Why can we not just teach children the way they were taught to read 100 years ago, with phonics? English is about 80% phonetic. Once the child has learned to read phonetically he or she can then learn the exceptions. However if you try to make them learn sight words at the beginning, which is like learning an ideographic language such as Chinese, you destroy the confidence of the slower learners.

I think it is experimentation in reading, particularly forcing children to try to learn to read how adults eventually learn to read ie using sight words for basic English, which has caused the literacy disaster in the Australian school population.

'Whole language' was welcomed by teachers whose children were failing with phonics. Unless you recognise that young children are baffled by a phonic approach to irregular words that make up 12% of their reading, phonics will fail as much as Whole Language. If you give them the 35 words as exceptions right at the start, they can have more faith in phonics. They need only recognise them, not learn them for recall - all almost always among as come some could should would half know of off one only once other pull push put they their two as was what want who why, and word-endings -ion/-tion/-sion.
That is a better alternative than learning all words by rote.
20% of words that are spelling traps make the other 80% tricky as well.