Weakest Readers Fail to Improve

* Any experienced elementary school teacher who has weathered the classroom fads of the last 20 years will tell you that teaching phonics and reading skills has always been a priority (“Poor Readers Have Gotten Worse, U.S. Study Shows,” April 7). However, these teachers will probably also tell you the old saying about leading a horse to water. If students go home to parents who have no time to talk to them, read with them, expose them to varied life experiences or instill in them the importance of education, then the best that the majority of these children will achieve is the ability to decode words.

STEVE ORMOND

Thousand Oaks

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Implicit in your article is the assumption that the problem is all a matter of teaching technique.

But learning to read well is also affected by other matters, such as poverty, native language, transiency and the availability of books. While California has finally begun to fund the purchase of books for school libraries, almost no elementary schools in the state employ certificated library media teachers. The part-time classified clerks and parent volunteers who do staff most of these libraries often do not have the time or training to spend these funds in a timely and effective way and to closely collaborate with classroom teachers to teach reading literacy.

CARL MARTZ

Library Media Teacher

Yucaipa High School