Rudolf Flesch published “Why Johnny Can’t Read” in 1955. It was a big success and remains one of the best-known books in American history.

In that book Flesch explained the illiteracy crisis in the United States. Had the people in charge of education listened, he might have faded into history. Ironically, the fact that our Education Establishment tried to defame and ignore Flesch is precisely why he remains a cultural icon.

The anti-phonics cartel was so entrenched that Flesch felt compelled to publish a second book 25 years later, “Why Johnny STILL Can’t Read” in 1981. This second book has fewer revelations and does not contain a phonics course.

However, “Why Johnny STILL Can’t Read” is actually a better choice for people today who want to learn what Rudolf Flesch is all about, and why we have 50,000,000 functional illiterates. (This great book can be obtained for pennies on Amazon.)

I love this book because Flesch is clear, emphatic, and nails every issue like LeBron James hitting three-pointers from the half-court line. Chapter 2 is called “History of a Gimmick,” that being the perfect word for the many silly fads in education. Chapter 3 is titled “Look-and-Say Exposed.” Chapter 4 is titled “The Great Coverup.”

The next chapter is called “The Ten Alibis,” and Flesch then devotes a chapter to each one of them. This stuff is beautiful because everything Flesch is talking about in 1981 is still going on today. (We are dealing with an education dinosaur the size of Manhattan–it won\’t retreat an inch unless forced to.)

Here are the 10 chapter titles–that is, the alibis (or lies) as spoken by the Education Establishment:

“Everything Is Hunky-Dory”

“We Do Teach Phonics”

“No One Method Is Best”

“English Isn’t Phonetic”

“Word Calling Isn’t Reading”

“Your Child Isn’t Ready”

“Your Child Is Disabled”

“It’s the Parents’ Fault”

“Too Much TV”

“We Now Teach ALL Children”

Flesch died somewhat heartbroken, in 1986. Despite his two bestsellers, the public schools were still in bondage to Whole Word at the time of his death. Sight Words (or Dolch Words) still proliferated like crabgrass in every bad school. However, I remain optimistic that Flesch will have the last laugh.

I’ve written a lot of articles explaining why Whole Word is blatantly absurd. A preposterous and vicious hoax. I think this will become the common view.

Some people learn to read with sight-words in the sense that they use this method as a STEPPING STONE to the correct way. That is, students see through the sight-words and find the phonics. But virtually nobody actually reads WITH slight-words. Memorizing even 1000 graphic symbols with instant recall is beyond all but the handfull of humans with photographic memory. The slower, less verbal students don’t find the phonics; these kids NEVER reach fluent reading and become functional illiterates.

I strongly recommend “Why Johnny STILL Can’t Read” to everyone. It is both passionate and scholarly. I especially recommend that public school teachers and officials order a copy of this book so they’ll understand why the methods they were taught in ed school are kid-killers, and must be eliminated from the schools.

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For a QUICK EXPLANATION of the Reading Wars, see “42: Reading Resources” on Improve-Education.org.

Bruce Deitrick Price is the founder of Improve-Education.org, an education and intellectual site.
One focus is reading; see \”42: Reading Resources.\”
Price is an author, artist and poet. His fifth book is \”THE EDUCATION ENIGMA–What Happened to American Education.\”

Bruce Deitrick Price is the founder of http://www.Improve-Education.org, an education and intellectual site.
One focus is problems in the schools; see \”56: Top 10 Worst Ideas in Education.\”
Price is an author, artist and poet. His fifth book is \”THE EDUCATION ENIGMA.\”

Author Bio: Bruce Deitrick Price is the founder of Improve-Education.org, an education and intellectual site.
One focus is reading; see \”42: Reading Resources.\”
Price is an author, artist and poet. His fifth book is \”THE EDUCATION ENIGMA–What Happened to American Education.\”

Category: Education
Keywords: reading, phonics, whole word, sight-words, illiteracy, Flesch, alphabet, dumbing down, comprehension