Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Better than the original, May 1, 2000
``Why Johnny STILL can't read'' is even better than the original work, ``Why johnny can't read''. The first book was mainly a primer on phonic reading, with enough about the phonics debate to justify following his program. The second book is devoted exclusively to the ongoing debate about phonics, and makes for fascinating reading--especially if you get steamed by incompetence, and are fascinated by conflict. Some thirty years after the first book was written, Rudolph Flesch observes that things haven't improved in reading class. Kids still get through school functionally illiterate, and the perpetrators of this crime still claim that we need THEM to solve the problem. Too bad it's out of print! Well worth reading.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Why Illiteracy Is STILL a Problem in 2007, June 13, 2007
In this excellent book Rudolph Flesch systematically destroys all the empty excuses offered by educators trying to hang on to Whole Word, most famously, "Your Child Isn't Ready," "We Do Teach Phonics," "No One Method Is Best," and seven others, ALL STILL USED TODAY.
Throughout his life, Flesch took on our education establishment and, in the short term, lost. Sure, his book Why Johnny Can't Read was a bestseller in 1956; and this second one on the same theme was a big bestseller in 1981. But Flesch was trying to save the country from what he viewed as a plague; and in that he did not succeed. He died depressed, thinking that the promoters of Whole Word had won. Indeed, this [...] actually reached its peak around 1995, almost a decade after Flesch died.
Read either of these books and you will be asking: How could Flesch's clear, concise and devastating analysis, presented in two bestsellers, be vanquished by the flimsy fallacy known as Whole Word??? Ah, that is a great question you ask there. Dare we mention that some publishers made mega-millions selling Dick and Jane nonsense? Or that some educators seem to have built stellar careers on the backs of functional illiterates? Can we speak of conspiracy? Let me just note one of the past century's most peculiar facts: as "progressive" educators worked tirelessly to discredit Flesch, our media and academics stood silently aside.
The saga continues. Today's educators use the phrase "Balanced Literacy," which seems to mean: as much Whole Word as they can get away with.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
fantastic tool for parents faced with our school failure, September 7, 2006
This book IS better than the original. It not only discusses the systemic failure of our teachers and schools to teach reading rationally, but also exposes the devious methods that incompetent teachers and districts use to dupe parents into believing that their children's school failure is the fault of the child. Any parent who hasn't read this book, along with his children, is just a sheep going to the slaughter.
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by Rudolf Flesch
by Romalda Bishop Spalding
