Reading Lessons: The Debate over Literacy

Examines how both the phonics and whole language reading instruction methods not only fail to teach children to read and write, but also harm their thinking and behavior patterns

Specialized but well-argued appeal to reframe the debate over poor reading achievement in schools by looking outside the classroom. Coles (Psychiatry/Univ. of Rochester; The Learning Mystique, 1988) challenges the educational establishment as well as scientists and politicians on the causes of poor reading skills in both children and adults. It misses the point, he notes, to reduce the matter to the question of phonics vs. whole-word instruction, although governments and study commissions are legislating the issue, largely on the side of phonics (that is, decoding words by sounding them out). Coles traces this pedagogical quarrel from the theory of ``natural'' learning, first advanced in the 18th century, through the open education experiments of the 1960s and the recent emphasis on thinking and analytic skills as a goal of reading instruction. The educators' disagreements have been further muddled by psychological theories that supported segregating children into groups based on test performances. Accelerating information about the brain and its functions also came into play, with alleged proof that slow readers were somehow neurologically impaired. Coles questions why a learner's emotional state, self-perception, and life situation should take a backseat to such concepts. Both educators and politicians should stop tinkering with the technicalities of classroom instruction and begin to deal with the real causes of illiteracy, including a lack of substantive commitment to education, he urges. ``Money matters,'' says Coles, both in funding smaller classes and better trained teachers and in providing children from poor families with minimum health care, good nutrition, a safe home base, and a stable family. With few real-life examples to leaven the dense technical arguments for a general reader, this book is most likely to convert those already in the church; still, a strong case on behalf of an educational commitment to the whole child. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Exactly how do people learn to read? Is stressing phonics the best way? What part do emotions play? Where does the skills approach fall in the great debate about literacy? Coles (psychiatry, Univ. of Rochester; The Learning Mystique: A Critical Look at Learning Disabilities, Pantheon, 1987) takes us through the various arguments, providing information on each theory's history and research. But as stated in his introduction, he believes the benefits of teaching phonics are overrated, and he presents his own argument for the role of an individual's "personal interactions and social influences both before and during formal schooling" in shaping mental processes that contribute to literacy. In the end, he advocates looking beyond the classroom to understand how children's personal lives affect their mental processes. Not everyone will agree with Coles's theories, and the great debate over literacy will continue, with Coles's beliefs only adding to the confusion. But his ideas open up possibilities that could change how teachers teach and perhaps boost the literacy rate for future generations. Recommended for both public and academic libraries.?Terry A. Christner, Hutchinson P.L., KS
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