In the Saturday 9/19/15 NY Times Editorial Section there is a piece about Mayor de Blasio’s School Agenda… "It has long been clear that the system is failing at it’s most basic function—teaching children to read. Students fall behind early and never catch up. Part of the problem is that teachers generally are poorly prepared to teach reading and to reach children who do not catch on automatically..."
AIN’T THIS THE TRUTH
The NYC DOE under Michael Bloomberg instituted a balanced literacy approach that only works with children that “catch on automatically.” There are many reasons that children don’t “catch on automatically,” but the intervention is the same. An Orton-Gillingham approach to reading works for almost all children. It doesn’t harm those who “catch on automatically” and would save those who don’t.
Quoted from the Times Editorial: “Mr. de Blasio calls for hiring 700 literacy specialists and distributing them in elementary schools.”
But what credentials will these literacy specialists have? Right now, there is no Orton-Gillingham training requirement for any licensed Special Education teacher in NYC. Why is this?
Teaching Children to Read with Orton-Gillingham
We know it works.
It works at the private special education schools around the city and state. It works for private tutors hired by parents with struggling kids. So why doesn’t the DOE require training in Orton-Gillingham muti-sensory Reading? I can’t explain it? Can you?
