The country continues to be plagued by illiteracy. The reason is simple. The country continues to be under the heel of some of the most reckless and reprehensible “experts” imaginable. They make little children memorize the SHAPES of words, which most little children simply can’t do. Ergo, these children experience major reading and cognitive problems. […]

If it wasn’t so tragic, it would be comical. Our schools seem to be run by Italian cruise ship captains. In a society, where everyone is immersed in language and surrounded by words, we somehow manage to have an illiteracy crisis. Recent government tests show that two-thirds of the kids entering middle school are below […]

Many pundits note that our public schools are sunk in mediocrity. Bill Gates concluded the schools are so bad they threaten the country’s economic future. Less often noted is the obtuseness of so much that goes on in the schools. Professors of education seem to prefer flimsy theories and counter-productive methods. Then, to excuse the […]

[SUMMARY: Public schools are bad because the Education Establishment, for 75 years, has made them that way.] Feeling brave? Got a cast-iron stomach? Not offended by decadence? Well, come with me and we’ll go for a stroll in the dangerous part of town, where society’s bad boys hang out. Yes, I’m talking about education. One […]

The good news is that the nation’s young people tend to be fairly well-adjusted, at ease with themselves, and suffering if anything from too much self-esteem.

Once upon a time, a reader was someone who could say the words on a page. Readers didn’t leave out words that were there, or add words that were not there. Nor did readers make wild guesses or weird substitutions. Lastly, real readers never read words backwards. These bizarre actions, which very nearly equate to […]

So here’s the deal. The same people who lied to us about reading for 70 years now want us to believe they are finally telling the truth. They said that English isn’t phonetic, that children don’t need the alphabet and the sounds, that children need only to look at words and memorize the shapes. All […]

Speaking to a large audience of colleagues, press, and spectators at Harvard\’s Graduate School of Education, Professor D. Tweedle gave a long, rambling speech often interrupted by cheers and applause. Here are the highlights: I’ve been asked by my colleagues to make an important announcement on behalf of the Education Establishment. Today, officially at this […]

Fake reading theory is the slave trade of our era. Conscience demands that it be opposed. A hundred books, perhaps two hundred, have been written on the reading wars. Finally those millions of words come down to a few dozen. English is a phonetic language and must be learned phonetically. Whole Word, the opposing theory, […]

According to a movie and book that came out in 2010, everyone is Waiting For Superman. That would be the heroic, miraculous, too-good-to-be-true school that will swoop down into even the worst neighborhoods and rescue all those bad-luck kids. Me, I’m not counting on Superman. Public schools are too weird. The Man of Steel will […]