Phonics vs, the Look Say Method

Over the past decades, the decline in the rate of literacy in America has baffled many. At least 20% of high school graduates are functionally illiterate, despite the education they receive in the public school system. As these graduates enter the world reading at an elementary level, they are unable to live a normal life, which leads to poverty and can lead to delinquency and imprisonment. This decline is not only a decline of literacy, but also a decline of independence, ingenuity, and responsibility. The beginning of this decline can be traced back to a certain event in the history of the public school system: the introduction of the look say method in the 1930s. Ever since the look say method, or Whole Word instruction, took the place of phonics, the number of illiterate graduates has grown higher and higher. Evidence proves that the look say method is not sufficient to properly teach students how to read. Phonics is far superior to the look say method of learning to read.
First of all, phonics is better than the look say method of learning to read because phonics has a firmer foundation than the look say method. Phonics is based on rules that the child memorizes; therefore, when he has memorized these rules, he can read almost any word he sees. A small article by the Abeka reading programs shows many rules that are taught in phonics, such as the following: “When there is one vowel in a word, that vowel usually says its short sound” and “when there are two vowels in a word, the first vowel says its long sound, and second vowel is silent” (“Six Easy Steps to Reading,” 1). When the child learns definite rules such as these, he is more likely to apply them because he knows that they will not change. Sebastian Wren writes in his article “Developing Research-based Resources for the Balanced Reading Teacher,” he tells that “children are explicitly taught the ‘rules’ about the way words are written and spelled, and they are taught spelling-sound relationships. After