Perhaps you, like me, were shocked to read that one of the nation’s most influential literacy experts and a longtime champion of “whole language” reading instruction, Teachers College’s Lucy Culkins, has rewritten her curriculum to embrace phonics. As The New York Times put it, “After decades of resistance, Professor Calkins has made a major retreat.”
Many critics now blame the adoption of whole language reading instruction and its successor, “balanced literacy,” by many education colleges and school districts as major contributors to disparities in reading scores along socioeconomic lines. As one article headline puts it: “How a flawed idea is teaching millions of kids to be poor readers.”
