Teacher sneaks in phonics in Charlton Mass c:\doc\web\98\03\charlton.txt From: GroupSnoop@aol.com Date sent: Wed, 4 Feb 1998 12:48:20 EST To: kclp@ix.netcom.com (kclp Mailing List) Subject: kclp: King County libertarians: (Fwd) W. Raspberry on Carnine Send reply to: kclp@ix.netcom.com My cousin Marcia is a conservative who teaches second grade in Charlton, Massachusetts. Because her political beliefs are well known, she said nothing to anyone when she began to disobey direct District orders several years during reading period. Dismayed at the drop in performance of her students in reading and, indeed all subjects, she resumed teaching phonics alongside the mandated lesson plans using the "whole language" approach. Imported from California, WL had been adopted during the 1980's and the results were in and everyone knew what was going on Marcia and several of her colleagues complained up the chain of command to no avail. Of course, parents were patronizingly ignore as well. After a couple of years of proving the value of using the older system at the same time as she was doing what her employer required, my cousin told other teachers who were close friends what she had been up to. Quietly they began to do what they knew they could do as professionals, teach successfully. Finally (two more years - the gestation period does not need to be long in education), the district bureacracy noticed that several teachers seemed to be succeeding with whole language much better than their peers. After recovery from their shock and confirming that indeed a revolution in the ranks really had made a detectable difference, they decided to study the possibility of working phonics back into the curriculum. The best part is that this decision barely preceeded the California education establishment apologizing for the failed experiment of relying solely on a new method of instruction. Marcia was warned, however, to get approval before she succeeds again on her own. The bottom line, for me, is what I experienced moving around the country as a kid. Good teachers (as in they really care about what they are doing and believe that the results of their work can be measured), relying upon experience (theirs and others) and, yes, training fit the instruction to the student. After all, isn't that what lower class room sizes are all about? Brian