{"id":452385,"date":"2022-05-25T05:34:01","date_gmt":"2022-05-25T02:34:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/before-they-can-learn-antiracism-kids-need-to-be-literate-too-many-arent\/"},"modified":"2022-05-25T05:34:01","modified_gmt":"2022-05-25T02:34:01","slug":"before-they-can-learn-antiracism-kids-need-to-be-literate-too-many-arent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/before-they-can-learn-antiracism-kids-need-to-be-literate-too-many-arent\/","title":{"rendered":"#Before they can learn \u2018antiracism,\u2019 kids need to be literate \u2014 &#038; too many aren\u2019t"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_85 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a415819139f4\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a415819139f4\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/before-they-can-learn-antiracism-kids-need-to-be-literate-too-many-arent\/#%E2%80%9CBefore_they_can_learn_%E2%80%98antiracism_kids_need_to_be_literate_%E2%80%94_too_many_arent%E2%80%9D\" >&#8220;Before they can learn \u2018antiracism,\u2019 kids need to be literate \u2014 &#038; too many aren\u2019t&#8221;<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-2' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/before-they-can-learn-antiracism-kids-need-to-be-literate-too-many-arent\/#Antiracist_assumptions\" >Antiracist assumptions<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-3' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/before-they-can-learn-antiracism-kids-need-to-be-literate-too-many-arent\/#Black_students_suffer\" >Black students suffer<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/before-they-can-learn-antiracism-kids-need-to-be-literate-too-many-arent\/#Incomprehensible_lessons\" >Incomprehensible lessons<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/before-they-can-learn-antiracism-kids-need-to-be-literate-too-many-arent\/#Social-justice_failure\" >Social-justice failure<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-6\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/before-they-can-learn-antiracism-kids-need-to-be-literate-too-many-arent\/#Forgotten_phonics\" >Forgotten phonics<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h1><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"%E2%80%9CBefore_they_can_learn_%E2%80%98antiracism_kids_need_to_be_literate_%E2%80%94_too_many_arent%E2%80%9D\"><\/span>&#8220;Before they can learn \u2018antiracism,\u2019 kids need to be literate \u2014 &#038; too many aren\u2019t&#8221;<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h1>\n<div>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module alignleft\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>There\u2019s an old joke about a chemist, a physicist and an economist stranded on a desert island with only a sealed can of food. The chemist and physicist each propose their own ideas about how to open the can. The punch line comes from the economist, who proffers: \u201cFirst, assume a can opener.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve been brooding over this joke while watching \u201cantiracism\u201d teaching \u2014 some might call it Critical Race Theory (CRT) or <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">social<\/a> justice \u2014 take over the American education world with Omicron-like speed. Lesson plans, books, tips for in-class activities, discussion points, and curricula swamp the teachers\u2019 corner of the Internet.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The proposals come from a metastasizing number of pedagogic entrepreneurs and activist groups, some savvy newcomers, some influential veterans like Black Lives Matter at School, Learning for Justice (formerly Teaching Tolerance), Teaching People\u2019s History (the Zinn Education Project), the Racial Justice in Education Resource Guide (from the National Education Association), and, of course, the current star: the 1619 Project (the Pulitzer Center).\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>To me, all these ideas seem like the ruminations of desert-island economists. They start with an impossible premise: that the students of these recommended texts actually know how to read.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/05\/DeSantis-Florida-1.jpg?w=1024\" alt=\"Kids holding signs against Critical Race Theory \" class=\"wp-image-22400243\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/05\/DeSantis-Florida-1.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=2048 2048w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/05\/DeSantis-Florida-1.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1536 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/05\/DeSantis-Florida-1.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/05\/DeSantis-Florida-1.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=512 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption>Many parents are divided on whether or not children should learn critical race theory.<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">AP\/Daniel A. Varela<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>I am overstating, but not by much. A significant number of American students are reading fluently and with understanding and are well on their way to becoming literate adults. But they are a minority.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>As of 2019, according to the National Association of Education Progress (NAEP), sometimes called the Nation\u2019s Report Card, 35% of fourth-graders were reading at or above proficiency levels; that means, to spell it out, that a strong majority \u2014 65%, to be exact \u2014 were less than proficient. In fact, 34% were reading, if you can call it that, below a basic level, barely able to decipher material suitable for kids their age.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Antiracist_assumptions\"><\/span>Antiracist assumptions<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Eighth-graders don\u2019t do much better. Only 34% of them are proficient; 27% were below-basic readers. Worse, those eighth-grade numbers represent a decline from 2017 for 31 states.<\/p>\n<p>As is always the case in our crazy-quilt, multiracial, multicultural country, the picture varies, depending on which kids you\u2019re looking at. If you categorize by states, the lowest scores can be found in Alabama and New Mexico, with just 21% of eighth-graders reading proficiently. The best thing to say about these results is that they make the highest-scoring state \u2014 Massachusetts, with 47% of students proficient \u2014 look like a success story rather than the mediocrity it is.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/05\/GettyImages-1045322212.jpg?w=1024\" alt=\"Student and teacher\" class=\"wp-image-22400264\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/05\/GettyImages-1045322212.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=2048 2048w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/05\/GettyImages-1045322212.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1536 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/05\/GettyImages-1045322212.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/05\/GettyImages-1045322212.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=512 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption>Nearly 60% of black children in New York City charter schools read proficiently.<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">Getty Images\/iStockphoto<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The findings that should really push antiracist educators to rethink their pedagogical assumptions are those for the nation\u2019s black schoolchildren. Nationwide, 52% of black children read below basic in fourth grade. (Hispanics, at 45%, and Native Americans, at 50%, do almost as badly, but I\u2019ll concentrate here on black students, since antiracism clearly centers on the plight of African Americans.)\u00a0<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Black_students_suffer\"><\/span>Black students suffer<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>The numbers in the nation\u2019s majority-black cities are so low that they flirt with zero. In Baltimore, where 80% of the student body is black, 61% of these students are below basic; only 9% of fourth-graders and 10% of eighth-graders are reading proficiently. (The few white fourth-graders attending Charm City\u2019s public schools score 36 points higher than their black classmates.)\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Detroit, the American city with the highest percentage of black residents, has the nation\u2019s lowest fourth-grade reading scores; only 5% of Detroit fourth-graders scored at or above proficient. (Cleveland\u2019s schools, also majority black, are only a few points ahead.)<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/05\/GettyImages-484794664.jpg?w=1024\" alt=\"Children reading\" class=\"wp-image-22400285\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/05\/GettyImages-484794664.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=2048 2048w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/05\/GettyImages-484794664.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1536 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/05\/GettyImages-484794664.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/05\/GettyImages-484794664.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=512 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption>Children in minority communities need more support to improve in reading skills.<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">Getty Images\/iStockphoto<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In April 2020, the Sixth Circuit Court of <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">App<\/a>eals ruled in favor of former students suing Detroit schools for not providing an adequate education. The suit cited poor facilities and inadequate textbooks, but below-basic literacy skills were the primary academic complaint. One of the plaintiffs was a former Detroit public school student who went on to community college and ended up on academic probation, in need of a reading tutor.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>His story is typical enough as to be barely worth mentioning \u2014 except for the fact that he graduated at the top of his public high school class. And as if this isn\u2019t bad enough, the numbers appear likely to get worse, with the impact of COVID-19 disruptions.<\/p>\n<p>The tragedy for black children and their families, as well as a nation trying to reckon with racial disparities rooted in its own history, can\u2019t be overstated. If you want to make sense of racial gaps in high school achievement, college attendance, graduation, adult income, and even incarceration, you could do worse than look at third-grade reading scores.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Three-quarters of below-proficient readers in third grade remain below proficient in high school. Before third grade, children are learning to read; after that, they are reading to learn, in one well-known formulation. All future academic learning in humanities, social <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/sciencee\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"5\" title=\"Science\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">science<\/a>s, business, and, yes, STEM fields depends on confident, skilled reading.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe kids in the top reading group at age 8 are probably going to college. The kids in the bottom reading group probably aren\u2019t,\u201d as Fredrik deBoer, the iconoclastic author of \u201cThe Cult of Smart,\u201d has put it.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module alignleft\">\n    <\/aside>\n<p>And the absence of a sheepskin is hardly the worst of it. Upward of 80% of adolescents in the juvenile justice system are poor readers, according to the Literacy Project Foundation. Over 70% of inmates in America\u2019s prisons cannot read above a fourth-grade level. It\u2019s been said that authorities use third-grade reading scores to predict how many prison beds will be needed. That meme is probably apocryphal, but the sad fact is that it makes sense.<\/p>\n<p>The irony would bring tears to the eyes of Martin Luther King Jr. Before the Civil War, most Southern states had laws forbidding slaves from reading or writing. Enslaved men and women were known to risk whippings and death in order to learn their letters, sometimes with the aid of a sympathetic white but frequently on the strength of their own determination.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOnce you learn to read, you will be forever free,\u201d the most famous of those readers, Frederick Douglass, promised. What would he, or King, make of an education system that leaves more than half of 21st-century black kids barely literate?<\/p>\n<p>Scour antiracist education sites on the Internet, and you\u2019ll get the distinct impression that no one in the field has grasped the implications of this reality or that educating children in any familiar sense of the term was never the goal, anyway.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Incomprehensible_lessons\"><\/span>Incomprehensible lessons<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module alignright\">\n    <\/aside>\n<p>In fact, a number of antiracist activists and educators have been blunt about their indifference to teaching reading. What else could it mean when the chancellor of the nation\u2019s largest school system scorns \u201cworship of the written word\u201d as an imposition of white supremacy?\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In fairness, most educators are probably simply assuming the proverbial can opener \u2014 namely, competent readers who also have considerable background knowledge, including basic facts about the world and history.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Learning for Justice, for instance, recommends a fourth-grade text about a woman named Helen Tsuchiya. Though Tsuchiya was born in the US, the site tells us, she was moved \u201cto an internment camp surrounded by barbed wire after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.\u201d What are the chances that the fourth-grader reading at a basic level \u2014 never mind the majority of black children who are reading below basic \u2014 will be able to decipher words like internment, barbed wire, and Pearl Harbor, much less grasp their significance enough to facilitate comprehension?\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Progressive educators are not only failing to factor in the sad truth about students\u2019 reading ability but also overlooking the fact that American students do even worse in geography and history than in reading.<\/p>\n<p>Another lesson plan for elementary and middle school students, this one recommended in the Pulitzer Center\u2019s 1619 portal, reveals a similar chasm between politicized pedagogical fantasy and student reality.\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"682\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/05\/murray-elites-271.jpg?w=682\" alt=\"&quot;The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story&quot; by Nikole Hannah-Jones.\" class=\"wp-image-22400196\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/05\/murray-elites-271.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1023 1023w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/05\/murray-elites-271.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=682 682w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/05\/murray-elites-271.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=341 341w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/05\/murray-elites-271.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 682px) 100vw, 682px\"\/><figcaption>\u201cThe 1619 Project: A New Origin Story\u201d by Nikole Hannah-Jones.<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cIn this unit, students learn to identify underreported stories of migration, and what is missing from mainstream media representations of migrants\u2019 experiences,\u201d the plan reads. \u201cThey analyze nonfiction texts and images, practice identifying perspectives in media, and synthesize their learning to form a new understanding of migration. In their final project, students communicate how their perspective on migration has grown or changed through a creative project, original <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">news<\/a> story, or existing news story edited to provide a more holistic picture of migration.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Social-justice_failure\"><\/span>Social-justice failure<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>The lesson\u2019s unspoken purpose is to impress students with the putatively anti-immigrant slant of American news. But an elementary schooler probably doesn\u2019t know what the \u201cmainstream media\u201d is and is even less likely to have read any of it. Basic readers will have difficulty deciphering words like migrant or immigration. (Unless they have family there, they also won\u2019t know the location of Syria or Sweden, two of the immigrant countries mentioned in the lesson plan \u2014 there\u2019s that geography problem again.)\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module alignright\">\n    <\/aside>\n<p>The same obstacles are bound to <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/trip-and-travel\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"10\" title=\"Trip &amp; Travel\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">trip<\/a> up the typical middle schooler; remember, 68% of eighth-graders can\u2019t read proficiently. This is not education but indoctrination: Teachers are being told to foist an opinion worthy of debate on ill-informed children, while denying them the capacity to evaluate it critically.<\/p>\n<p>Social-justice educators would doubtless object that the catastrophic literacy rates of black students are solid proof of the structural racism and teacher bias that they\u2019re intent on fighting. They would rightly observe that reading scores correlate with parental income and education; black children tend to come from less affluent and less educated homes, a fact at least partially tied to historical racism.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But evidence that racial disadvantage should not be an obstacle to literacy is there for anyone who bothers to look. Nearly 60% of black children in New York City charter schools read proficiently; that\u2019s true for only 35% of those in district schools. (And 80% of the kids in New York City charters are economically disadvantaged.)\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Unless someone can prove that district teachers are more racist than those at charters \u2014 an unlikely theory \u2014 it would seem that charters simply do a better job of teaching kids to read.\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/05\/GettyImages-1194312424-e1653444301612.jpg?w=1024\" alt=\"Teaching in classroom\" class=\"wp-image-22400349\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/05\/GettyImages-1194312424-e1653444301612.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1536 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/05\/GettyImages-1194312424-e1653444301612.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/05\/GettyImages-1194312424-e1653444301612.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=512 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption>Three-quarters of below-proficient readers in third grade remain below proficient in high school.<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The differences between states also point to a pedagogical, rather than white-supremacist, explanation for racial discrepancies. People might reasonably predict that poor Southern states would have lower overall reading scores than more affluent states in the Northeast, and they\u2019d be right. But the Urban Institute has developed a nifty interactive chart that lets us compare states adjusting for race and poverty (or other variables). The counterintuitive results show that Mississippi, the poorest state in the nation and one with a dreadful racial history and an equally dreadful education record, is turning things around. The state is now more successful at teaching disadvantaged black children to read than top-ranked and affluent Massachusetts and New Jersey.<\/p>\n<p>These successes are no mystery, but they do require a quick history of the nation\u2019s long-simmering \u201creading wars.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Forgotten_phonics\"><\/span>Forgotten phonics<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>For at least a generation now, American educators\u2019 preferred approach to reading has been known as \u201cwhole language.\u201d Whole language encourages teachers to do \u201cshared\u201d and \u201cinteractive\u201d reading with children, to sight-read words that they\u2019ve seen before, and to guess, with the help of illustrations and intuition, when they encounter an unfamiliar word. The guiding assumption is that reading is a natural process and teachers should just guide kids toward literacy. Children don\u2019t need direct instruction to read any more than they need instruction to learn to talk.<\/p>\n<p>But over recent decades, linguists, cognitive psychologists, and data-driven educators have reached a consensus that this is not what makes Johnny read. The beginning reader needs, first of all, to \u201cdecode.\u201d To accomplish that, teachers must systematically impart \u201cphonemic awareness.\u201d The shorthand for this approach is \u201cphonics\u201d \u2014 that is, the relation between the letters on the page and the sounds of speech. Children learn to blend those sounds, or phonemes, together into syllables, which they then combine into words. With practice, the process becomes fluent, even automatic, freeing up the bandwidth for a fuller comprehension of the meaning of the words.\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/05\/antiracism-kids-371.jpg?w=1024\" alt=\"Books\" class=\"wp-image-22400326\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/05\/antiracism-kids-371.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/05\/antiracism-kids-371.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/05\/antiracism-kids-371.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=512 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption>In 2020, former students sued Detroit schools for not providing an adequate education. <\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">Christopher Sadowski<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>One example from journalist Emily Hanford, who has done some of the best work on reading science, succinctly captures the problem when children are not taught to decode. Hanford interviewed a group of adolescents reading at a third-grade level in a phonics-oriented class in a Houston juvenile detention center. She asked 17-year-old DeShawn what he is learning in his class. \u201cLike \u2018ph.\u2019 It\u2019s a \u2018f,\u2019 like physics,\u201d DeShawn explained. \u201cI never knew that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Though whole language has been failing many millions of schoolchildren like DeShawn (and some unknown number of middle-class kids whose parents can afford to spend money on private tutors to teach the decoding skills that their children should have learned in school), educators have been loath to give up their dreams. So they introduced a (supposedly) new approach with the benign-sounding name \u201cbalanced literacy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0In theory, balanced literacy blends the two methods of whole language and phonics; in practice, phonics gets short shrift. Few ed schools or teaching programs show student teachers how to teach phonics in the defined, logical progression necessary for students to catch on to the complexities of the English language. Basement-level reading scores haven\u2019t budged.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"681\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/05\/38037454.jpg?w=1024\" alt=\"Department of Education Chancellor David C. Banks \" class=\"wp-image-22400170\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/05\/38037454.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=2048 2048w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/05\/38037454.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/05\/38037454.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/05\/38037454.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=512 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption>NYC Schools Chancellor David C. Banks speaks at a press conference outside Bayside High School.<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">Anthony Behar\/Sipa USA<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Still, signs of change are evident. In 2013, legislators in Mississippi provided funding to start training the state\u2019s teachers in the science of reading; I\u2019ve already noted their encouraging results. Other states, including Florida, Colorado, and Tennessee, are gesturing toward taking reading science more seriously.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>And David Banks, New York City\u2019s new schools chancellor, canceled his predecessor\u2019s dismissal of the \u201cwhite worship of the written word.\u201d Teachers have been \u201cteaching wrong\u201d for 25 years, Banks said. \u201c\u2009\u2018Balanced literacy\u2019 has not worked for black and brown children. We\u2019re going to go back to a phonetic approach to teaching.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Intelligent teaching methods are not a panacea for racial and income disparities; no matter how well black children are taught to read, white children are still more likely to grow up with educated parents, which means that they will be hearing more vocabulary words, more complex language, and more useful information about the wider world.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>This problem can be solved over time but only if more disadvantaged kids are given the chance to pass on the benefits of their own literacy to their children.<\/p>\n<p>The reading emergency should be the primary focus for educators, especially those in a position to help black children. Yet a growing number of school districts are interviewing prospective teachers, even those for elementary school, fixated on one question: \u201cWhat have you done personally or professionally to be more antiracist?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The best answer to that question would be: \u201cTeach black children how to read.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Reprinted with permission from City Journal.<\/em>\n                        <\/div>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more News articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/news\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2022\/05\/24\/before-they-can-learn-antiracism-kids-need-to-be-literate-too-many-arent\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Before they can learn \u2018antiracism,\u2019 kids need to be literate \u2014 &#038; too many aren\u2019t&#8221; There\u2019s an old joke about a chemist, a physicist and an economist stranded on a desert island with only a sealed can of food. The chemist and physicist each propose their own ideas about how to open the can. The&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":452386,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/05\/newspress-collage-22399565-1653444571056.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&1653430217&w=1024","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[129578,14580,108748,127065,70643,10574],"class_list":["post-452385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-5-24-22","tag-children","tag-critical-race-theory","tag-david-banks","tag-department-of-education","tag-education"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=452385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/452386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}