The "Reading Wars" in American education can be traced back to the inception of the Look-Say method which started in the 1930's. The main idea behind this approach was that children could learn to read through repeated exposure without direct attention to subword parts.  Prior to this method, Phonics was the main method of teaching reading in America. Phonics is a set of instructional strategies for teaching the relationship between letters and sounds. The Look-Say method remained unchallenged until 1955 when Rudolf Flesch wrote his book entitled, "Why Johnny Can't Read", in which he vehemently attacked the approach and demanded a return to phonics. Although the public accepted Flesch, American educators rejected Flesch's arguments. A decade later, Jeanne Chall's (1967) "Learning to Read: The Great Debate" was finally considered in academia. 

          Today, we still have two camps of educators, those who adhere to a Whole Language or Balanced Literacy approach,  and those who adhere to a Phonics approach to beginning reading instruction. Whole Language is based on the notion that reading acquisition is a natural process. The educators who adhere to this philosophy believe that through exposure to good literature, children will learn to read naturally. Balanced Literacy uses literature, like Whole Language,  to teach reading with an added phonics component. The phonics component in Balanced Literary is not correlated to reading materials. The Phonics approach uses direct, systematic, phonetic instruction with correlated reading material to ensure mastery of skills. Instruction is well-defined, logical and easy to follow. The research clearly supports this form of beginning reading instruction.

           So, why the "Reading Wars", if the battle is clearly won? In his book, "Let's Kill Dick and Jane", Harold Henderson, sites politics and money as the underlying causes for poor curriculum choices in American Schools. As a Public School teacher for 15 years,  I can confirm that school administrators are often governed by politics, not research, when deciding on curriculum. As a result, the most important skill taught in public and private school classrooms is not always done with the most effective, efficient methods. I have tutored countless children who have fallen victim to such poor choices. I founded this tutoring company in order to give students a clear head-start in reading with the most effective method possible. At ABC- Write Start Read, we want to ensure that our students do not fall victim to the "Reading Wars." We offer the opportunity to parents to give their children the best possible start in school.