Teaching Thinking Begins With Teaching Reading

If the education we give our children is to foster critical and creative thinking in them, then “we the people” will have to think critically and creatively about the brand of education that best accomplishes that, especially given the current cultural climate. But if we can’t even agree on the essential building blocks of the most basic proven learning dynamics, we will be forever experimenting, only to find out years later (maybe decades) how far off track we got.  Such was the case with the reading wars (phonics vs. whole language) that went all the way back to the 1950’s.

Confronted with the literacy dilemma raised by Rudolph Flesch’s best-seller “Why Johnny Can’t Read” (1955), most people outside of education knew the answer intuitively while many in education chafed at acknowledging it.  

Nonetheless, even after endless studies and the science of reading categorically supported phonics-based methods as the best way to go, it took the work of Emily Handford to fully expose the “whole language” industry for its unmitigated literacy malpractice.  So shattering was Handford’s documentary (“Sold a Story”) that Columbia University’s Teacher College was forced into “dissolving” its relationship with literacy guru, Lucy Calkins.  As its premiere education professor, Calkins influenced generations of American teachers to teach reading through guessing (look-say) rather than thinking (decoding).  

Finally, after decades of immeasurable damage to millions of struggling young readers, Columbia was forced to shut down Calkin’s interminably flawed literacy program and send her cash-cow publishing empire packing.  Notwithstanding, many schools are still clinging stubbornly to Calkin’s failed methodology.

After witnessing this spectacle, it is clear that if the restoration of education in America is to continue, it will have to come from without as resistance from the education establishment is both legendary and inexplicable.

But if it is for our children, this is a frontier worth forging.  And because this soil is very fertile, we will grow what we sow – so will they.  They will plant their roots deep in it (think critically) as they learn how to read efficiently, and soar high over it (think creatively) as they learn to read effectively. Learning to think starts with learning to read, and the latter will either facilitate or frustrate the former.  The stakes are high and the margin of error is thin.  We must get it right.

Schroeder is the former Wyoming Superintendent of Public Instruction, an ordained minister and founder/president of The ChrisCorps Association (bschroeder081858@gmail.com)