READING

Because reading takes so much mental effort, one would expect that schools would employ the best type of instruction to teach students how to recognize written words quickly, accurately and confidently. Instead, in “whole language” instruction, the current fad in schools, students are trained to believe that reading is a “guessing game.” Without any direct and systematic knowledge as to how to recognize the precise word an author wrote, these students soon find that their guesswork about words does not readily divulge what an author intended to convey. Reading thus becomes a nightmare. As the students grow increasingly tired of their fruitless speculations about the identities of words, they close their books and turn on the TV.

PATRICK GROFF

PROFESSOR,

SCHOOL OF TEACHER EDUCATION

SAN DIEGO STATE UNIVERSITY