'The purpose of which is to create one-dimensional ultra conformist zombies.'
yep even that would be better than the self entitled getup/antifa brats who have a life of ease thanks to other peoples hard work and now can do nothing but demonise those who gave them such comforts. One of those are we daffy?

With the exception of BigNana and Daffy Duck, it is very clear that the rest of the commentariat on this article have NOT seen the inside of a class room since they left school so many years ago. Polite discussion seems to be out of place on this site and informed discussion is similarly lacking.

I am proud to say that I am a retired high school teacher and that in as many lessons per week as I could fit it in, the language of my subject and general literacy were there. Literacy is NOT an exit card from Infants school: it is every teachers' job. Phonics is needed but so is whole-language for all those words which cannot be correctly pronounced using phonics rules. For these, there is no alternative to learning, by rote, how to pronounce them.

English is NOT a phonetic language.

I am waiting to hear what others have to say.

From the executive summary of the report, "The attention of the Inquiry Committee was drawn to a dichotomy between phonics and whole-language approaches to the teaching of reading. This dichotomy is false. Teachers must be able to draw on techniques most suited to the learning needs and abilities of the child."

It is not an either/or situation: phonics and whole language can, and do, live comfortably side-by-side in the best class rooms.

Look at this list of words and wonder you could teach a language learner how to say them whenever any of these was encountered.
Is phonics a help here?

bough/ plough
cough/ trough
enough
through
thorough

My eldest was reading, writing & doing arithmetic well before school. The other two were too lazy or disinterested.

However they were lucky. They all went to a small 3 teacher & teaching head country school.

The combined first & second class was taught for years by a dear old granny, who stood no rubbish, & threw out all the new fangled garbage teaching aids & ideas, as quickly as some clown in head office developed.

She taught her beginners just as she had when she started teaching in 1950. No kid got through 2 years of her & her 1950 teaching techniques unable to handle the 3 Rs.

It was a tough time in schools. That idiot Goss gave teachers a huge wage rise, but did not bother to fund it. As treasurer of our P&C I saw the extra costs loaded onto us the parents. We even had to fund the chalk, pencils & paper for classes. Teachers had higher wages, but stuff all support with materials.

This did not effect our granny, I doubt she even noticed she was richer. She still made sure the kids left her care with a full grounding in the basics. It was only after she retired, replaced by kids trained in all the new thinking, that kids started entering 3Rd class with no skills at all

Some of these skills used to be taught/ supported by parents but with both parents working and teachers taking on some of the parenting responsibilities and in a repressive environment- perhaps some teaching capacity has been lost. Yes "English is not a phonetic language" but this didn't stop children in the past- an anecdotal survey indicates a lowering of outcomes. In some dictionaries there used to be facial diagrams to help with pronunciation until linguists apparently denigrated it. Perhaps children could read/ speak aloud more. Reading, writing, speaking, listening- all of these skills need to be practiced daily for proficiency. But language/ teaching is not my core expertise. Perhaps high immigration has made teacher duties more challenging due to a higher proportion of children in homes speaking other than Australian English. Perhaps there are too many requirements and subjects in todays schools to provide focused learning. Perhaps the standards of teachers have dropped since "Brian of Buderim" taught. Society has changed, Education outcomes have degraded- maybe we should change society and education back to the way it was...

The world is what we make it.