SAN DIEGO — To those in California who think the Reading Wars have subsided, consider the case of Kenneth Goodman and his fearless black T-shirt.
"BANNED in California," it screams in bright red letters. "Freedom to learn. Freedom to teach. Social justice."
Crusaders for phonics may have won the latest skirmish in the feud over reading instruction, but the Golden State is drawing heavy fire this week from some of those assembled here for the International Reading Assn.'s annual convention.
Goodman, for those who don't know, is the American patriarch of whole language, a method of teaching widely blamed by state officials for California's poor showing on national tests. He is one of the most outspoken critics of California's move to explicit phonics instruction in the primary grades.
When he speaks, teachers listen.
The professor emeritus from the University of Arizona drew a standing ovation when he slammed the state for legislating phonics into textbooks and teacher training.
"What do the distinguished members of the California Legislature know that enables them to write a law that can tell a teacher . . . what to do and when to do it?" Goodman told 500 wildly applauding teachers Monday.
In these circles, reading is religion. And judging by the many voices rising from lecterns and round tables, there is anything but the broad consensus envisioned by the state.
While virtually everyone does agree that effective reading programs should include phonics, many here object to California's prescribing that method over others.
The objections surface mostly in polite but firm tones: The reading association on Monday endorsed a position statement saying "there is no single method or single combination of methods that can successfully teach all children to read." Teachers, the association argued, must have several strategies at their command.
"To be unscholarly about it, there is more than one way to skin a cat," said association president Kathryn Ransom.
Ransom's successor, Carol Santa, was more blunt.
"You have flipped from one extreme to another," she said of California. "I am absolutely an advocate of phonics. But we don't have data that says one methodology is superior to another."
The association's position statement is a reaction to phonics initiatives in California, Texas and other states around the country. In California, the latest bone of contention is a new language arts framework--the blueprint intended to guide reading and writing instruction in the state's 8,000 schools.
