Teachers look for solutions to
America's learning problems

By Bonnie Miller Rubin
Chicago Tribune

CHICAGO, IL - If America wants to get serious about solving its reading problem, the first step is to improve education.

For teachers, that is.

``If we know anything, it's that students learn in different ways, that one-size-fits-all mentality doesn't work and that early intervention is essential,'' said Sandra Britt, president of the Learning Disabilities Association of America.

The association wrapped up its annual conference this weekend in Chicago. More than 5,000 parents, educators and scientists attended the four-day meeting at the Palmer House Hilton.

The fact that Johnny can't read is hardly news. But why 20 percent of U.S. schoolchildren are reading-impaired by the time they reach 4th grade and what can be done to keep them from falling through the cracks is something the education and the scientific communities have grappled with for some time.

But a number of factors are coming together to give the issue some urgency. First, society's awareness of illiteracy is growing. Public figures such as Jay Leno and Bill Cosby, who spoke about the academic struggles of his late son, Ennis, have brought dyslexia out of the closet. There is more information available on the wiring of the brain and on how difficulties often have a genetic component.

Finally, after a generation of youngsters have learned to read by the whole language approach--which immerses them in literature--instead of the phonics drills that were drummed into their parents, children in affluent, suburban districts are experiencing the same reading difficulties that used to be found primarily in poor neighborhoods.

``The political will to do something ... to move this from discussion to action is there,'' said Kathy Bonk, spokeswoman for the Learning Disabilities Association, which has almost 70,000 members nationwide.

In the past, poor readers could be funneled into manufacturing jobs and earn middle-class wages, but many of those employment opportunities have disappeared. ``Kids who can't read go through life not feeling very good about themselves ... and if you wait, you pay,'' said Reid Lyon, research director of the National Institutes of Health and one of the country's most respected voices on literacy.