems remain the same and some children still aren't learning to read because schools aren't using clinically proven methods of instruction for those students who need the extra help.

Today in the New York Times, Editorial Observer Brett Staples writes that under IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) parents in the Washington DC area that can prove the public schools have failed their children, are now suing the public schools to have their childrens' private education paid for by the public schools. In DC, 15% of the public school dollars are being spent to send 4% of the student population to costly private schools where they are being taught to read properly.

Staples article beings by asking you to "imagine yourself the parent of an otherwise bright and engaging child who has reached the fourth grade without learning to read. After battling the public school bureaucracy for what seems like a lifetime, you enroll your child in a specialized private school for struggling readers. Over the next few years, you watch in grateful amazement as a child once viewed as uneducable begins to read and experiences his first successes at school. Most parents are so relieved to find help for their children that they never look back at the public schools that failed them. But a growing number of families are no longer willing to let bygones be bygones. They have hired special education lawyers and asserted their rights under the federal Individuals With Disabilities Education Act, which allows disabled children whom the public schools have failed to receive private educations at public expense."

My husband and I have lived this experience with our daughter--almost. Despite intervention by her public school kindergarten teacher which resulted in neuropsych testing with an ADHD diagnosis and an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) and special education instruction beginning in first grade, we nervously watched our daughter languish in her public school setting.

All during her kindergarten, first grade and halfway though her second grade years we spent hours each afternoon and evening diligently working to teach her phonics and helping her practice reading according to the helpful hints the classroom and special ed teachers gave us and what reading we had done on emerging readers ourselves. This relentless "homework" tested the patience of all of us. When it wasn't working, we all just became more and more anxious, discouraged, and frustrated. Finally mid-way though my daughter's second grade year she had a substitute teacher who recognized her potential and ability and demanded just a bit more from her. We hired her as a tutor and that started us on the journey of self-education and advocacy on behalf of our daughter. We now pay a wonderful highly trained tutor in the Orton-Gilllingham methodology of phonics instruction $50 per hour twice a week and will do so for another couple years. You can do the math. We could have forced the public schools to pay for our daughter education. But that would have required us to let her languish for a few more years to prove that they were not adequately instructing her. We were not willing to let her suffer longer. Are we bitter? Perhaps a bit. Do we wish we didn't have to pay more money over and above our tax dollars to educate our child? Of course! Is it worth it? Absolutely!

As citizens we all need to give our law-makers and public school administrators the message that we want early assessment of all incoming students to find which ones are struggling with phonoligical awareness. Schools need to be given adequate funding to institute early intervention plans using proven methods of instruction to help struggling emergent readers with phonetic awareness. Under the current IEP system, schools must take a "wait until they fail" approach. And then, the public schools foot the bill while parents and private schools pick up the pieces of these students' lives. The current system is unjust to both children and taxpayers because it leads to situations as Staples writes about, and like the experience of our daughter.

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