This question comes up all the time and it is an important one. Reading programs in most elementary, middle, and even high schools in the US are tightly controlled by the school districts. In some districts, teachers can be disciplined and even fired if they stray from the approved curriculum.
Most elementary reading education is fundamentally flawed and igores the last 50 years of research into educational principles and critical understandings of how the brain works. For example, most elementary reading programs teach students to:
1. read one word at a time
2. sound the words aloud in their head while they read
3. read slow when they want to remember what you read
Turns out that this is nearly exactly the opposite of what the brain wants. Yet year after year, schools turn out students, good and not-so-good, who hate reading, who fall asleep and lose their place, and who miss the ideas of what they are reading. What a tragedy, especially in a world saturated with information coming at us from every direction.
It's maddening.
Time after time, I have had students in my speed reading classes from middle and high school who have been classified as poor readers and bad students. What a crime that these brilliant people - as most people are whatever their grades have been - have been classified as some how "less than" others because their minds reject the way they were being taught.
This is NOT the fault of teachers. Teachers are wonderful beings doing a miraculous job with our children. They can relate to children in a way that few can. But teachers don't always get to teach what they want or the way they would like. They are forced into state and federal standards (often created by committees well versed in old, outdated modes of teaching) that tie their hands. Just a few days ago, I attended a "Curriculum Night" at my son's middle school and saw presentations by his 6th grade teachers. Every one of them were constrained by a giant notebook of standards that put the brakes on their creativity, especially in language and science classes.
The good news is that if a student finds his way to my class (or is driven there with a parent who also takes the class), in just a few hours I can turn all this around and begin the process of restoring confidence, self-esteem, and the love of learning that so many mass education schools dampen. The human mind, spirit and heart are flexible and can change or be repaired.
We are there to help.
