Greatest classroom catastrophe in 50 years

The Daily Telegraph reports on the collapse of the most accepted and widely used reading methodology in England and the United States:

The abandonment by teachers of the traditional method of teaching reading, known as phonics, precipitated the greatest educational catastrophe of the past 50 years.

Their steadfast refusal to re-introduce the method, in the face of overwhelming evidence of sharply falling reading standards, represents the greatest educational betrayal of the past 20 years, reducing the life chances of an estimated four million children.

Yesterday's carefully worded but withering report by Jim Rose (176K PDF), a former chief inspector, accepted instantly and in its entirety by Ruth Kelly, the Education Secretary, should finally draw a line under this shocking example of the profession's capacity for collective pig-headedness and self-delusion.

Jim Zellmer previously posted a BBC story on the report by Rose.

Posted by Ed Blume at January 3, 2006 11:10 PM
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