For decades, there’s been an overwhelming scientific consensus on the best way to teach kids to read. In the early 1950s, Rudolf Flesch offered to tutor a boy who’d been held back in sixth grade because he couldn’t read. Flesch wrote a best-seller called Why Johnny Can’t Read, in which he blasted the American education system for failing to teach phonics. Students were expected to learn to read by memorizing words, using simple books like the Dick-and-Jane readers. And even those who manage to learn to read without that kind of instruction would benefit from it.

Source: Forbes May 19, 2018 20:15 UTC