Talk:Phonics versus whole language

I'd always been curious for the reasoning behind "whole language". I was a product of phonics (pretty rare for how late I was taught). Researcher 10:12, 27 October 2008 (EDT)
 * The eighth word I ever read was 'aeroplane' (Janet and John, book 1, page 3 - "Look John, see the aeroplane"). That was back in 1958 or so when whole language was the rage in the UK. Now, try doing that with phonics. Both systems have their strengths and weaknesses. Silver Sloth 10:22, 27 October 2008 (EDT)
 * I was a product of phonics (and New Math). Must explain why I am Really Screwed Up :" I see Conservapedia has a bunch of articles on the conspiracy to keep phonics out of our precious schools (or is that our precious bodily fluids...?) Secret Squirrel 10:24, 27 October 2008 (EDT)
 * The main problem with 'Janet And John' - the UK equivalent of Dick and Jane - was the values it described. Mother was a housewife, father came home from the office, everyone was white, well scrubbed and suburban. By contrast my son, who learnt to read in the early nineties, read books that had practically no such content (The Hungry Caterpillar for example). I guess this was an infusion of Liberal political correctness! Silver Sloth 10:33, 27 October 2008 (EDT)
 * Dick and Jane were similar - I think they did a wholesale revision in 1965 to remove the cultural insensitivities. In any case I'm not sure where the Schlaflys get this association of phonics = conservative, whole language = liberal from.  They both seem to be equally adaptable to either, and have both changed over the years to reflect changing values. Secret Squirrel 10:45, 27 October 2008 (EDT)
 * In my experience of grade school in the late 1950s and work as a remedial teacher through 1970-1990 some kids pick up reading easily being read to and watching the book and others do not. I have never had a student fail to learn using the phonics type method though and it does teach syllables which is useful later. I suppose whatever works as long as the student can actually read at grade level as a minimum. Hamster 17:22, 16 May 2009 (UTC)

From someone who is dyslexic, I can see the benefit in teaching both. English sucks so badly when it comes to consistancy in spelling, but is the alternative really to let people just write what ever "sounds" right? If done right, whole language gets kids writing sooner, cause they don't have to worry about the fact that cat is spelled with a C, not a K. Me? i think it's time to remove the redundancy in our language. K for the hard k sound, Kot, Kat, Koke. S for the s sound. sell (the thing you do with products) and sell (the biological unit that is a bacterium). make "ay" the sound in "say", pay, obey, fiancee or resume (the job hunting thing), and "a" the sound in Pa and Ma, saw, jaw, ah; "ee" for see but also me and Li. sighs... i hate english, really I do.-- 17:57, 16 May 2009 (UTC)
 * You obviously hate the French. I don't know whether I was taught phonics or whole langwich or bags and bags of tomatoes, or new math, old math, or communist math.  But both took reasonably well.  I guess I was lucky.  Anyway, as far as I know, reasonably modern professional teachers work with their students to help them learn the best they can according to their individual communist needs and abilities.  04:40, 27 October 2010 (UTC)

An easy answer to this problem
Just fucking standardize the spelling of language. I mean, i know *why* we have all these spellings, but it doesn't make it easy (especially for us dyslexic types) to understand why so, sew, and sow all are pronounced the same, but sow (a field) and sow (a pig) are different.) Just standardize it!!!!!  Godot   Around, around, around, around, over, and under and through 21:01, 2 December 2011 (UTC)
 * Sew is pronounced with an 'o'? o_O 141.134.75.236 (talk) 22:08, 14 February 2015 (UTC)

UK
In the UK, it's the left that has pushed phonics and 'conservatives' who are opposed! Bevo74 (talk) 22:02, 14 February 2015 (UTC)

The problem with phonics
Regional usages - 'us and book' against 'uz and buuk'. 82.44.143.26 (talk) 17:52, 25 July 2017 (UTC)