The Parallel Stories of Lucy Calkins (the Disparagement of Phonics) and Anthony Fauci (COVID)

I've been listening to outstanding podcast titled "Sold a Story,” an eight-part investigative series hosted by journalist Emily Hanford. Launched in October 2022, “Sold a Story.” This podcast examines the widespread use of an ineffective (and often counter-productive) reading instruction method used in many U.S. schools. This method, heavily promoted by Lucy Calkins, author of the “Units of Study”, was one of the most widely used reading curricula in U.S. elementary schools after its introduction in 1987. This method, which intentionally discourages the use of phonics, has been so firmly embedded in grade school curricula that it continues to be used in many schools despite decades of cognitive science showing that kids learn far better when they are taught significant amounts of phonics. “Sold a Story” exposes how millions of children struggle to read (even now as adults) because schools relied on Calkins' thoroughly debunked theories, often referred to as "balanced literacy" and "whole language."

The focus of the “Sold a Story” is this: Why do so many American schools continue to use reading curricula rooted in such a flawed idea that children can learn to read primarily by guessing words using context clues or pictures, rather than systematically decoding words through phonics? Calkins' approach, influenced by figures like Marie Clay and perpetuated by popular authors and publishers somehow ignored the "science of reading," research showing that explicit phonics instruction is a critical component for most children to become proficient readers. The series also highlights the horrific consequences of excluding phonics—65% of current U.S. fourth graders are not proficient readers.

[Note and Spoiler Alert: Lucy Calkins began incorporating phonics into the Units of Study for Teaching Reading curriculum with the release of her newest method, called the Units of Study in Phonics in 2021. This was in response to growing criticism, including the criticism levied by the "Sold a Story" podcast. Calkins' updated method includes phonics primarily in K-2 classrooms to supplement the core reading curriculum, aiming to address foundational skills like decoding. In her current method, phonics is still deemphasized for grades 3 and beyond.]

Lucy Calkins agreed to be interviewed by Emily Hansford in 2021 after previously rebuffing Hansford. For me, this interview was gripping--I've transcribed it below. What would Calkins say after causing such widespread damage to millions of children? Well, this interview revealed Calkins' lack of integrity and an unwillingness to fall squarely on her sword. She just couldn't bear to admit that she refused to look at the science of reading while creating and promulgating her flawed method. This willful ignorance occurred while Calkins was the nation's de facto rock star of reading education. For years, the science of reading demonstrated that her method was harming children by teaching them to pretend to read. Many kids are wired such that they learned to read despite the fundamental flaws of Calkins' original method but, as indicated above, many other students were left behind, some of them for life. The following is from Episode 6:

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Jordan Peterson: The challenge of identifying the psychopaths on the Left and on the Right.

Jordan Peterson discusses the challenge of identifying the psychopaths on the Left and on the Right. He claims that the main thing these two groups have in common is not their ideas, such as wokeness.  It is their psychopathology. I created a transcript of this conversation below:

Jordan Peterson 0:02

I think that virtualization has enabled the psychopaths. Without a doubt, yeah, well, without a doubt, that's a terrible thing, because the psychopathic types, they're always the death of everything, like I'm seeing this come up on the right now. So imagine, imagine this. I've been working on a new, a new theory of political psychopathology, and I like it quite a lot. Is this

Joe Rogan 0:24

where the term the woke, right comes in?

Jordan Peterson 0:26

Yeah, well, Lindsay is pointing at that, but he hasn't got, he hasn't got the diagnosis exactly right? So it isn't woke. That's not the issue. It's not exactly,

Joe Rogan 0:36

I think one level talking about is like similar types of behavior

Jordan Peterson 0:40

he is talking about that, yeah, no,

Joe Rogan 0:42

woke just lets you clarify in your head. Oh, it's like that,

Jordan Peterson 0:46

yeah. But the problem is,

Joe Rogan 0:47

It's like, Antifa,

Jordan Peterson 0:48

Yeah, absolutely. But the problem is, is that that argument is predicated on the claim that the ideas are the problem, like the woke ideas, for example, on the right or the left. But that's not the problem. The problem is that four to 5% of the population, something like that is Cluster B, that's the DSM five terms, histrionic, narcissistic, anti social, psychopathic, and they have dark tetrad traits. They're Machiavellian, they're sadistic. That's about 4% okay, so the question is, how do these people maneuver? And the answer is, they go to where the power is and they adopt those ideas, and they put themselves even on the forefront of that.But the ideas are completely irrelevant, right? All they're doing is, they're the Pharisees. They're the modern version of the Pharisees. They're the people who use God's name in vain, right, as they proclaim moral virtue. Doesn't matter whether it's right or left or Christian or Jewish or Islam. They invade the idea space, and then they use those ideas as false weapons to advance their narcissistic advantage. And so then you have the problem, and the right is going to face this more and more particularly because the left had to face it when they were in powers.

Yes.

How do you identify the psychopathic parasites? 4% of the population who are clothed in your clothing and waving your flags, but who are only in it for narcissistic benefit.

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Tribes and Stupidity

I just wrote this on FB, where I sometimes feel like a pinata by people have allowed themselves to be loyal mouthpieces for one political party.

I stand by my assertion that anyone who allows their facts or opinions to be shaped by party politics has allowed their intelligence to drop by 50 points. All of us should be making our own decisions issue by issue. If your opinions are fully or almost entirely aligned with one particular political party, I'm talking especially to you. If you refuse to publicly criticize at least some of the actions and corruption of both political parties, your brain has been captured by a mind-virus. There are no good or bad people. There are only good or bad ideas. As detailed in the book by Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff, The Coddling of the American Mind, "One of the Three Great Untruths is Us Versus Them: Life Is a Battle Between Good People and Evil People." Excerpt from pages 58-59.

The bottom line is that the human mind is prepared for tribalism. Human evolution is not just the story of individuals competing with other individuals within each group; it’salso the story of groups competing with other groups—sometimes violently. We are all descended from people who belonged to groups that were consistently better at winning that competition. Tribalism is our evolutionary endowment for banding together to prepare for intergroup conflict. When the “tribe switch” is activated, we bind ourselves more tightly to the group, we embrace and defend the group’s moral matrix, and we stop thinking for ourselves. A basic principle of moral psychology is that “morality binds and blinds,” which is a useful trick for a group gearing up for a battle between “us”and “them.”In tribal mode, we seem to go blind to arguments and information that challenge our team’s narrative. Merging with the group in this way is deeply pleasurable—as you can see from the pseudotribal antics that accompany college football games.

But being prepared for tribalism doesn’t mean we have to live in tribal ways. The human mind contains many evolved cognitive “tools.”We don’t use all o f them all the time; we draw on our toolbox as needed. Local conditions can turn the tribalism up, down, or off. Any kind o f intergroup conflict (real or perceived) immediately turns tribalism up, making people highly attentive to signs that reveal which team another person is on. Traitors are punished, and fraternizing with the enemy is, too. Conditions of peace and prosperity, in contrast, generally turn down the tribalism.32People don’t need to track group membership as vigilantly; they don’t feel pressured to conform to group expectations as closely. When a community succeeds in turning down everyone’s tribal circuits, there is more room for individuals to construct lives of their own choosing; there is more freedom for a creative mixing of people and ideas."

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On Being Non-Partisan

Greg Lukianoff:

Be willing to make common cause with ideological opponents. As he contemplated the challenges and pitfalls of advocating for abolition, Frederick Douglass began to see that dialogue with those who saw things differently was critical to achieving his goals. When the more stringent and radical abolitionists, whose motto was “No union with slaveholders,” criticized Douglass’ approach, he famously replied, “I would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong.”

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