Flesch, Rudolph

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"Johnny couldn't read for the simple reason that nobody ever showed him how" ( http://en.thinkexist.com/quotes/rudolf_flesch/).


Rudolf Flesch was a proponent of the phonics approach to reading. His controversial bestseller Why Johnny Can't Read (1955) critiques the American education system. It was followed by Teaching Johnny to Read (1956) and Why Johnny Still Can't Read (1981). In 1955 Rudolf Flesch attracted national attention with the publication of Why Johnny Can't Read, which suggested that virtually all reading problems in the United States were the result of a conspiracy on the part of educators and publishers to withhold phonics instruction from students. Widespread debate again took place in educational circles after the publication of Learning to Read: The Great Debate (Chall, 1967), a scholarly attempt, by a very respected educator, to review all published research on the effects of various approaches to teaching beginning reading. A much more recent research review (Adams, 1990) created a similar tumult. Clearly, the debate has not ended (Stahl, 1992).

Source: The Role of Phonics. Retrieved 2 December 2005 from: http://www.eduplace.com/rdg/res/teach/phcs.html

Image:flesch.jpg

[edit] Why Johnny Can't Read

(Retrieved Oct. 27, 2005, from Why Johnny Can't Read:And What You Can Do About It by Rudolf Flesch) This book contains complete material and instructions for teaching children to read at home, including 74 pages of phonetic lists, 9 charts of block and script letters.

The book was important because it identified the cause of the reading problem: the look-say method. Other writings in popular and education magazines had told about the reading problem, but none of them had identified and pin-pointed its cause. Rudolf Flesch had done it in no uncertain terms, and he named the professors by name.

Flesch wrote a second, equally powerful book on the subject, Why Johnny Still Can't Read, in 1980. Again this was a bestseller. Again the educational establishment was able to ignore him. Flesch died thinking that Whole Word had won. Indeed, the tide did not turn until 1995 when California's reading scores had dropped so low there was a scandal, and Whole Word was kicked out. Remarkably, Flesch's two books remain relevant and striking, because some educators insist on denigrating phonics.

[edit] References and other links of interest

Links

Readings

  • Adams, M. J. (1990). Beginning to read: Thinking and learning about print. Cambridge MA: MIT Press.
  • Chall, Jeanne S. (1967).Learning to read: The great debate. New York: McGraw-Hill.
  • Stahl, S.A. (1992). Saying the “P�? word: Nine exemplary guidelines for exemplary phonics instruction. The Reading Teacher, 45. 618-625.
  • Stahl, S.A. Duffy-Hester A.M. & Stahl, K.A.D. (1998) Everything you wanted to know about phonics (but were afraid to ask). Reading Research Quarterly, 33, 338-335.
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