The Culture Online that Needs to Go

There is this culture that I see in our online community that needs highlighting.

People seem to think it is okay in our online community to openly put down people that have incorrect spelling and grammar. It seems as if some people are even offended by inaccurate grammar and spelling. As if it is intolerable and uncouth.

Have you noticed?

I'm not here for that.

This conversation stemmed from a sponsored advertisement that I saw on Facebook. The ad is promoting a 'balanced literacy' reading program which claims to 'teach your kid to read in 30 days for free'. Sound a bit too good to be true? That's because it is.

What is balanced literacy you ask?

Briefly, a balanced literacy approach to teaching reading takes whole-word memorisation strategies (an ineffective way of learning to read) and adds a touch of phonics with some sounding out without the  explicit instruction on how to do so. It meshes the two approaches into a very confusing, mixed-message approach to learning to read. This is the approach that most schools use today, which is why we have the problems that we do with kids failing to learn how to read properly. Yours included, right?

The ad promoting this balanced literacy app/program depicts two main characters. One character named 'Mitch' is writing notes to the other character who is outwardly berating 'Mitch' for his spelling and grammar errors.

The ad goes on to say, "Don't let your kid be like 'Mitch' when he grows up" and passes 'Mitch', you guessed it, the balanced literacy reading program on an iPad.

Spoiler: it's the same teaching approach that would have failed 'Mitch' when he was a kid in the first place. 

More of the same teaching will not help. Ever. 'Mitch' needs explicit, synthetic phonics... and a new friend because the one putting him down needs to go.

Here's the thing. People with phonological processing difficulties, which is what dyslexia is, require direct explicit instruction using an approach or program that is structured and systematic. Anything less and they will struggle with literacy through no fault of their own.

The people that we see online with inaccurate spelling and grammar are the people that we have failed to teach effectively. Nothing more. Nothing less. Nothing to do with intelligence, just crappy teaching. We need to remember, it's the system, not the person.

The sooner we realise this and change the way we see and speak about incorrect spelling and grammar online, the more likely it will be that we start to wake up to the fact that those ten percent of people that are on the dyslexic continuum aren't there to be made fun of, to their face or behind the keyboard.

Instead, as a community, let's look a little deeper, have more tolerance for others, be kind and above all else, recognise that the kids of today don't need more balanced literacy, they need evidence based programs and approaches that will give them the literacy skills that 'Mitch' never got.