Sold a Story - Coming Soon: Sold a Story

Episode Date: October 13, 2022

Sold a Story is a six-part series beginning with two episodes on October 20.More: soldastory.org

I'm Emily Hanford. I'm a reporter. A few years ago, I did a story that sparked a response like nothing I'd ever experienced. The story was about how a lot of schools aren't teaching children how to read. It didn't seem like they were really teaching them to read. It seemed like they were teaching them to sound like they could read. I said to my son's teacher, I was like, this isn't how we learned how to read, meaning me and her. Like this can't be right, right? Schools around the country use methods and materials that are based on a theory about

how children learn to read that was debunked years ago by cognitive scientists. The theory is this, children don't need to learn how to sound out words because there are other ways for them to figure out what the words say. We're going to see if the picture helps us to figure out what that word would be. You could tell them to look at the face later and it'll pop out of your head if you're looking at the picture as well. You get reports of children who finally do succeed at reading with this kind of one hand tied behind your back sort of approach, but they really don't like reading.

He doesn't look at all the letters and words, he doesn't look at all the words and sentences, and reading is miserable for him. Judd, doc, oh. The kids struggle and they suffer. Judd. Kids telling you that they're a defective person who is stupid and hates school and never wants to do anything with reading ever.

For the last few years, I've been trying to figure out why materials for teaching reading, based on this debunk theory, are so popular. At its core, the theory was inaccurate. And my reporting has led me to four people. I trusted that their experts, four published authors who had an outsize influence on how schools teach reading. She was like a rockstar walking into that building. If Beyonce came and gave a private concert in my district, it would not have been a bigger deal for many of my teachers. I read or purchased every book. I used to call them my Bibles. I trusted that this is the way you teach reading. Yes. I thought this was cutting edge. How could they be wrong?

What I'm haunted by is when it wasn't working, I blamed it on children. Our new podcast tells the story of these four people and the company that publishes their work. You've got good business people protecting very, very valuable franchises. How did someone convince so many people that this is good and right? Your kids should go to school and learn how to read. Sold a story begins October 20th.