davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Evening star., 1955-05-30
Philippines Pushes
Repurutions Talks

TOKYO, May 30 (P).-Kyodo
News Service today quoted spe-
cial Ambassador Felino Neri of
the Philippines as saying there
will be no chance, except now,
for successful conclusion Of the
Japan-Philippine reparations ne
gotiations."
The Japanese news agency
said Mr.. Neri., in an exclusive
interview, advised Japan against
taking a sighted attitude"
in deciding how much japan will
pay for World War II damage
Mr.. Neri said Japanese nego-
tiators "had talked with sin
cerity" but intimated that Ihe
was not satisfied with the pace
of the negotiations, Kyodo re-
ported.
He said he had submitted a
new Philippine proposal but
would not divulge its contents.
Earlier today, the newspaper
Yomiuri said Tokyo Foreign
Office sources were predicting
the two nations would settle for
an overall $3.50 million to be paid
to the Philippines in cash, goods
and services over is years.
Evening star., 1955-05-30

many shifts in schools and teach
ers but still, even at the begin
ming, he read at sight many
hundred words and it was not
nearly so painful as the phonic
method. OF course, they need
phonics too.
believe the failure to read is
the failure Of ourselves to face
up to the cost Of a first-class
education. l believe that with
a small class and a teacher of
high caliber that the particular
method is not so important.
Do you expect high -caliber
person to teach for less than a
living wage? What man today
can afford to Teach in the public
schools? How can even a good
teacher make the progress neces-
sary when the class is too large?
Children are taught by their
teachers, not by any magic meth
cd that never fails.
The painful truth is that we
must pay more money out of our
pockets to secure a first-class
education for our children.
Housewife.
Silver Spring, Md.
Evening star., 1955-05-30
20 the Editor

To the Editor:
I wish to thank you for your
articles by Rudolf Flesch.
It amazes me to read that Mr..
Samuel Burr, jr., thinks "phonics
not very helpful in grade and
of doubtful value in grade @"
He should hear my first grader
read and laugh with understand
ing at the story of Chippy the
Chipmunk. My first grader has
been taught. thank God, by the
phonic method. The day he
sounded out the word "dande-
lion" the delight he expressed
was a joy to see. Mr.. FleSch is SO
right when he says that the dis
covery of words by oneself is a
pleasure.
I have five children. All but
my l1-yesr-old were taught by
the phonic method. This one
who unfortunately was taught
by teachers who felt like Mr.,
Burr. hates reading because it is
Evening star., 1955-05-30

children earning $2.10 an hour
straight time or $84 weekly would
have a take-home pay of,
roughly, $76. The union origin
ally demanded that he receive
the full $76 when laid off with
part of the money coming from
State unemployment benefits and
the company paying the bulk.
Under the new 80 per cent
formula the guarantee would be
based on his $84 straight time
pay and would give him layoff
benefits of $67.50-an $3.50 re-
duction from the original de-
mand.
The Ford offer, in addition to
the stock purchase plan, includes
interest-free loans for laid-off
workers. increased wages and
pensions, fringe benefits and a
severance pay proposal.
GIN talks were recessed Friday
until 1:30 pm. tomorrow.
Evening star., 1955-05-30

using men as models for the first
time at their annual convention.
now in progress.
The short fiattop looks like q
modified crew cut. It's as level
as a ruler on top and the sides
are squared of.
The long flattop leaves more
hair on the head, as the name
implies. The sides are tricky and
the hair has to be cut so that
the flattop extends out a bit.
Some men use pomade TO keep
the side hairs upright.
about IS per cent of the
Georgia Tech students that
come into my shop get fiattops
these days." an Atlanta barber
says.
He says nigh school students
60 for the ducktail cut. In this
one the hair on the sides is kept
long and brushed back. meeting
at the rear of the head to form
a ridge or ducktail.
'Ducktails require a lot more
attention and teenagerS seem to
like to fuss with their hair" he
explains. Some even have
waves put in to get the ducktall
lust right"
Evening star., 1955-05-30
1t Did Happen Here

To the Editor:
Hearty praise to The Star for
using excerpts from DR.. Flesch's
book, why Johnny Can't Read" "
It is a great pity such publicity
could not have been given par
ents and pupils many years ago.
Many parents, when concerned.
were soft soaped" by the teach
ers with advice that they must
not help their child at home,
teaching him alphabet, phonetics,
spelling. reading nor arithmetic
for this plan spread to all sub
jects, of course.
DR.. Flesch states that this
present method (if such a slip
shod manner of teaching can be
dignified by the word "method~
began about 1925. I would add
about seven or eight years to
that in our schools here. I, a
District of Columbia native, a
graduate of Wilson Normal
school (now Wilson Teachers
College, taught first grade 13
years. resigning in 1919, and I
know it was started a year or
more before resigned.
We had used a three-year
phonetic system - "See and
Say" books for the first three
grades. They made excellent
readers and spoilers of the aver
age child. Those books were col
lected from our schools, but not
from mine as I protested strongly
to my supervisor and he let me
keep my set. :.
For about eight years, begin
ming in the late '20s. my sister
twho had been a public school
teacher. too) and I had a private
tutoring school. We worked with
mentally deficient, physically
handicapped and retarded chill
dren from first grade through
junior high. All the backward
children were casualties of this
"guess it yourself" idea. Parents
were really paying us for train
ing and discipline their children
had been denied in public schools
and for which those parents
were paying taxes. Before the
radical change remedial reading
teachers were unheard of.
| We found it necessary to start
Evening star., 1955-05-30

To the Editor: e..
In the year 1915 or 1916 was
a member of the School Board of
Erlanger, KY. My oldest son was
in his first reading class. On his
report card his teacher marked,
"He needs help at home" His
mother was a former teacher in
the same school. She attempted
to help him.
I remember the lesson was on
the words the" they" and
them. Whenever he tried
to read he did not know one of
the words from another. 1t was
purely a guessing game with
: him. The word the" was caus-
ing him the most trouble. He
finally told his mother, Miss
Esther does not call the the.
I told his mother to let the
teacher work his lessons out with
him, we were only confusing
him. A few days later I met the
teacher and I told her Of our
decision. She said to me, Didn't
you Enow we do not teach the
children to pronounce the the.
We teach them to pronounce
the thu" anyway, you have to
place your tongue against the
roof of your mouth and push the
thu" out.)
I told Miss Esther Gschwind
his mother and I learned to pro-
nounce "the" from the McGuffey
Word Book, and the "e" in "the"
was pronounced with the long
"e." Her answer was, THAT has
been changed in our new system
of teaching"
I told her, Alright, you are
the teacher; we will not inter-
fere as I could not ever guess at
what pronunciation you would
use for cat"
CDR. Flesch's) criticism of the
art of teaching the English Ian
guage has been long overdue.
agree in every particular.
vOrville WOrster,
Soldiers Home
Evening star., 1955-05-30
Why Johnny Can't Read
Chapter s-Fewer and Fewer Words

What is now commonly known
as a reader is not all the kind
of thing a reader used to be 80
or 40 years ago. In those days
a reader was simply a collection
of reading matter suitable for
children in school.
Today a reader is something
entirely different. It is q special
tool for fixing a sight reading
vocabulary" in children's minds.
This sight reading vocabu-
larry" is the essence of the word
method of teaching reading. The
word method therefore hinges
on the use of those readers. With
out the readers. the word method
cannot be used at all.
According to the basic theory
Of the word method. children
learn to read by looking at words
again and again until they know
them by sight. 1t is therefore
necessary to make them fix their
eyes repeatedly on certain pre-
determined words.
Draws Up Word List
For example. during first grade
a reading expert" decides to
give them say. 400 words. He
draws up a list of those 900
words and then proceeds to write
a book of stories" containing
no word outside that list and
repeating each one of the 400
words as often, as possible.
He then repeats the process
for the second-grade reader of
his series-he adds another 400
words to the first 400. draws up
a list of those 300 words. and
writes a somewhat fatter book
of "stories," staying within his
8O0-word limit and repeating
each of the 800 words to the
utmost
Now he goes on to his third
reader Another 400 words are
added: the list now contains
1900 words; the book is again a
little fatter and now contains
the maximum variations upon
the 1900 words. The expert"
proceeds in the same manner
with his fourth reader, his fifth
reader, and his sixth reader. and
winds up with a package suit
able for handsome annual sales
At this point you may possibly
doubt the accuracy of my fig
ures. Let me therefore say right
here that I checked the vocabu-
larry contents of the two leading
sets of readers, those of the
Scott, Foresman Co. and the
Evening star., 1955-05-30

cal. The publisher sent him an
answer three times as long as his
letter.
Now Composing Report"
Steven is now composing a
report" entitled Johnny CAN
read" 1t is four pages long al
ready and when he's finished he
is going to send it to the editor
of The Star. It is an account of
one boys day at school. describ-
ing what he learns. 1t begins:
Johnny can read. He woke
up feeling good. He got dressed,
ate his breakfast and then he
ran and got the newspaper and
looked on the front page. Johnny
is always happy when he gets up
in the morning because he knows
that if he hurries he can get an
article out of the paper to take
to school and share with his
class"
One of the teaching aids
Steven will describe is just what
DR.. Flesch says the schools don't
have. 1t is a "phonovisual chart"
which teaches the young read
ers what DR.. Flesch says they
are not being taught-how to
pronounce individual letters that
make up each word.
The chart-which is posted in
every classroom in the school.
from the first grade to the sixth
lists each consonant opposite
a picture of something which
starts with that letter. There is
a pig beside the P, a leaf beside
the L and a queen beside the
Q. Another chart does the same
for vowels. It has a saw beside
AW, duck beside the U and a
book beside the 90.
Students coming on a strange
word can refer to the chart to
help figure out the individual
sounds that make it up.
Miss Ihrig says she is grateful
to the Flesch series for awaken
ing her students interest in their
own reading. But she says she
has to agree with her pupils
that when DR.. Flesch visited
schools, he shouldn't have passed
Barnard by.
Evening star., 1955-05-30

proficiently, the task is relatively
simple. He can already read:
now he can understand what he
reads. The word guessing"
method is truly putting the cart
before the horse. =.
The system in effect in Eng
land is basically the phonic one;
there are no remedial reading
problems in England. therefore
the phonic system must be a
good one.
One thing more: I was struck
by the gobbledygook -ish, unspe-
cific dissertations of the local
educators appearing in your
paper. Not one Of them made
sense, not one offered one con-
crete reason to support the
"word-guessing" method. And
only one of them had the cour-
age-or the honesty-to admit
that he had not really studied
DR.. Flesch's book.
Evening star., 1955-05-30
Start Phonics Early
To the Editor: 4:

To the Editor:
-. The time to teach phonics
Is when the child first learns
to read, while his experience is
limited and when he can't COM
prehend too much that's new
anyhow. But the average 6-year-
old can easily memorize the 26
letters and many of the phnic
variations on these 26 basic
sounds. At 6 a child'S capacity
for the abstract is pretty small.
but he can get facts and retain
them. If he learns the mechanics
of reading at this early age.
then, by the time he's 8 or so
and begins to understand some
of what he's already reading
Evening star., 1955-05-30
AUTO

Continued From First Page
President Walter Reuther ac-
cused the company of refusing to
bargain in the traditional give
and-take manner" Mr.. Reuther
declared the union was ready to
make concessions all along to
avert strike if Ford would bar
gain on the guaranteed annual
wage.
There was no comment on this
from the company.
Proposal Rephrased
1t was disclosed that Ford had
rephrased its original severance
pay proposal to assure that an
employe leaving the company
could receive separation pay
without jeopardizing pension
benefits. A company spokesman
said, however, the revision was
not a concession, but merely
clarified the company's offer in
line with its original intention.
In withdrawing its original
demand for 100 per cent take
home pay for laid-off workers,
the union insisted the 100 per
cent figure was fixed only for
bargaining purposes. The union
said it was willing to settle for
a guarantee of 80 per cent of
straight time for a 40-hour week
| Ford has offered the union a
| five-year package" estimated
unofticially to cost half a billion
dollars.
| Ford's package" includes an
offer to sell non-voting company
stock to employees for half price.
1t ignores the guaranteed an
nual wage.
Had Rejected Proposal
The union heretofore had fatty
rejected the company's proposal
and insisted it would strike un-
less it got some kind of a guar
apteed annual wage. It has
authorized a walkout of Ford
workers if settlement cannot be
reached by midnight Wednesday.
Mr. Reuther, who also heads
the CIO. appeared on a union
sponsored local television pro-
gram yesterday to explain the
unions position.
He said a settlement could be
reached If Ford would get down
to bargaining instead of trying
to prove the guaranteed annual
wage unavoidable.
Mr.. Reuther said the union
turned down the Ford offer be-
! cause it was "a watered-down
version of an inadequate pro-
posal made by General Motors. Z"
The union also is negotiating
with GIN on a new contract to
replace the agreement which ex-
pires June 7.
GIN made its offer last week.
A UAW spokesman said that
while the union had not yet re-
.jected the GIN offer it wouldn't
take IAN intellectual wizard to
guess what would happen to it"
Here is how the unions mod
ifiied guaranteed annual wage
proposal would work:
A worker with a wife and two
Evening star., 1955-05-30
By RUDOLF FLESCH

Macmillan Co. This proved to
be a very easy research job since
all elementary textbook houses
proudly include vocabulary sta
tistics in all their readers.
The Scott, Foresrnan set in
cludes 1890 words in the first
two grades and adds 498 in third
grade, reaching the grand total
of l,778 words at the end of third
grade. The Macmillan Co., how
ever. is ahead of the game by
considerable margin. The
latest edition of their set of
readers is pared down to not
more than 1924 words by the
end of third grade.
Trend to Fewer Words
1t is important to add that the
trend is definitely toward fewer
and fewer words.
The effect of this in the class
room is best described in the
words of Prof Gertrude Hildreth
of Brooklyn College. author of
Teaching the Three Rs" who
seems to be one of the pioneers
in the great vocabulary cutting
movement. Prof. Hildreth is the
senior author of a set of readers
that gets along with l,147 words
for the first three grades.
Experience has proved" DR..
Hildreth writes, that keeping
the vocabulary of new words
relatively small-even a little
below the children's demon
strated assimilation threshold
without neglecting the other
important factors, virtually revo-
lutionizes the teaching of pri-
mary-grade reading. A teacher
in a Southern State reports that
the use Of books with simplif1ed
vocabulary has cut down reading
difficulties in the first three
grades by rs per cent. Second
and third grade teachers, par
ticularly. find the teaching of
reading joy instead of chore
when word difficulties are re-
duced."
It's a Cinch for Teachers
In other words, teaching chill
dren 1,l47 words in three years
is cinch. Never mind the fact
that those third-graders can't
read a single blessed book and
are unable to decipher a simple
note to a milkman-what does
it matter as long as the teachers
work is now Joy instead of a
chore?
Possibly, however, these figures
Evening star., 1955-05-30

positively laborious for him.
The majority of teachers and
parents of school children know
from bitter experience that Mr..
Flesch is right about phonics.
All that remains Is for the
leading authorities in the field
of reading" to admit their mis-
take and remedy it,"
REGINA ASH
(Mrs. Joseph K. ASH,
East Riverdale, Md.
Evening star., 1955-05-30

don't look as ridiculous to you as
they actually are. How many
words should a child know when
he has reached the end of third
grade?
To answer that question. I
must point out to you that the
question itself is meaningless
when you teach reading by the
phonic method. In that case,
you take about two years to give
the child such a thorough knowl-
edge of letters and sounds that
he can read virtually anything.
Then, if you want to, you take
a third year for review, making
100 per cent sure that the child
knows all the important phonic
principles and exceptions.
So your third-grader will be
able to read whatever interests
him, whether the vocabulary
range is 1900 words or 5000
words or 10000 words.
$4,000 Words by Sound
The vocabulary range of the
reading material he can master
will therefore depend not on the
number of sight" words he has
learned - he hasn't learned
WORDS, he has learned how to
read-but on the number of
words he knows by sound.
That number, according to the
researches of the late DR.. Sea-
shore of Northwestern Univer-
sity, is astonishingly high. 1t is,
for a third-grader, $4,000 words.
Maybe the figure is too large.
Maybe the average third
graders vocabulary is only 34,-
900 or $4,000 or even $4,000.
Whatever it is, there is not the
slightest doubt that it is at least
10 times as large as the number
Of words he learned to read in
school by any of the methods
now in use. After three years of
learning to read" he is totally
unable to decipher 80 per cent of
his own speaking and listening
vocabulary when he sees it in
print.
TOMORROW-fIOw Not to
Teach Reading. You will visit
first and third grade reading
classes with the author and
see what he calls "the logical
outcome" of the word method.
From the book "Why Johnny Can't
Read" by Rudolf Flesch. copyright 1865.
by Harper g. Brothers Distributed by
The Register and Tribune Syndicate.1
Evening star., 1955-05-30

every child, even from junior
high, with the See and Say"
series. After working
through these books all were
self-reliant in reading and SPELL
ing, and all began to enjoy
studying. Though many, many
words are not phonetic, enough
are to set pattern for the rest,
by comparison at least. =.
II believe it is true that
phonics. alphabet study, spelling,
ETC., have been forced back into
some schools, but present better
training cannot undo the "hit
or miss" work over that long
period, nor now help those so
unfortunate as to have come up
through that period.
A Former Teacher,
Evening star., 1955-05-30
Education Costs Money

To the Editor:
My father taught me to read
at an early age by the phonic
method. I read fluently before
entering first grade. :. My son
has just now. in the third grade.
learned to read well. His classes
have been too large. He has had
Evening star., 1955-05-30
Johnny Speaks Up

To the Editor:
have been reading in your
paper that teachers have not
been teaching their students to
learn their sounds. have had
the same teacher in the fifth
and now, and she has been try
ing for two years to teach US
our sounds.
John Parker,
9Th grade, Benning School.
Evening star., 1955-05-30
u NJ in Israel

LYDIA AIRPORT, Israel.
May 80 (P.-Burmese Premier
U Nu arrived by plane last night
for an eight-day visit. He is
the first foreign premier to pay
Israel a state visit.
Evening star., 1955-05-30
Parents Nod Approval

To the Editor:
For every educator who is
sneering at DR.. Flesch's beliefs
and theories there are thousands
of parents who are reading them
and nodding their heads in ap-
proval Most all of us have
seen what he has seen and ar
rived at the same low estimate
of sight reading" methods.
You don't know what a hope
it gives us to see DR.. Flesch's
book printed in paper with
the huge circulation Of The
Star. Most educators probably
wouldn't have read it otherwise
and they are the ones who need
the information most. Thanks
for a public service.
Mrs. w. p. Snyder,
Gainesville Va
Evening star., 1955-05-30
Jews Confirm so,
Largest Group in
History Of Temple

The Washington Hebrew Con-
gregation confirmed so persons
in exercises yesterday in the
Temple at Massachusetts, avenue
and Macomb street NV.
The service for the conf1rma-
ton class, largest in the congre-
cations 102-year history, was
conducted by DR.. Norman Ger
stenfeld, rabbi of the congrega-
tion. assisted by DR.. Hugo B.
Schiff. assistant rabbi. The pro-
cessional was led by Judge Mil
ton S. Kronheim. jr., president
of the congregation, and DR..
Bernard A. Baer. honorary vice
president. lsf2f, n..
Members of the class included:
zimmerman: s. C. Kotzin. .Ioanne l.,
Aronoff, Terese Levi, Harold H.. III
Austern. David T. Levitan. Marjorie A.
Becker. Charles E. Libby. Richard II.
Bennett Jovce z. Martin, Carol s.
Brown. Deborah E. Martin Donald .8.,trt~
Burton Sharone LeeNordlinger Thomas
Cohen. Joann Pssternak, Gloria r.
Cohen. Linda S. 5osner. Elizabeth A.
Dodek. samayla S. Protas. Barbara J.
Drsyfuss; J; D.. II Reicher, Judith c.
Jefirey, Dubb w. Rosenbaum. Frances
Edelson. Ann @. Sander Steven c.
Fogel Robert L. Schwartz NJ. F.. JH.
Freiburser. Ellen l, Segal. Daniel
Goldberg. James M Selman. Susan NJ.
Goldstein, Joan B. Sharlin. Richard S.
Goode. Dosalie Shulman. Richard
GuSky. Susan E. Sills Joyce T.
Gutride, Rosalie j. Steck. Dorothy
Iseman, Joseph Stone, Harriet M
jenkins, Marcia A. Sycle, Joan l..
Kahn, Miriam Weiner. Richard ID.
Katzman, Stanley H Wender Marilyn S.
Kaufman, Richard Wolf, Alexander. III
Evening star., 1955-05-30

each day and mounted them on
its bulletin board.
But that's not the end Of
it. One boy, Steven Levine, was
not in school the day the let
ters were written. He bitterly
regretted not getting in on the
writing.
Steven considers himself a
champion letter writer. Once he
wrote a letter to a Congressman
and got a personal reply. Another
time he wrote to the publisher
of the class textbook in social
studies, complaining that parts
of the book were not grammati-
Evening star., 1955-05-30
Letters HoiIing DR.. F|esch
Pour In From Readers

Letters from readers of The
Star on the condensation OF DR..
Rudolf FleSch's book, "Why
Johnny Can't Read:
Evening star., 1955-05-30

TOMORROW-fIOw Not to
Teach Reading. You will visit
first and third grade reading
classes with the author and
see what he calls "the logical
outcome" of the word method.
Evening star., 1955-05-30
a to ! for FIesch

Gainesville, v
Evening star., 1955-05-30
Even Forty Years Ago

A Former Teacher.
Evening star., 1955-05-30

From the book "Why Johnny Can't
Read" by Rudolf Flesch. copyright 1866.
by Harper. g. Brothers. Distributed by
The Register and Tribune Syndicate.)