Unheeded warnings Katrina and literacy
2/12/06

Criticism of the United States Government’s delayed response and assistance in the wake of Hurricane Katrina has reached a crescendo following hearings in our nation’s capitol.

The legacy of that nightmare and our cumulative responsibility lives within many of us as we “move on”. We will never shed the national guilt we harbor. Never forget the faces of the old, poor and marginalized that were lost. The true test of a well functioning civilized society; we failed.

What defines us as a nation is not rhetoric, what truly defines us is what we put up with. Another “delayed” response to dire warnings involves the effective and efficient teaching of the English language beginning with early reading instruction.

Flesch’s 1955 book Why Johnny Can’t Read was the first alarm lamenting new word- memorizing strategies in place of learning letter sounds and rules of pronunciation. Flesch’s 1981 book Why Johnny STILL Can’t Read pointed out the disastrous effects of word memorizing in place of phonics and Direct Instruction (DI was developed at the University of Oregon).

Flesch predicted that by the mid-90’s the United States would be compelled to hire scientists and mathematicians from abroad due to the inadequacies of the word memorizing method of “reading”. Memorizing words will only take a student so far, as the curriculum becomes more complex; the memorization method is no longer effective.

The Oregon Department of Education report of students meeting or exceeding reading standards for the school year 2003-2004:
Grade 3 - 82%
Grade 5 - 76%
Grade 8 - 59%
Grade 10 - 50%

Flesch predicted that we were producing so many children suffering from “dyslexia” (as a result of teaching the “whole word” method) that the number of children with “Specific Learning Disabilities” (the new term to describe dyslexia) would soar.

The Oregon Department of Education annual report for 2003-2004 Students with Disabilities Receiving Special Education Services details that 44.8% or 31,710 children suffer from “Specific Learning Disability”.

Steven Carter of the Oregonian wrote an informative article 12/14/05 (School reforms get high marks low use) restating much of what Flesch had written 50 and 25 years before. Carter had not read Flesch’s books.

I read with dismay some of the individuals, displaced by Katrina, starting over in our community are up against even greater obstacles as a result of being illiterate. That dire warning has gone unheeded for the last 50 years.