In this New American article, Samuel Blumenfeld writes about the connection between the “whole language” method of teaching kids to read and functional illiteracy. The piece focuses on California, but the education fad of whole language is by no means confined to the borders of that state.

This is a perfect example of Thomas Sowell’s frequent observation that the problem with entrusting things to government is that the politicians who make the decisions usually don’t bear the costs of being wrong. Whole language would have quickly died out if it weren’t for government control of schools.