Thread by @TheDIRevolution

Today we were asked why we are so angry & our posts are vitriolic. It was suggested that the vitriol & nastiness in the posts and comments are disappointing from our group, that bashing other programs in the manner that we have engaged in is beneath an organization such as DI.

As I stated to the individual who requested an honest response from us regarding her concerns, I am sharing our response here.

First, however, know this. For the past 24 hours I have received more messages than I can count from numerous advocates and concerned parents sharing what F&P was posting and asking us to respond.

For the person who suggested I was “trolling” F&P know this - I don't actually follow F&P. I stay away from their pages because I don't want to be angered by their posts, but when my inbox is inundated by concerned people, I listen.

Response:

I will try to give the response you are requesting. I understand you feel disappointed in the group and you are free to leave and join a group that may be more aligned with your perspectives,

but at DI we cannot mince words when kid’s lives are being ruined by these programs. We are not going to make everyone happy with our message. That is something that we accept and understand.

We are parents first. Our children, all of our children, have been deeply harmed by products like F&P, Lucy Calking Teacher’s College Reading and Writing Project, and others.

Goodman, Clay, Fountas, Pinnell and Calkins and their lobbyists played an enormous role in discriminating against the students in America’s right to read beginning in the 1970’s.

Their mindset to deny the evolving scientific research in reading has cost children their lives for decades. To not call out the individuals that sit at the top of the empire would be to ignore the very foundation of which it was built on.

Furthermore, these individuals and their publishers create false advertisements and market products and PD to public schools in exchange for our tax dollars. We have every right to hold them accountable.

We stand on one side of the Reading Wars; they stand on the other. What advocates on both sides have learned is that there is no compromise between our two sides. Are we angry today? Yes, absolutely.

F&P has for a very long time been refusing to answer #SoR based questions, turning off comments, deleting entire threads, banning parents who ask questions, and not being truthful about the effectiveness of their programs.

Ms. Calkins’ claims to be embracing #SoR are also untrue. NAEP scores in this country show that 64% of children are reading below proficient levels in this country, and Balanced Literacy has been the curriculum base of choice since the mid-1970’s.

If you examine the history of NAEP scores, they have either been steady or gotten progressively worse over the last 30+ years. 10 years ago, 32 million American adults were illiterate. Today that number is almost 42 million.

In 10 years, 10 million more American adults are illiterate. 80% of our American prison populations are functionally illiterate with approximately 50% being dyslexic. Those numbers should terrify everyone.

Our dyslexic children, as well as the remaining 44% of children reading below proficiency levels, are left behind by curriculums that do not teach children how to read and are blamed for their inability to read. Parents are shamed constantly. Dyslexia is denied right and left.

Parents are left helpless by the very schools their tax dollars pay for while these same schools continue to invest year after year in bad curriculum practices. We are isolated, bullied, lied to, intimidated, and more.

Does that make us angry? You bet. Why? Because those are our children too. Some of us here are dyslexic, some aren’t, but we all have dyslexic children. Some of our children too are traumatized deeply with PTSD, anxiety, self-harming tendencies, and depression.

Some have attempted suicide. These are a direct result of the denial of their right to read. This is also true for the vast majority of our followers, and they appreciate our honest approach.

Sometimes that honest approach will be one of vitriol, which F&P deserves after what they did yesterday and deserve with their 10-post blog which is perpetuating the untruths about the efficacy of their programs. If that is a turn off, we respect your decision to not follow us.

We will only support SoR. We do not slam the people who use the products, and if you have been following us for a significant amount of time then you will note that we do support educators and have said so quite frequently, including today.

The teachers who reach out to us find support and what guidance we are able to offer, and when we don’t know we do want we can to get them answers to the questions they ask.

What we will not support are people who insist on holding onto or defending what we know to be poor curriculums that harm children.

Our mission will not be for everyone. We are here to serve parents first, and support and ensure the parent voice is heard. We’ve spent years trying to do it the way education asked parents to comply with, and that doesn’t work.

All that achieves are smiles and lip service and no change. Change is hard and to achieve that change sometimes people have to get angry. We will not please everyone, and we are ok with that.

When you stand in our shoes and have your child suffer, and then be lied to by education about the reasons why and asked to “wait and see,” or even if remediation is offered, for that offering to be a small pittance of what the child needs,

all the while the child is moved from grade to grade, unable to achieve grade level expectations as the Matthew Effect widens with each successive year, then perhaps you can understand the anger we feel today after what F&P has published over the last several days.

You are free to not follow us if we let you down in our position, but again, we are parents first, for parents first, fighting for the lives of our children.

To conclude, we will reshare a recent newsletter piece from a balanced literacy teacher turned #ScienceOfReading advocate after BL failed her own child.

Thank you.

thedyslexiainitiative.org/post/a-former-…