I DIDN'T BELIEVE HIM

A mother’s memoir of how schools fail to teach children to read.

Daria, a freelance journalist turned developmental psychologist and reading specialist, is the proprietor of StepsTutoring and author of the Steps to Reading series. In this book, she recalls her struggles with teaching her son to read when his school was failing to do so. And, in a wider context, the author brings to light the underrecognized shortcomings of the modern educational system as a whole when it comes to teaching basic reading skills. At the heart of the book is the educational struggle over phonics versus the whole-language approach to reading, with the emphasis on the former and marginalization of the latter. Throughout, Daria argues that despite the popularity of the whole-language approach (going back to Dick and Jane), plenty of evidence shows that it doesn’t work, forcing parents (at least those with the wherewithal) to try to make up for schools’ deficiencies. Daria’s story is very much shaped by her experience of raising a child in Manhattan—enjoying the attendant privileges, but also dealing with a competitive public school system where middle and high school attendance is determined by application, not geography. Daria consistently displays an awareness of the advantages she had that mitigated her struggle—luxuries that many other parents do not have—but also the limitations of her advantages. The most powerful thing the author does in this memoir is to bring to light how teachers and administrators sometimes gaslight parents (and by extension, children) into believing that it is the child’s perceived deficiencies, and not the problematic teaching methods of the school, that are responsible for their failure to learn to read. The book includes generous examples of reading exercises as well as text in italics from the author’s enlightening current perspective. Overall, Daria raises some important questions about current pedagogical norms, even if she doesn’t comprehensively answer why this failing system has remained so deeply entrenched in America’s schools.

A memoir that raises serious questions about why certain flawed teaching methods have remained in U.S. schools for so long.