Do Kids Fail To Thrive As Readers Because Teachers Ignore What Works?

 

Do you want the good news first – or the bad news? One is linked to the other when it comes to America’s children and their ability to read well. 

Ok, I can’t resist. First, the bad news. America is raising poor readers. 66% of students who took the 2022 National Assessment of Educational Progress fourth-grade reading exam failed to achieve proficiency. Think about that. With all of the money poured into our education system, and with all of the awareness and supportive non-profits out there that help children to read and learn, America has failed an entire generation. 

America has lots of tutors, teachers, libraries, and supportive tools online. Why is today’s kid not reading better than a generation ago?  

The Internet had forced everyone to be a reader. We go online for emails, social media, research, to get our news, read books, and interact with words constantly. How are our kids not grasping the reading function?  

Well, apparently, the education industry outsmarted itself. In the pursuit of overhauling the way kids learn to read, the “experts” overplayed their hand and took what worked and broke it for no reason other than to try to remain relevant and to capitalize on ushering in a new system. It failed miserably. 

Last year, a third of our states enacted laws to implement policies that encourage schools to actually adopt the science of reading. Well, what is that? Use techniques like phonics, attaching speech sounds to letters. How novel! This is how I learned back at P.S. 199 in Brooklyn during the 1970s.  

America is getting dumber. This can’t be tolerated. High school graduates often struggle to pen a proper letter, free of grammatical errors. When they become adults, they will choose many activities over reading books.  

We need to teach the skill of reading early, often, and correctly. Follow the damn science. Stop trying to reinvent the wheel. Then, once children can employ the basic skill of reading, teach them to love reading and to be book-centric as opposed to book-avoidant.  

Of course, this problem is complex and many factors are involved, including the role of parents, grand-parents, babysitters, etc. It takes a village. But it is so clear the main foundational principle behind reading is phonics and all children simply need to be taught the basics by their teachers. Nothing else matters. Kids not only need to read proficiently but they should enjoy the act of reading enough to become book lovers.

 

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About Brian Feinblum

Brian Feinblum should be followed on www.linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog ©2024. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog, and El Chapo, a pug rescue dog. His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent.  This award-winning blog has generated over 3.9 million pageviews. With 5,000+ posts over the past dozen years, it was named one of the best book marketing blogs by BookBaby  http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs  and recognized by Feedspot in 2021 and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by www.WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.” For the past three decades, including 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and director of publicity positions at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Todd Duncan, Susan RoAne, John C. Maxwell, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler. He hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America several years ago, and has spoken at ASJA, BookCAMP, Independent Book Publishers Association Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, Morgan James Publishing, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. His letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester) and The Washington Post. His first published book was The Florida Homeowner, Condo, & Co-Op Association Handbook.  It was featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald.