1950's Education | Why Johnny Can't Read—and What You Can Do About It

Nonfiction work

By: Rudolf Flesch

Date: 1955

Source: Flesch, Rudolf. Why Johnny Can't Read—and What You Can Do About It. New York: Harper, 1955. Reprint, Harper and Row, 1986, 4–18.

About the Author: Rudolf Flesch (1911–1986), an Austrian-born educator, was the author of a number of books on speaking, reading, and writing including The Art of Plain Talk (1946), The Art of Readable Writing (1949), and The Art of Clear Thinking (1951). Flesch was best known as an advocate for the phonics method of reading instruction.

Introduction

When Rudolf Flesch's grandson, "Johnny," was having trouble with reading, Flesch began to work with him and found, to his surprise, that the twelve-year-old did not know the sounds associated with the letters of the alphabet and could not "sound out" words. Rather, he attempted to guess each word. Within...