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The Myth of 'New and Trendy': Breaking Down the Business Insider Article on Gen Alpha and the Science of Reading
625 Plays26 days ago
In this episode of Play On Words from Big City Readers, Miss Beth dives into the Business Insider article titled, "For Gen Alpha, Learning to Read is Becoming a Privilege" and breaks down her frustration with its portrayal of the Science of Reading as “new” and “trendy.”
Miss Beth passionately addresses how the article overlooks decades of reading research, dismissing the rigorous, evidence-based approaches that are finally gaining ground in schools. She reflects on why labeling the Science of Reading as “trendy” is harmful, especially when it’s the key to unlocking reading success for every child, not just the privileged few.
Join Miss Beth as she explores:
- Why the Science of Reading is not a passing trend, but the result of decades of research on how the brain learns to read
- The impact of educational inequality and how access to effective reading instruction is tied to privilege
- Her personal take on the conversation around Gen Alpha’s reading development and the gap between the haves and have-nots
- What parents and educators can do to advocate for their children and push for evidence-based reading practices in every classroom
Get ready for a passionate discussion, because Miss Beth isn’t holding back when it comes to fighting for every child’s right to learn to read.
Find your class and get started on your child's reading journey today: bigcityreaders.com
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Transcript
Episode Plan Change
00:00:11
Speaker
Well, good morning and happy Christmas Eve Eve to those who celebrate. I originally planned on coming to share today a podcast that was going to be a bonus episode that was going to be a read aloud and maybe I'll still do it. Um, but it was going to be a read aloud for kids of Christmas storytime, but you know what? Something changed. I decided to catch up on the articles I was reading.
00:00:44
Speaker
I do guys do this where you're like, oh, either you screenshot it or you bookmark it. And then you're like, when I have time,
Fairlife Coffee Recipe
00:00:52
Speaker
I will do that. And then so today, Christmas Eve Eve, I mean, imagine the luxurious, peaceful, calm morning I have where I'm making my um fair life coffee, which if you don't know on Instagram, I've been talking about this a lot.
00:01:08
Speaker
It's half a fair life warmed up chocolate fair life, half coffee topped with peppermint whipped cream. And you guys, it is not that complicated. So many people are like, do you make your own peppermint whipped cream? What's the recipe? I'm like, no, I got what was on sale at Target a month ago. And I just do a little splash on top and I'm not kidding. It tastes like a peppermint mocha, but I don't know if you're like me.
00:01:31
Speaker
But when I have a peppermint mocha, it is like, um, it's, it hurts my stomach almost immediately. And I'm like, and I feel like, you know, like the sugar feeling. So I love fair life. It is the only protein. This is not sponsored. You guys, I'm obsessed with fair life. Um, but it is the only protein that doesn't hurt my stomach and it's great. And yeah. So anyway, that's what I've been having. So imagine I'm painting the picture for you.
00:01:59
Speaker
I'm having my cozy coffee. I don't have to be anywhere. Usually we have a team meeting on Monday mornings. I'm like, Oh my gosh, this is a life. I might even put on a Christmas movie. One of the dumb ones. Like I'm considering like the Taylor Swift Travis Kelsey inspired one on Lifetime. That level. I am that level of chill.
00:02:21
Speaker
And I'm going to open all my articles and read them. And
Gen Alpha Reading Challenges
00:02:23
Speaker
what do I see? The headline that first pops up that I saved from four days, three days ago, parenting from business insider for Jen alpha learning to read is becoming a privilege. Oh yeah. I remember saving this just like it was yesterday, but it was three days ago. And I'm like, okay, yeah, here I go. Have my first sip of coffee.
00:02:46
Speaker
I'm so sorry that you heard had to hear that. It just felt right. um And then I start reading. And so we're going to deep dive into this. And if your name is Jane Ridley, or I yell at Sheffi, give me a call. Seriously.
00:03:06
Speaker
I would love to talk and clarify some of the things in this because I'm going to try and not get enraged. I'm going to try and just get facts. So parents and I'm going to try and keep it short. So parents and teachers have the right information. But there is a lot of misinformation about the science of reading and about the illiteracy crisis we are in in America. And the very first and biggest and easiest one to name is that it is new and it is not new. The science of reading is not new information.
00:03:37
Speaker
The research is not new. The data is not new. It's just come more to light, ah especially because of the pandemic.
Pandemic and Reading Instruction Issues
00:03:49
Speaker
Because in 2020, parents saw when their kids were home and they said, wait a minute, this doesn't make sense. They saw in their kindergarten and first grade classes on Zoom that the kids were being instructed to say, to look at the picture and guess at the word to memorize whole words instead of sound out words or systematic structured phonics instruction. They saw it and some brave, brilliant parents said, I don't, I don't know about this. And that honestly is why it feels like it's new right now because brave parents said something. So as we know,
00:04:34
Speaker
As we know, nothing gets done unless a parent gets mad enough. And I hate that those parents that had to get mad enough had to had had to get mad enough at the expense of their own child going through such a hard time with their reading journey when it it doesn't have to be that way.
00:04:55
Speaker
So I'm going to try and break this down in a really easy way, but um buckle up, I guess, because this is my fresh, unfiltered thoughts.
ADHD Task Management
00:05:05
Speaker
And if I took the time to filter it, I would lose my steam. This is so ADHD of me. but and There's this acronym for ADHD. It's NICU, which I know is an acronym for neonatal intensive care unit. But NICU stands for what it takes for a person with ADHD to accomplish a task. And it's novelty, interest. Let's just see.
00:05:34
Speaker
I forgot to see. And the U is urgency. What is the C? Novelty, interest. Oh, gosh, I got to look it up. Hold on. Oh, duh, competition. Novelty, interest, competition, urgency. Those are the things that the ADHD brain needs in order to accomplish something. So um I can't believe I forgot that one. i Yeah.
00:06:00
Speaker
I'm, I love a competition. My family, oh my gosh, well you should see us. My mom and sisters and I are in the pool hopping on one leg across the pool. I will win every time. And I'm like, sisters, I am worried about you that you can't hop that fast. I mean, I'm, I'm like half a pool faster than them. So anyway, and this is the urgency in my opinion, because I am not kidding. When I tell you, as I read this article this morning, I'm shaking and I'm almost to tears and anger.
00:06:29
Speaker
for a couple of parts, not the part that says that the science of reading is new and trendy. That just made my blood boil in general. so So for Gen Alpha, learning to read is becoming a privilege, is the article.
Critiques on Science of Reading
00:06:41
Speaker
And um I'm not going to read the whole article to you, but It's basically saying what many of us here at Big City Readers and the Plan Words podcast know is that across the US, kids are struggling to read. And the article states that last year, the reading performance of fourth graders hit its lowest level since 2005, which is not surprising here again. So then the next part says the Senate Education Committee calling it a crisis. Yeah, hello, where have you been? I feel like I've been
00:07:14
Speaker
the chicken with its head cut off or no, I'm mixing up two things that says the sky is falling, the sky is falling. Yes, we've been saying this. So many parents have been saying this. Parents that are like getting shaded ah by other parents at school that are like, okay, we get it. Stop talking about it. But we need you. We need you to keep getting loud and talking about this. But anyway, so the Senate Education Committee calling it a crisis is pushing school districts to retrain teachers in a trendy new teaching style called the science of reading.
00:07:44
Speaker
which has dramatically improved in some areas. This is not trendy or new. This is not trendy or new. The science of reading is also not a curriculum and it is a body of research, okay? And it is decades and decades and decades old. Sorry, my old publicist slash friend just texted me and said, do you want She said that she was both shocked and pissed at this article also. And let me know if you want the email. Oh, yeah, we are sending an email.
Politics in Reading Education
00:08:22
Speaker
OK, so anyway, the science of reading research is not new information. But here's the part that was making me the most angry.
00:08:33
Speaker
I'm so angry right now. I. I'm like sad and angry because. Nobody has. Uh, because kids' lives are on the line.
00:08:47
Speaker
And it's not, it's crazy that learning to read is political. It is crazy. It's crazy. I was invited to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago this year because I speak about these educational crises and policies that need to be changed. And people were so upset in my DMs on Instagram. They said, I just like your reading tips. Can you not talk about politics? Hello?
00:09:11
Speaker
That is such a privilege. It is such a privilege to think that way. it is It is political, maybe not for you and your family, but for someone else. It shouldn't be a lottery system for kids to get a teacher that is properly trained. This article does say that we are advocating for all teachers to be trained in the same research back to curriculum, which is something that I also advocate for. But teachers unions often don't want that because they want teachers to get to do, you know, to get to try their own things. Yeah. The proposed solution is get all teachers trained to use the same evidence back teaching style. Teaching styles have served as political footballs for over a hundred years. Yeah. Oh my gosh. So,
00:10:11
Speaker
Teaching unions maintain that teachers should be able to draw from various teaching styles. It's a tough sell with parents. I agree.
Teacher Training Necessity
00:10:19
Speaker
And as a teacher and not a parent, I'm maybe the exception to this. Well, I do believe it's so lovely that teachers should get to have freedom to pull from different teaching styles. Most teachers I work with, and I will say I work with thousands of teachers. I do my own private coaching program, but I also get hired to do professional development at school districts and whole libraries. So last year I got to work with and teach all the staff of all 81 branches of the Chicago Public Library in the science of reading.
00:10:56
Speaker
which is amazing that the Chicago Public Library cares that much. I mean, so many school districts aren't even training their teachers yet. And because it's obviously it's a big cost and people think that it's just another shift. It's not just another shift. This is old research. The research isn't changing. And of course there are exceptions, but the science of reading is beneficial for 80%, at least 80% of kids. There are always exceptions for sure. And there are some kids that do learn to read naturally. I think it's 7% to 11% of kids just do learn to read naturally, which is a pretty small percentage when we're like,
Reading Struggles and Societal Issues
00:11:35
Speaker
quote, fighting for there to be variety. We're fighting for that 7% to 11% that don't need extra resources. They're fine. They don't need extra resources.
00:11:45
Speaker
Ah, okay. Sorry, this is all over the place. I i just decided I just need this to be, I couldn't even write it. I had to, I had to podcast it. So anyway, yeah I'm angry because this article has a lot of and misinformation. I'm angry because kids aren't learning to read. I'm angry because we know that by third grade,
00:12:11
Speaker
Kids that are struggling to read will struggle probably their whole life. I'm angry because we know that illiteracy is directly connected to anxiety, depression, dropping out of high school, incarceration, gangs,
00:12:29
Speaker
It's, it is life and death for some kids, maybe not your kid, but for some kids. And I am a firm believer that there's no such thing as other people's children. So we must use our voices to fight for every child. And if you're like, yeah, but okay, my kids in that 7%, great. Do you have the space to fight for other kids that aren't in the 7%?
00:12:56
Speaker
Okay. So the first thing that annoyed me was that they said that the second thing. Actually, I'll give them this point that they did outline that teachers unions don't want teachers to have aligned curriculum, which I think is confusing for people because so many people think happy teachers, happy kids.
00:13:19
Speaker
And you, again, this is like, let's, are we looking at the small percentage or the majority? Because you might have an amazing teacher that was trained in the science of reading. This is where um I get, I get hesitant because I do have so many teachers in my DMS that are like, well, I got trained in the science of reading. But if we have to go to aligned curriculum, like the whole district, then I can't use what I've been taught anymore. Which is tricky because then we have those people, but then we also have the people that are like,
00:13:49
Speaker
Oh, we have not been trained and we are just Pinteresting and teachers paying teachers, teachers pay teachers.com things. We just need something more universal and it needs to be right.
Teacher Expectations vs. Training
00:14:01
Speaker
It needs to be research backed and it needs to, it just needs to happen. Okay. So, uh,
00:14:13
Speaker
Also, curriculum does not teach kids. Teachers teach kids. So it can't be just a curriculum change. It needs to be training. I do not bring a curriculum and just into a school when I go for professional development. I train the teachers. One time I stayed for four extra hours because the teachers afterward were like, well, can you look at our books? And I looked through all of their curriculum. They had all the right books. They didn't know how to use them. They had everything that I would recommend they buy. They didn't know how to use them because they had so much curriculum. And so I literally put post-its in each of the pages that I would start at for first grade teachers, for kindergarten teachers. There is not enough training for teachers and plus teachers are expected to be experts in behavior in every child's different need. Hello, I went to school to be a teacher. Well, there was one class in learning differences for all of them, autism, ADHD, like we are not diagnosticians.
00:15:08
Speaker
A teacher can tell you they notice things. They can't tell you that they think your child has something. They don't even know. We don't even know. We're not trained in dyslexia even. Even a reading specialist isn't trained in dyslexia. I have learned a lot about dyslexia on my own, but that is not a training that I got. A child psychologist is the person that has more training in these things. So, or a diagnostician.
00:15:32
Speaker
So remember that even I had a speech pathologist on my, on my podcast one time and she, and I asked her about a sound that a first grader was struggling with. And she said, Oh, I'm a speech pathologist, but I focus on feeding and the first four years. I'm not an expert in that. And I think that that is the biggest green flag you can hear from someone.
00:15:50
Speaker
I also will say that to you. I have so many people that asked me to do a professional development for middle school. And I say, Oh, you should call my friend Amelia. I am not an expert in middle school while I do even have training through ninth grade. I know that my work has led me to focus on the research around up to fourth grade. So I admit and send off anything beyond fourth grade.
00:16:16
Speaker
Because you cannot be an expert in everything. But here we are expecting teachers to be an expert in everything. And we need to remember that. We need to give more grace and patience. And also, like every subject, too. it's just It's wild.
Flaws in 3Qing System
00:16:30
Speaker
So anyway, let's talk about 3Qing for a second. They talk about how 3Qing in this article is a problem, which you've heard me talk about that a lot. I will try to link.
00:16:44
Speaker
um a video explaining it, but 3Qing essentially is when kids are given 3Qs, semantic, which is the meaning of the word, syntactic, which is how the word is used in a sentence, and
00:17:04
Speaker
Wait, 3Qing, semantics and tactic. Oh, and graphic, graphophonic. So that essentially means um the spelling pattern. So the 3Qing system aligns with, okay, actually, I'll just pull, I'm gonna find the example from this article. So for students using, well, for teachers, I was taught to teach the 3Qing system as well.
00:17:31
Speaker
So we would tell a student to look at a photo of a horse and um look at the first sound or the first letter in the picture. So they might say pony. And you would say, oh, that does look like a pony, but look at the first letter in that word. And they would say, okay, so what could it be? And they would get horse.
00:17:55
Speaker
Listen, I was duped too. I believed this. I was taught this and then I taught this. You know what I mean? Like years, years. i I was doing this and I was, I didn't question it. So I get it. It seems like you're teaching kids, but you're really just teaching kids to the test because then you, you're like, Oh, they passed. They passed the level. Um, another one. I have a whole episode about three queuing, so I'm not going to get it into it too much.
00:18:20
Speaker
But another one would be, you know, if they they just memorize the pattern. So it's like the cat is on the chair. The cat is on the stairs. The cat is on the table. So every page, the picture is changing. You've just memorized the pattern. So they're not reading at all. And then, oh, my gosh, somebody sent me a video of this actually the other day. And it was like that cat is on the cupboard.
00:18:47
Speaker
But they didn't say covered. And so then they went back and they're like, oh yeah, covered because we're memorizing. So 3Qing and whole language are very close. And um whole language is mostly focusing on memorizing sight words. so Lucy Calkins famously, or maybe not famously historically, maybe you haven't listened to the Soul to Story podcast, which I highly recommend, but she said, um you know I think it's faster if we just tell kids to memorize words, which is we're we're we're deeply relying on background knowledge and privilege because we're just expecting that every kid has the same access to the same amount of words and they don't.
00:19:30
Speaker
I personally learned this. I'm sorry if you've heard this story before, but I was teaching, I was the reading specialist, and I was working with a first grader, and I was doing these assessments that are that were um the Fountas and Pinell assessments. I have memorized the Fountas and Pinell books. I can tell you everything about them. So if you ever have a Fountas and Pinell assessment, I can break it down for you because I at the school was in charge of all the assessments. So that means three times a year I assessed every kid in the entire school. It took weeks.
00:19:57
Speaker
but I've memorized the books. And I did start to wonder, wait a minute, this is kind of weird because the books were like kids would do really well. So there's two, okay. The fontus and manel assessment is it's levels A to Z. And um so if your kid gets like level B or something, like that's what you don't want to see. You don't want this. This is not aligned with science of reading. But you um there's a fiction and nonfiction for each of the levels, A to Z. And you know if a child is independent, if I would assess them and they ah they did a level D and they read it you know between 96% accuracy and 100% accuracy, then I would go to a harder level and test them until they got to their instructional level, which means this is a book they could read with a little bit of help.
00:20:44
Speaker
or frustration level, which means like they would absolutely shut down if they were reading this book even with help or their independent level like they can read this on their own. So I would you do the assessments and you kind of mark what their errors are you mark using the three queuing systems. So was that a visual error? Did they say in instead of on?
00:21:03
Speaker
Or um did they use the pictures to help them? And some of the tips for the person giving the assessment in these, in the fondness and final assessments was to tell the child to look at the pictures. I'm not kidding. This is insane.
Sight Word Memorization Critique
00:21:20
Speaker
So at least eight states at this point have banned the three queuing system banned, literally banned. So that's good. But, um, anyway, so that's what the, my dog is laying next to me if you just heard her crawl. Um, so if that, that's the three queuing. So, you know, you might say, okay, so the child might be reading one of those pattern books that says like the barn was read, but they might read it as the born was read because barn and born are the same shape of word.
00:21:58
Speaker
Like sight word memorization is often having kids memorize the shape of the word. We don't even, we don't say that, but that's what, what's happening. The kids are members in the shape. I remember giving a parent teacher conference and I literally said, it's okay. They're doing sight words. If they say where instead of what, that means it's stored in the right spot in their brain. They're just mixing it up a little. It's okay. They're on the right track.
00:22:19
Speaker
I feel like brainwashed. Like this is like what happened to, I was one of the teachers that was brainwashed. They were like, this is normal. This is not normal. Kids can learn to read. Every child can learn to read. And we can do this by teaching teachers the right research back strategies. So anyway, in a comprehension question, the child might correct when I asked where the animal lived or whatever, he might say a barn. And so I would overcorrect that error from born to barn. But do you see how that doesn't actually show me that he is decoding words? He's just kind of breezing through and passing. And we can pass really well in kindergarten first and even second grade, but then third grade, that strategy doesn't work. We start to see words that are really, um it's really important that we don't mix them up.
00:23:12
Speaker
Okay, an example of this is personal. I did this. I was on a call with a brand that we work with. It was a hotel chain. And I said, I'm looking at your Colorado location. And they were like, Oh, we don't have a Colorado location. And I was like, wait, is there another hotel with this name? Because I'm literally looking at your hotel, Colorado.
00:23:38
Speaker
And then I reread it and it said Coronado because I did not know Coronado. My brain just went, okay, it's Colorado. So that can drastically change the meaning of what we are reading.
00:23:58
Speaker
in kids too. So anyway, that's why we don't want three queuing. It seems like not that big of a deal. It's a huge deal in the long run. What I say to kids is good readers always decode words. We don't guess at pictures. I make kids in my one-on-one sessions say, repeat after me. We don't guess at pictures. Good readers don't guess and look at pictures. We don't guess. And so I get the argument. Parents think it's easier to just tell them what the word is or they'll figure it out later.
00:24:28
Speaker
They won't. Don't try 90% of the time to make sure that they're reading it properly. Okay, now I want to get to the part that really pissed me off. So there's a story in this article about a mom who held her, or her who, I don't know if the mom or the school decided, but they repeated kindergarten.
00:24:52
Speaker
And oh this is that's a whole nother episode talking about repeating kindergarten because if they're repeating kindergarten because they're struggling with reading and the reading curriculum isn't changing Repeating curriculum or repeating kindergarten isn't going to help
Developmental Spelling Defense
00:25:05
Speaker
repeating kindergarten really has to be an every subject and emotional lens examination and also ah Like, is it, you know, so many people say, I think my kids teacher thinks they have dyslexia and I didn't coin this term, but my friend Cher says, is it dyslexia or is it dysteachia? We can't make that accusation if we don't know that the child has had a chance to be taught using the proper methods, using explicit science-backed instruction.
00:25:43
Speaker
Anyway, so this kindergartner is, um, this mom talks about her kindergartner had written a sentence that said, I went to the ocean and ocean is spelled O S E N. And if you've been here for any amount of time, you know that I love developmental spelling and that spelling that everything else was spelled properly.
00:26:04
Speaker
That spelling of ocean is developmental. It's appropriate for kindergarten, even if they've been in kindergarten twice. If they've been in kindergarten twice and the curriculum is the same, guess what? In kindergarten, they're not taught that spelling pattern. In the science of reading, we follow an explicit, structured, systematic approach to teaching phonics, which means that once a certain rule or spelling pattern has been mastered, then we introduce another one.
00:26:32
Speaker
Okay, so if they're doing kindergarten twice, that doesn't just mean that they're going to learn how to spell ocean if it hasn't been taught in the curriculum still. And it shouldn't be. That's not a developmentally appropriate time to learn that spelling pattern. We usually learn about soft C in first or second grade. If a child, of course, is ready to learn that rule, most teachers will know how to have differentiation and explicitly teach that rule when in small groups they'll be able to analyze their spelling patterns, their writing,
00:27:03
Speaker
they're reading and pull them for small groups and give them the challenge. So when I taught kindergarten, I would do that. Some kids were ready to learn first grade spelling rules. We followed that in an explicit systematic way, which means, you know, we learned these letters first. We don't go through the alphabet A to Z. We go through the letters in the right order. We start teaching blending once they know six to eight letters.
00:27:26
Speaker
We start teaching digraphs after they've learned about 10 or 12 letters. Digraphs are two letters that come together to make a brand new sound. So anyway, this sentence, this this paragraph is the most, probably the most damaging paragraph I've ever read in an article. I know that sounds extreme, but I hope that any parent listening, please, please, please, please take the time to tell all of your friends that developmental spelling is really good and it is part of the science of reading. And we want to make sure that we are this why This is why this article is so confusing because it says, on the one hand, we want to teach kids explicit research back curriculum, but we don't want to lose the joy. Hello, overcorrecting spelling before it's developmentally appropriate is how we lose the joy. This spelling pattern does not have anything to do with 3Qing. Developmental spelling can still be aligned with the science of reading.
00:28:19
Speaker
And I'll say it again, the science of reading is not an explicit curriculum. Ah, so anyway, this mom was appalled that the teacher didn't correct this child's spelling and they pulled the child out. The mom said she brought up her concerns with the teacher who said she defended the visual method. This visual method of reading has nothing to do with this child's spelling. I need to say that so explicitly. This has nothing to do with it. And that child's spelling without seeing their actual writing is developmentally appropriate.
00:28:50
Speaker
so So this mom trusted her gut and pulled her out and put it but put her child in a Catholic school for first grade, which also is an annoying thing because now I feel like parents are going to read this and think, oh, Catholic schools are where the where the people are learning.
00:29:04
Speaker
It doesn't have anything to do with Catholic or private or public. You need to explicitly ask on a school tour or ask the school what training the teachers have and what training they do for new teachers because I was at a school that was trained in certain things, but then when new teachers came in, what happens to them? Did they go to the training? That didn't happen at my school.
00:29:24
Speaker
ah And then plus, like maybe there's the training, but maybe teachers aren't required to use it. Maybe there's the curriculum, but teachers are also still allowed to use whatever they want. So maybe you have one kid in first grader, but the first grade classroom across the hall teaches something completely different. There is no private public. You like nothing. The education in America is not universal.
00:29:47
Speaker
It's not universal in school
Lack of Educational Standards
00:29:49
Speaker
districts. It's not universal in states. It's not universal in private, public, Catholic, Christian. It's not universal. It's not universal in each grade level. It's not universal in each, like it, it really depends on the classroom. And it is ridiculous that we are making it a lottery system for a child to get a teacher that has been trained probably on their own dime to learn the science of reading research.
00:30:14
Speaker
So those are my um big arguments with this article. It does outline that 45 states and Washington DC are considering bills that would retrain public school teachers in new evidence-based reading practices. m It's not new.
00:30:30
Speaker
Who is writing this article? I'm enraged. I'm enraged. But I don't want to be too enraged because I do want them to not be so offended that they don't want to interview me because here's the bottom line. I want every single parent and teacher and child to get what they need. And so it's not it's just enraging me that somebody is going to read this and feel worried about their child because they spelled ocean that way too.
00:31:00
Speaker
Somebody is going to get the wrong idea because this article has so much misinformation. Somebody is going to read this article and think that it's a debate. It's not a debate. It's just research versus what works for wealthy enough families.
00:31:20
Speaker
it's
00:31:23
Speaker
Anyway, that's why also I went from a one-on-one tutoring method um approach to having classes that are on demand. You can get 20 of my lessons, 15-minute lessons for the price of one tutoring session because I want every parent and teacher and child to have access. That's why I spent so many years And so much money investing in a team that can make all of these courses for each grade level from babies, parents of babies, toddlers, preschoolers, the writing course, the kindergarten course, the first grade course, the spelling rules course, because you know, there is a reason English is not just complicated. There's actually a reason that we spell all the words that we do the way that we do. And we can teach that to kids. It might be confusing for us, but kids are moldable. If we can teach them in the right order and the right time, then we can change the course of their life.
00:32:16
Speaker
We cannot fail. This is what the article says. We cannot fail. It also outlines that educators are not really on board with this, requiring new retraining. And it quote, presents, prevents their creativity. See, there's a word that if a kid was reading it in an assessment, prevent and present basically the same word means two different things. That was just a slip of the tongue of me. But anyway, that's an example. They say it prevents creativity with this syllabus. And I think that that is where we get lost, that so many parents would say, well, I want teachers to be able to be creative. That's why they want to be a teacher. Yeah, but not when it comes to reading instruction.
Advocacy for Structured Reading Education
00:33:01
Speaker
I'm sorry. I don't care. Kids' lives are on the line. And I will not stop saying that until every child has a fair shot at learning to read in public schools. I believe in public schools. I love public schools. Let's do it. Let's go.
00:33:20
Speaker
I'll add that this article says students have fallen out of love with reading and it does not have to be one or the other. I literally have thousands of screenshots of DMs and again my ADHD makes it impossible for me to organize and share them but so many parents saying my kid fell in love with reading from your big city readers lessons.
00:33:41
Speaker
It is not one or the other. This debate that it is one or the other is what's taking us away from the point that kids aren't being taught how to read and it is ruining their lives.
00:33:54
Speaker
It's not because of COVID. COVID just shed a light on this. It's not because of COVID. Kids are not struggling because of COVID. Look at the evidence. Look at the years. Look at the decline. Look into the reading wars. This is not reading wars. Look at the research.
00:34:11
Speaker
The article outlines that getting teachers on board may not be easy. In a recent survey, 47% said they weren't on board.
00:34:24
Speaker
Hmm.
Tutoring Demand Surge
00:34:26
Speaker
I'm looking for the other parts I screenshotted of this article and I'm trying to end this because it's Christmas in Hanukkah and everybody's busy. This is, it's a weird time that they posted this. It's almost like they wanted it to get buried, you know? Maybe I'm just a conspiracy theorist. Maybe I am too far 10 years into exclusively analyzing the data of why kids can't read. But it's kind of a weird timeline for me.
00:34:52
Speaker
Okay, the article then talks about how parents with means are paying for tutoring. Learning to read isn't just about getting a grade. It can reverberate throughout someone's career and personal life. And not all students become readers in school.
00:35:09
Speaker
people with money have to pay for extra help. But here's the thing about tutoring. If I've said one thing, it's this, make sure that your tutor is teaching the right way. I've talked to so many parents in so many sessions that say, Oh, we went to this private tutoring company. It was not good. It made it worse. Well, yeah, because not every company is going to focus on your child's social emotional development as well.
00:35:35
Speaker
All of my sessions, all of my courses are equally science-backed reading research and helping kids mindset, growth mindset. We say the word yet in every sentence. I am not good at this. Oh, I'm not really good at this yet. I'm still learning this.
00:35:53
Speaker
I teach them how their brain is elastic and that we can train it to say, oh, I'm growing. I teach them the right phrases. I teach parents the right phrases to say, oh, that was tricky for me, but I love learning new things. I love tricky things. You can do both at the same time and you can do both in a short amount of time. It does not have to be a parent's job to learn to be a reading specialist. However, I will say,
00:36:16
Speaker
Many of you big city readers parents have said that at parent teacher conferences your child's teacher asks if you're a reading specialist and you work another job full time you just took a big city readers class and the lessons. Are quick and that is my goal is to make it so easy to understand in such a short amount of time.
00:36:34
Speaker
That you then go have conversations at the park or with teachers or wherever you are. Just quit conversations and we slowly Get the snowball rolling and change everything and soon every kid is being taught the right way and we see that it's not as complicated as people are making it to believe and it's not as political as people are making us think it is Okay, I'm gonna read this quote I haven't read it actually yet. Okay, Kuman, a private company that provides after-school math and reading tutoring, has recorded a recent surge in its number of new students with enrollment increasing by 56% between 2020 and 2024. The company's methodology incorporates both meaning-based instruction and phonics. Okay, cool. I don't know. I've never done Kuman, but every parent that I've talked to that comes from there did not have a good results. That's just
00:37:25
Speaker
my people have come from there and then come to big city readers. So it might work for you. Again, not every kid is the same. But this article is conflicting because it's like it can't pick a lane. That's what it is. It's like, is it? Here's the instruction. This is what should work. Or is it kids should have fun? Like it really it really is. Every every other line is conflicting.
00:37:50
Speaker
ah But also tutor tutors are gonna be a waste of your money if you don't know how they're teaching if your child doesn't work well with them and if you Don't see especially with the little kids that they are focusing on the social emotional development of your child and their confidence so Anyway That's basically the article It ends with a what now
00:38:21
Speaker
and says that Linda McMahon, president elect Donald Trump's pick to lead his education department, will have a mammoth managerial job on her hands if she is confirmed. The former wrestling executive who sat on the board like pause for that, who sat on the board of trustees for Sacred Heart University and served one year on Connecticut's Board of Education, supports Trump's plan to deliver funds for education directly to states, giving them the authority to choose how to spend
Mixed Messages in Reading Education Article
00:38:51
Speaker
the money.
00:38:51
Speaker
Okay, great. Cool. ah She sparked anger from some educators who argue her plans would hurt public schools. She's also been accused in a recent lawsuit of enabling oh essay of kids in the WWE. w Now it's just see what I mean. There's like no lane in this article.
00:39:12
Speaker
If I'm a parent who doesn't know about this and reading this for the first time, all I'm leaving is confused. And that is exactly what we don't want parents to feel. You actually have what it takes in any amount of minutes that you have to help your child and to make change like in your school, in your district, in your community, in your state. You don't have to be like a political figure. you You are doing this. You are already making this change. So this article feels like so fishy to me.
00:39:43
Speaker
I don't like it. I mean, I'm glad light is being shed, but this was not the proper light. And then it ends with, put down your electronic devices and just read with your kids, which is true. You should do that. Just let them read aloud and then ask questions about the text.
00:40:04
Speaker
And that, we ended the article with the furthest thing from what kids need. We ended an article talking about why kids need explicit instruction and why they're failing and how we know kids are, the pipeline from illiteracy to incarceration is real.
Contradictions in Article Advice
00:40:21
Speaker
We ended with the worst advice you could ever give, just read with your kids. Hello? Hello, I feel insane.
00:40:31
Speaker
So anyway, let me know your thoughts on this article. Let me know if there's a specific part you want me to talk about further. And happy holidays. ah Again, if you are like, where do I start with my child? I guess this would be a great part for me to say, go to bigcityreaders.com. I have a class for every kid. It is priced at the price of one tutoring session for 20 sessions. There are videos for parents, quick, short videos explaining what all of the foundations of reading are.
00:41:01
Speaker
what you need. i'm The rage of this topic that has led me to make the easiest, most fun, research-backed, confidence-building classes for every stage zero to eight years old possible. And I'm very proud of our work and the investments that we've made in a team to execute these projects. So Check them out. Please message me on Instagram or send an email. Hello at bigcityreaders.com. Big city readers on Instagram. Um, I'm here for you. I might just be need a reminder if you send me a message and I forget to come to it. Cause I do get a lot of messages and then I get super enraged and off topic. I'm literally trying to record a new program right now. And this article has led me to hear and record. per quarter podcast on the eve of Christmas Eve. But here we are. I hope this helps. I hope you like hanging out with me and I hope you have a very Merry Christmas.