The field of reading became a branch of Medicine. The professors were triumphant in dictating the terms of the switcheroo. Kids were the big losers. That's K-12 in America
In the early 1950s, when Rudolf Flesch started work on his famous book Why Johnny Can't Read, he visited the New York Public Library to find research on the big question, what's better, phonics or sight-words?
In Chapter 1 of this historic book, Flesch reported that there were a dozen academic studies, going back to the early 1900s. All favored phonics.
The most extensive study was conducted by Dr. Samuel Orton circa 1927. He concluded that Sight-words did not work and (here was something new and scary) could mess up a child's brain for life. In a rational world that would end the debate. But a Rockefeller Grant paid for this research; academic sponsors expected Orton to endorse Sight-words, which were then (and remain now) the Party Line.
