Re: Re[2]: phonics politics
KEN GOODMAN (kgoodman who-is-at CCIT.ARIZONA.EDU)
Mon, 13 May 1996 00:09:46 -0700 (MST)
Whaat do you thin we:re doing Phil? Where are the open forums you're
talking about? I write in Education week, I write in professional
journals. I wrote a book on phonics last year and a book on reading this
year. The attacks on whole language here are taking the same path they
did in England- we're just a few years behind. Aren't they rounding up
and Killing "educationalists? When politicians of both parties in
California pass a bill of take immediate effect mandating how teachers
willteach, when the governor diverts federal money from the purposes iit
was intended for tto force training of teachers in phonics it isn't
because of failure of whole language advocates to answer questions. It
may be confortable for academic liberals toreassure themselves that these
are only "educationalists" under attack ( why does that term ring like a
racial slur in my ears?) Let me assure you that this attackon whole
language is the leading edge of a broad scale attack on public education
and
that no academic is safe from it. You might spend an interesting evening
surfing the recent entries on whole language on the internet to see how
far aand how broadly the far right is aiming their campaign and how much of
their rhetoric is penetrating the national media and the political
process. We who are bearing the brunt of the attack need support from
those who don't believe as we do but understand that much more is at
stake than what literacy processes are about or how reading should be
taught. If you think we brought this slanderous, bigotted campaign on
ourselves and that we alone are obligated to fight the good fight you
haven;t learned the lessons of history.
Let me offer some suggestions that those not invloved in whole language
can get involved in
1. Use your research expertise as Berliner and Biddle have to
investigate the blame being placed on whole language for the problems of
schools in California.
2. Organize conferences in your local areas to consider local press
reports and political actions.
3. Answer the press articles and editorials and letters to the
ediotr as they appear.
4. Organize programs in a wide range of academic and professional
organizations.
I'm not asking people to defend whole language. I'm asking that the
level of discussion be raised out of the gutter and out of the totalal
disregard for logic, evidence and truth which is now characterizing it.
Ken Goodman
Sun, 12 May 1996, Phil Agre wrote:
> I must reply briefly to Ken Goodman. He likens me to a Holocaust apologist
> for suggesting that he write an op-ed column. Opponents of whole language
> teaching, though, are not Nazis who are rounding up and killing educationalists.
> They are debating the issues fair and square in the public sphere. They may
> be wrong, but people who will not stand up for their beliefs in an open debate
> deserve to lose the fight. What's the alternative? Believing that you are
> entitled to win without explaining why? A dozen articles in academic journals
> about the rhetoric of the debate are good and useful in their way, but they
> are no substitute for answering people's questions in an open forum. Leaving
> a vacuum in that forum can only make things worse.
>
> Phil Agre
>
>