>I can't comment, because I don't know what method you used.

I don't either. I hesitate to say, but I guess I should - whatever method was popular around the very early 1950s. Actually I think I was reading (probably at a fairly primitive level) at home before I ever started school. When I really think back, both my parents were avid readers, and I think maybe the method under which I learned was called 'osmosis'. ;)

>
>>When phonics was introduced wholeheartedly into the school systems, weren't they messing with proven methods?
>>
>>I'm pretty sure that when I learned to read, phonics was not in popular use. I don't know what they called the method that was used then. The Dick and Jane method might be a good name for it. I became and still am a voracious reader. I realise that Phonics has been around for a hundred years or so, but it was not really popular until fairly recently (30 years or so), no? I'd honestly never even heard of it until a few decades ago. Never having studied under a phonics environment, I may not be the one to speak, but I have a strong feeling that if I'd had to learn that way, I'd have become bored. I'm sure I'd have learned to read, but I think I might have been turned off by the process itself and I might never have become an avid reader.
>>
>>>(Since I am not a VFP programmer I can't do SET RANT ON, so I will do this instead:)
>>>
>>>Namespace Rant
>>>
>>>I was talking to a guy I work with this morning, and he was talking about how his son is struggling with read in kindergarten. Apparently, teachers don't feel the need to teach phonics anymore - instead, they are attempting to teach reading by memorization of words. If they ask him to read a work, and they can tell that he is sounding it out, then it doesn't count.
>>>
>>>They attempted to teach reading to my little brother in this method also. He could barely read until 3rd-4th grade when my parents got him a private tutor to catch up.
>>>
>>>Why do teachers mess with proven methods??? Are they just jumping on the latest teaching bandwagon, not caring about the well-being of the students? I know if I had kids and they were being taught in this method, I would immediately switch schools to one that taught phonics. I would not want anybody testing a different teaching method on my children.
>>>
>>>End Namespace