The Reading Wars: The Secret History of Dyslexia and Phonics Nobody wants you to Know
What does 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 patron saint of Libraries, Andrew Carnegie? Let’s find out in the reading wars.
The Reading Wars: The Voices of Reform and Revolution
The Target of this War is a confusing orthography. Orthography is the Spelling code. They say to know where you are going, you should know where you have been; this might tell you where you are right now.
The Whole Dyslexia thing has a backstory that is centuries old, a story very few people are aware of or consider 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 have taken exceptionally seriously before our time. 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 organization created in 1906 to reform the inconsistencies in the English spelling code. The board planned to Make the Spelling Code More Phonetic and Easier to Learn and Use. (Original spelling kept.)
“English spelling was practically phonetic, like the spelling of Latin, Spanish, Italian, Polish, and most other European Languages, and changed as pronunciation changed. In its case, however, various causes combined to interfere with this orderly process. Among them were the variations in the early dialects, the different spelling Systems of the Norman conquerors, the later different spelling Systems of the imported Dutch printers, the bungling attempts during the Renaissance to make our spelling “Etymological,” and the continual ingrafting of words from other living things in their foreign spellings that they remained with slight modifications after their pronunciation had significantly changed in English speech.
Before the invention of printing and for some time afterward, English writers largely followed their notions regarding spelling. Still, the general aim was to indicate the pronunciation of the spoken word. Scholars cannot determine how English was pronounced at different periods in those days.”
Before we continue, I am not promoting spelling reform, but 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 is hard for most people to see the world through the eyes of a struggling reader. Why?
Because, most of us learned to read a long time ago and no longer register the inconsistency. The reading process is automatic if you are a good reader: 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 wrong phonic code. We 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/spelling exercise.
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 purely phonetic system or spelling code, where speech is accurately represented in written language.
In Yesteryear, the view of leading intellectuals and thinkers was that there was a problem in the English phonetic code, a problem that came about through the evolution of the English language and gave many readers difficulty. Today, we call this difficulty dyslexia which means difficulty with words.
Today, intellectuals overlook and ignore this irregular phonic code and instead search for the problem in our kids’ heads, labeling students with clinical terms such as conditions and disorders. This is because of a lack of information and their own cognitive/thinking bias. Many people 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 more straightforward system of phonetic spelling. William Bullokar recognized that the written system had become inconsistent. He saw that Sounds and Names of the Letters of the Alphabet caused what he described as ‘Quarrels’ 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 are quarreling over best practices and students feel 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 recognized 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 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 result of his great 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 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 color and removing the ‘K’ from music spelled 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. Today’s best known to us 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 return English to its former phonetic state eventually. In short, to introduce a simplified spelling system. A pure Phonics Spelling System would call for removing 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. This confusion 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 spelled alike ar pro- nounst differently, and that other words pronounst 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 the correct spelling in a spelling system that is imperfect.
“Because of the absurdities and intricacies of our pres- ent spelling hav made a mastery of them the most dif- ficult and the 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 recognized 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, discovering 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.
21st 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 concept of dyslexia would replace any suggestion that a structural problem with our orthography or spelling code would provide some readers with 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.
Fun Rap 26 Letters to Represent 44 sounds
“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+.
“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.
