While the "whole language" approach to teaching reading has been widely discredited, that didn't stop the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) from organizing a series of seminars called "A Day of Whole Language" during its annual convention in Baltimore last week. According to Leila Christenbury, the president-elect of the NCTE, "It's a hot-button word, a phrase that has become demonized, but we are still embracing it... We're standing firmly behind it." The opening speaker at the NCTE seminar warned that attacks on whole language were about corporations "seizing public education" and destroying "democracy and freedom" in public school classrooms. Seminars were offered on topics like "nurturing the linguistic and artistic talents of urban children of color through the use of writing and visual art" during the daylong event. Maryland schools superintendent Nancy Grasmick blasted the seminars: "So many of these children who have been identified for special education services because they can't read are a direct result of the whole language philosophy. Trying to teach children to read without using phonics is a problem, and all of the research shows that. They've got to get on board." For more see "Whole language teachers unabashed, hanging tough," by Howard Libit, The Baltimore Sun, November 19, 2001.For an overview of the differences between whole language reading instruction and phonics-based instruction, as well as an explanation of the persistence of whole language reading instruction, see "Whole Language Lives On: The Illusion of 'Balanced' Reading Instruction," by Louisa Moats, published by the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation in 2000.
