6 Things you Need to Know about the Reading Wars

1. The irregularities in our orthography or spelling system sparked a war over the future of the English language, that has been raging for centuries since the 1500s.

2. We preach phonics, phonics, phonics, but we attack the symptoms of a bad phonic code, we call it Dyslexia.

3. The calls for the 1906 Spelling reform was the ignition point for our current reading wars between Phonics and Whole language. Which would in time, give birth to the clinical model and perspective of dyslexia, which ignores the irregularities in our spelling system and how the irregularities in the spelling code affect different readers.

4. Our narrow focus has created a bias in the way we think about struggling readers and Dyslexia.

5. Today the reading wars battles over Best practices to teach Reading and sees Dyslexia as an issue solely with the phonological regions of the brain.

6. It’s a major boost to the confidence of dyslexics to know that much of what we call Dyslexia, which means difficulty with words is rooted in the irregularities in the spelling code.  

The Voices of Reason and Revolution

Here we have, The great American genius and statesman Benjamin Franklin – Father of American Scholarship and Education Noah Webster the creator of the Webster Dictionary, The great American author Mark Twain and Scottish-American industrialist, philanthropist and patron saint of libraries, Andrew Carnegie.

What do the Great American genius and statesman Benjamin Franklin, and the wordsmith Father of American Scholarship and Education Noah Webster, Creator of the Webster Dictionary, have in common with the great, Outspoken American author Mark Twain and the Scottish-American industrialist, philanthropist and PatronSaint of Libraries, Andrew Carnegie? Let’s find out in the reading wars.

The Reading Wars: The Voices of Reform and Revolution

Below is a Transcription of this Article

The Target of this War is a confusing orthography. Orthography is the Spelling code. They say to know where you’re going, you should know where you have been; this might just tell you where we are right now.

The whole dyslexia thing has a backstory that is centuries old. A story very few people are aware of or take into consideration when speaking about reading problems. It is a story that affects all English-speaking readers, particularly readers who show difficulty with orthography reading spelling code. This Backstory is about Pure Phonics, the current phonetic code, code confusion, and the destiny of English-speaking readers.

The Irregularities in our Orthography or spelling system is an issue that many great minds before our time have taken seriously. The state of the English orthography (spelling system) concerned many of the founding fathers and leaders of the modern English Speaking world. So, let’s hear what they have to say…

Below is an excerpt from the controversial Simplified Spelling Board, an American organisation created in 1906 to reform the inconsistencies in the English spelling code. The Plan of the board was to Make the Spelling Code More Phonetic and Easier to Learn and Use. (Original spelling kept.)

“English spelling was at first practically fonetic, like the spelling of Latin, Spanish, Italian, Polish, and most other European Languages, and changed as pronunciation changed. In its case, however, various causes com- bined to interfere with this orderly process. Among them wer the variations in the early dialects, the Dif– ferent spelling Sistems of the Norman conquerors, the later different spelling Sistem of the imported Dutch printers, the bungling attempts during the Renaissance to make our spelling “Etimological,” and the continual ingrafting of words from other living tungs in their foren spellings spellings that they retaind with slight modifications after their pronunciation had greatly changed in English speech.

English writers before the invention of printing, and for some time afterward, largely followd their own notions in regard to spelling, but the general aim was to indicate the pronunciation of the spoken word; and it is possible for scolars to determin with a fair degree of accuracy how English was pronounst at different periods in those days.”

Before we continue, I’m not promoting spelling reform, but what I am promoting is that we take a closer look at our spelling system to better relate to our kids who are confused by the inconsistencies in the Spelling code.

It’s hard for most people to see the world through the eyes of a struggling reader. Why?

Because the majority of us learnt to read a long time ago, the majority of us no longer register the inconsistency. If you’re a good reader, the reading process is automatic: your brain is already conditioned to see a word and respond subconsciously without thinking. This makes even an advanced reader blissfully blind to the difficulties and inconsistencies in our phonic code. Now, let us travel back in time.

The Voices of Reason and Revolution

We preach phonics, phonics, phonics, But we attack the symptoms of a bad phonic code. We basically attack the symptoms of this inconsistent code which manifests itself in readers, particularly kids, New Learners and people who rely on the Phonetic method to read and spell, rather than memory. An Irregular spelling code makes Reading a Memory exercise rather than a phonetic decoding/spellingexercise.

For centuries, there have been movements to reform the spellings of English words. To make written English more phonetically consistent in pronunciation and spelling. If successful, the result would have been a Pure phonetics system or spelling code, where speech is accurately represented in written language.

In yesteryear, the view of many leading intellectuals and thinkers was that there was a problem in the English phonetic code, a problem that had come about through the evolution of the English language and which gave many readers difficulty. Today, we call this difficulty dyslexia which means literally a difficulty with words.

Today, intellectuals overlook and ignore this irregular phonic code and instead search for the problem in the heads of our kids, labelling students with clinical terms such as conditions and disorders. This is because of a lack of information and their own cognitive/thinking bias. There have been many people who have tried to fix or change the spelling system and we will look at the most famous examples to keep it short.

A Brief History of Famous Academics who Tried to Fix the Phonic Code

1550, Teacher and phonetician William Bullokar advocated for the use of a clearer system of phonetic spelling. William Bullokar recognised that the written system had become inconsistent. He saw that the Sounds and Names of the Letters of the Alphabet caused what he described as ‘Quarels in the Teachers and Lothsomeness in the Learners’.

Bullokar died before he could publish his Phonetic dictionary. Over 450 years later, teachers and students are in the same position: teachers quarrelling over best practices and students feeling mind shame or loathsomeness.

1768, Polymath Benjamin Franklin a Politician, Scientist, Inventor, Publisher, Author, Entrepreneur, Visionary and humble Linguist- well, not so humble. Franklin was a multi-linguist: he taught himself French, Spanish, Latin, and Italian. As for English, Benjamin Franklin believed the English spelling code had some Serious Issues. Issues that Franklin devoted years of service to correct.

Franklin recognised that the Written English language was losing its Core Phonic Qualities. He saw that the code had become ‘Troublesome’ and needed to be Scrapped and Done a-new.

Franklin believed that, in the long run, English spellings would become More Irregular, Losing all Correspondence to the Pronunciation and Leading to Difficulties in Spelling and Reading. Franklin’s idea was literally revolutionary; it was to reform the spelling code.

Franklin believed the code was more or less archaic and outdated. Franklin worked throughout a part of his life to rectify the problem and the end result of his grand task was the creation and development of a New Phonetically based Reading and Spelling Code.

In true Franklin style, he created a New regular phonetic code with more letters in 1768 but didn’t publish it until 1789. Ultimately, Franklin’s phonetic code was rejected as it was seen as too radical a change.

In 1806, Noah Webster, the father of the Webster dictionary, who was once against spelling reforms, was convinced and inspired by Benjamin Franklin’s argument and started to work himself on reforming the spelling code. Webster campaigned for his own changes – A system of Logical spellings. Webster’s first proposal was far less revolutionary than Benjamin Franklin’s but was still seen as too extreme a change; as time passed, a toned–down revision list was submitted and accepted, much of which is still in use today. Two of Webster’s changes were taking the ‘U’ out of colour and removing the ‘K’ from music which was spelt musick.

A hundred years later, in 1906, the Simplified Spelling Board was created in America, which initially consisted of 30 very high–profile members, such as authors, professors, dictionary editors, and even a high court judge. Among them, the best known to us today, was the famous Mark Twain, writer, publisher, and lecturer.

The Simplified Spelling Movement had one aim: to push forward reform of the Spelling Code to eventually return English to its former phonetic state. In short, to introduce a simplified spelling system. A PurePhonic Spelling System would call for the removal of the irregular elements that had entered the English spelling system.

Proponents of the 1906 movement for spelling reform believed it was acting in the interest of English speaking readers, particularly new and struggling readers that were confused by the spelling system, a confusion that was not seen in other European reading systems due to their pure phonic codes.

Below is an extract from the 1906 Simplified Spelling report, outlining the difficulties faced by school children who experience problems in reading and spelling. (Original spellings have been kept to emphasize the differences in spelling and phonological correctness)

“The child finds that some words speld alike ar pro-nounst differently, and that other words pronouns alike hav different spellings, that the same letter may hav different values in a single word, and that in a single word the same sound may be represented by different Letters. One thing he quickly learns is that there is No way in which he may surely determin when, or why, a Letter that has one Value at one time has another at another time; No Certain way to tel How to Pronounce a Word he has Never Heard, or How to Spel a word he has Never Seen”.

The movement also believed that the educational system as it stood (and still stands) placed too much emphasis on correct spelling, in a spelling system that is in itself imperfect.

“Because of the absurdities and intricacies of our pres- ent spelling hav made a mastery of them the most dif- ficult and long-continued task of the average student, a false value has been placed on spelling ability”

The movement believed that intelligent students who were not gifted with good eye memory were slowed down from fully developing their skills and talents because too much time was placed on learning to read and write, instead of learning and mastering other fields of knowledge. It was recognised that how well or quickly students learned to interface with this code determined to a large extent the success and prosperity of both the kids in school and the country.

The observation that good eye memory was the distinguishing factor between good readers and slow readers would be proved scientifically almost 100 years later in 2003  by Sally Shaywitz and her team of researchers, with the discovery of what makes good readers, good readers. This Is discussed in more detail in the book “Dyslexia Reading Success”

The movement also had the support of the 26th President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, who, without consulting the board, forced an executive order to have the newly proposed spellings used in all government documentation. Congress fought back against these spelling changes by overturning the order.

21^st century Reading wars

The calls for the 1906 spelling reform were the ignition point for the reading wars, which brought into creation two new schools of thought, Phonics and Whole language, which would, in time, give birth to the mainstream idea of dyslexia. The idea of dyslexia would replace any ideas that there was a structural problem with our orthography or spelling code that would give some readers difficulty. The evidence supporting code confusion was ignored and, at best, downplayed by the two new schools of thought.

The war between these two schools of thought would in time lead to a more detailed understanding of different learning styles and characteristics associated with reading, which are explored in “Dyslexia Reading Success” 

“Johnny’s Hero’s Journey” is an inspirational book for young dyslexic readers, teaching the brain principles that aid in the development of literacy skills. This anime-inspired story fosters the development of literacy skills and habits for readers aged 6 to 16+.

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“Dyslexia Awareness: The Secret Phonic Lottery” is a creative masterpiece in dyslexia and neurodiversity research, not just a book but a catalyst for students, aiding dyslexic readers, educators, parents, and advocates alike.

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