I'm hooked on phonics. . .

As anyone and everyone knows, Mississippi has long been at the bottom of every list of good things -- from jobs to income to education.  It has become so routine that nobody pays much attention to it.  Except Mississippi.  They have been paying attention.  But unlike others who throw money at the problem, Mississippi seems to have dug into the box of forgotten educational tool.  Not that long ago Mississippi was #49 out of 50 in 4th grade reading scores.  After rather quietly turning to phonics, that bottom of the lister moved up into the top ten.  Guess what?  Mississippi is now first in the nation for academic growth in grade 4 reading and math since 2011; first in the nation in reading and second in math among economically disadvantaged 4th graders; first in the nation in reading and second in math for Hispanic 4th graders; and third in the nation in reading and math among African American 4th graders.  They must be doing something right, huh.

As I have complained for a long time, we mandate nearly everything of our schools except teaching the core of reading, writing, and arithmetic.  So many of those social problems could be helped by returning our attention as a nation to those core subjects.  It really does matter to everything when kids learn to read, learn to write (which requires them to think and organize their thoughts and use grammar tools) and do math.  We can turn our schools into psychological laboratories to deal with everything from drugs to gender dysphoria but the best thing we can do is simply to teach them the core areas of reading, writing, and arithmetic.  

Phonics is not new.  In fact it is so old fashioned that they have come up with a new name for it so that people might forget it is an old idea.  A comprehensive scientific study has shown that this traditional way of teaching reading [phonics] actually works, while the newer approaches using “whole language” to memorize the shape of words does not work as well.  Children also learn that grammar and spelling matters and are graded on these as well and this reinforces their reading skills.  How ironic that we spend literally billions to invent new techniques but are so quick to reject the old patterns of learning that have served us well in the past!  After the switch to phonics, their kids actually could read a lot better than before.

In the states politically and culturally to the left of center, ideology seems to be the stickler.  Rather than admit what the poorer performing states have done to succeed, they seem wedded to any new idea and adverse to any old idea.  In the end, the leftward leaning states spend half or more per student as the average and more than that over what were once the lowest performing states but the money is not the solution.  In fact, it may be the problem.  Money has been used to foster the idea that technology will lead us out of this hole or that newer is better when it comes to curriculums and teaching methodologies and we have burdened teachers with the technology and new reading and math programs.  Instead, the success may well have been right there with us all the time -- resurrecting some of the methods used by teachers of our grandparents and parents.

It always amazes me that my parents actually learned Latin and had read long and profound novels and took the same classes whether they were bound for the farm or the university.  They wrote in cursive with fountain pens and they kept on learning, reading, and writing until they died.  We need to give our children the same opportunity to learn to read, write, and do arithmetic so that they begin and continue a lifelong learning pattern.  While this is always true for vocation and financial success, it is no less true for the Christian.  Education was championed by Luther not simply for its benefits in the Kingdom of the Left but for its fruits in the Kingdom of the Right.  In Church as well as State, a population that reads, comprehends, thinks, writes, and applies what is learned will enable the faith to flourish as well as good citizenship.  It is about time we learned this truth again.