Johnny Got His Gun 'Cuz He Couldn't Read in Either Language, So He Joined the Army

Thoughts on Rudolf Flesch’s, Why Johnny Can’t Read – and What You Can Do About It and Janie Hydrick’s, Parent’s Guide to Literacy for the 21st Century.

Why is it that I feel comfortable with Flesch’s idea that “people have learned to read by simply memorizing the sound of each letter in their alphabet” (Flesch, ix)? Yet, if we extrapolate the message in Hydrick, it would appear that in learning grammar the method of using workbooks in the classroom versus engaging the children “in a wide variety of language events throughout the day” (Hydrick, 31) would garner important differences in the results. The workbook approach to correct usage “may be limited in the children’s minds to scoring well on the exercises” (32), whereas the “language event” approach would appeal to the “users’ need for communicating effectively, and that objective may result in children’s greater personal motivation for correctness in usage” (32). I’m not sure Hydrick is not postulating against the use of alphabet sound instruction in the teaching of language to children. Is this due to the span of years that has elapsed between both educators’ theses, 1955 for Flesch, and 1998 for Hydrick?

And then, Hydrick approaches bilingual education posing another conundrum. In the U.S., bilingual education is primarily relegates the second language to “the use of signs, oral directions, occasional conversation, or direct instruction confined to a set time of the day” (36). These children are “often enrolled in ESL” (36). Conversely, in Peru, “both languages (Spanish and English) were developed equally in the language arts…and valued equally” (36). A practical as well as a moral lesson may be taken away from this revelation. Why has this conundrum not been answered and accepted, attracting more converts, although Hydrick does state, “the allure (italics mine) of bilingual education becomes stronger” (36). Are we dealing with some sort of siren? Perhaps we are, but it’s not a lure or temptation, it’s a warning blast.

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