Their inability to read effectively is a prescription for failure. The recent dismal and shameful reading scores of California fourth grade students should be a renewed call to action by educators and parents. Our society can ill afford to have a large percentage of students who go through our schools and fail to learn basic reading skills. Such students become part of the cycle of failure, retention, discipline, and a heavy burden on schools and communities. And once they leave school, they tend to become part of society's larger social problems.
People often wonder why children fail to master such a basic and important skill.
The reason too many children can't read at or above grade level is because they have not been taught to read and write effectively. For years, colleges and universities did not teach prospective teachers about language, linguistics, phonetic instruction, or grammar. Teachers were told that such teaching and learning are boring, counter-productive, unnecessary and mundane. Rather than learn to decode language, children were expected to learn the nuances of reading, writing, and understanding totally through some kind of brain osmosis. Another reason for the failure is the influence of modern social psychologists that advocate making children feel good about themselves and what they produce.