While Life, etc. section columnist John Rosemond frequently offers good parenting advice, he is often incorrect about education.
He recently wrote that many public schools were still using the whole language method for teaching reading. While this may have been a trend at one time, my oldest child, a high school senior, was not educated this way. I distinctly remember observing his first-grade teacher use phonics to teach reading and spelling.
In 2000, the National Reading Panel concluded that there were five necessary components of reading instruction: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension.
The reading program that the Wake County school system uses at the elementary level utilizes these components. One is not any more important than the other. My high school sons no longer require instruction in phonics, but my fourth-grader may. All three need vocabulary and comprehension instruction.
Teaching a child to decode words using phonics at age 4 may be too early. However, it is never too early to read to your child, sing nursery rhymes, play with sounds, talk about books and letter names, and have conversations with your child. All of these activities lead to literacy. For more information, check out www.readingrockets.org/
Blair Gunter Rice
Holly Springs
