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Direct Instruction: Burying the Evidence
Have you heard the results from the largest long-term study ever done on the success of various educational approaches and theories? I refer to Project Follow Through, one of the most important educational studies ever. Have you heard of it? Have the administrators and teachers in your child's school ever heard of it? No, probably not. The results were pretty much buried by the educational establishment since they so strongly contradicted what those in charge "knew" to be true. The results showed that the educational paradigms behind typical modern public education (K-12) are largely incorrect. Of the numerous approaches to education that were explored, the one that did the most for academic achievement and self-esteem were not the weak approaches that continue to be used today. The winner in the study - a total shock to the educational establishment - was Direct Instruction, a technique based on heavy drilling and rapid learning, including phonics for reading. The brilliant minds behind Direct Instruction renounced the lame theories of modern education, which hold that children should not be challenged too much (it's not "developmentally appropriate" to teach young kids how to read, you know) and that they need to be given self-esteem more than basic knowledge. Project Follow Through showed that the kids with the best self-esteem were the ones that had mastered academic content. They knew they were smart because the could actually read and do math. They didn't need "feel good" fluff to make them think they were special - they had actual skills, and were excited about learning.
Direct Instruction per se, with its scripted approach to education, may not be for everybody. But the primary philosophy behind it seems to have nearly universal value: "If children aren't learning, it's because they aren't being taught."
When we were raising our first son, teachers cautioned us not to get him reading too early or to challenge him too much. But then he got a new teacher that dared to buck the philosophies of the NEA and taught him how to read using phonics. That was in first grade. Suddenly his interest in learning exploded: he wanted to read and learn, and he was so excited about his ability to read that he started teaching his younger brother who was only three years old. Behind the closed door of their room, we could hear our six-year-old son drilling the three-year-old using an alphabet chart. "What does this letter say. Right. Now put it together with 'a' and sound it out. Right. Now what does the whole word say? Sound it out - that's right." Soon our three-year-old was reading. Both became excellent students who loved to read and learn. But I don't think it would have happened without the influence of a brave teacher who taught our boy phonics - and helped us as young, naive parents to understand that we should not have trusted in the "developmentally appropriate" nonsense so common in the schools.
Parents, don't rely on the educational system to get your young children reading. Read to them and teach them how to read using the basic rules of phonics, and do this at an early age. It can open up a world of discovery for them.