From the Whole Language Catalog
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Anyone who supports modern methods should first be aware of their lineage. Check out this catalog on your own. Those current policy makers teethed on these methods. This is the mother's milk of modern reading instruction. Know its roots. These are just a few examples.  Double click to see them in full size.  There is so much more that Dr. Patrick Groff brings to attention in the Leftist Invasion of Reading Instruction.

Read here the contempt for direct instruction and teaching sounds in isolation, both elements of reading instruction proven to assist in developing proficient readers.  Children are to guess from the context of punctuation how it is to be used, guess from words teachers dole out to them how the structure of our phonetic language works, and parents are to "wait" until they are "ready" to expect any of this to occur...usually when they are some other teacher's responsibility so that no one will be expected to be accountable.  Or parents and society.

Notice also the emphasis on thematic learning where there is a world change shift in education here from sequential instruction which used to be written into the Dothan School Board policy manual where learning developed from simple to complex as one took subjects which built upon what had been learned before. With this progressive WL focus of education teachers take themes like "ecology" and teach math of ecology, write stories about the ecology, read books about the ecology, and study the history of ecology.  Rather than being teacher directed, everything is child centered focusing on "discovery" rather than direct instruction. They are encouraged to "take risks."  (Talk about cognitive dissonance when Christian parents actually expect obedience!)

Recognize here that the emphasis on Vygotsky's role in WL is that schools are cultural laboratories.  They are very well aware that they are taking young minds to mold.  By group learning and peer tutoring they mold the belief that the group is primary.  By emphasizing mediation they instill the belief that there are no absolutes...we can conform to consensus for the good of the group.  Might as well throw right and wrong out the window.  How can anyone make a value judgment on drug use, sexual behavior, etc.  The group should mediate I suppose.

Abraham Maslow came to regret his success in establishing the therapeutic classroom.  In his private practiced he witnessed children who were rudderless after abandoning the fixed beliefs of their parents for their own "values clarification."  William Coulson, a colleague of Maslow and Rogers now travels trying to undo the damage done.  Sadly, the colleges of education refuse to acknowledge its failure and still train their teachers in this "progressive" methodology.

Copyright 1996  These are my own working genealogy files that I share with you.  The errors are my own.  But, perhaps they will give you a starting point.  All original writing is copyrighted.  Webmaster