Why First Start Reading?

First Start Reading is Memoria Press phonics program that covers the kindergarten phonics taught at Highlands Latin School. After completing First Start Reading, our first and second graders continue with Classical Phonics and Traditional Spelling.   So why did we write a phonics program? Let’s face it, there are so many phonics programs out there that finding one is … Continue reading


The War Against Grammar

I have taught classics at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee since 1973. During these years, I have noticed a decline in the verbal skills of my students. It is embodied in the difficulties that they have in reading comprehension and English composition, as well as in the fact that few are capable of studying a foreign language successfully. … Continue reading


The Shadow of God

In Leo Tolstoy’s great Christian novel Anna Karenina, an after-dinner conversation turns to the subject of which European nation is more civilized – the English, the French, or the German. Karnenin, Anna’s husband, asserts that that civilization is most influential which is the most “truly educated.” … Continue reading


English Grammar for the Grammar Stage

Why doesn’t English grammar stick? Because we don’t follow the natural order: memorization in the grammar stage and analysis in the logic stage. The name grammar school comes from the early Renaissance, when the major subject of the elementary years was the Latin grammar. The young grammar student memorized Latin grammar forms – declensions and conjugations – and gradually … Continue reading


What Is the Classical Approach to Phonics?

The Traditional Method It’s either feast or famine. When I was teaching my children to read, there were so few phonics programs available, I didn’t know where to find one. Phonics instruction nearly disappeared in the 1930s and only started making a comeback in the 1970s. Now there are so many phonics programs to choose … Continue reading


This History of Phonics

People who pay attention to education know that the question of how to teach children to read is a controversial one. But what they may not know is that it only became controversial relatively late, historically speaking. There was a time when there was no phonetic alphabet as we know it. Written language, in fact, … Continue reading


How to Teach Phonics (And How Not To)

In the Summer 2014 Classical Teacher, I wrote an extensive article exploring the question, “What is the Classical Approach to Phonics?” The contention of that article was that there are two basic approaches to phonics in the classical education world: the traditional method and the Spalding method. The Spalding method is based on the book The Writing Road to Reading (WRTR), … Continue reading


How to Teach Phonics (Part II)

In two previous articles, we have explored the question: What is the classical approach to phonics? I have shown that Orton-Gillingham phonics, which is designed for students with dyslexia, is in every respect a classic traditional phonics program. I have also shown that Romalda Spalding, in The Writing Road to Reading (WRTR), though she used the Orton phonograms, created a totally different … Continue reading


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