Letters to the Editor

The Fresno Bee

June 22, 2004

To the Editor,

    My heart goes out to Reggie Worthy, the father who is making such a valiant effort for his daughter.  This man does have a learning disability and it is called "dysteachia."  He has been failed by the education establishment with its long history of indulgence in ineffective instructional fads such as Whole Language and its antecedents. 

    Only a small percentage of students in the public schools who are labeled as learning disabled and placed in special education have a neurological handicap that interferes with learning.  Those students can learn with proper instruction.  The remainder are so labeled simply because they cannot read and they cannot read because the schools have failed to teach them. 

    The casualties of "dysteachia" fill the special education classrooms where ADD/ADHD labels are too often prefatory to psychotropic drugs.  According to the 2002 National Assessment of Educational Progress 44% of the nation's grade 12 students are less than proficient in reading.  85% of prison inmates are reading impaired. 

    I recently met an inspirational man named John Corcoran who is the author of a book entitled The Teacher Who Couldn't Read.  John is that teacher.  He faked his way through school and career before learning how to read at age forty.  May Mr. Worthy be blessed to find a teacher who will teach him to read with direct, phonics-based instruction.  He can learn to read. 

Sharon S. Kientz

Retired Teacher

1995 Teacher of the year  The National Right to Read Foundation  (www.nrrf.org)

1995  Commendation from the California Legislative Assembly for teaching children to read with phonics

P.O. Box 25

Auberry, CA 93602

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