Strong ability to memorized, or if the short and long term memory processes are in sync, can mask other learning deficits. One of the reason primary students who have developmental dyslexia are missed in the primary grades, is the strong ability to memorized. My child compensated using her memory which in turn masked the core deficits, of phonemic awareness and sequencing. But, and this is the big but, it certainly showed up in her writing, right down to holding the pencil in a fist, and it will show up in all students, when students have not been taught in various forms. .

In one comment in Kitchen Math - “However I do have a problem with it in that it doesn’t distinguish between lesser levels of impairment that need never crystallise into dyslexia if a child is properly taught, and higher levels of impairment that will limit a child’s progress no matter how well it is taught. (Ruth Miskin who developed the excellent Read Write Inc programme in the UK refers to the former group as ABTs, the ‘Ain’t Been Taughts’.)”

The current Whole language approaches, as well as the missing grammar, spelling, handwriting instruction and the focus on using the higher order thinking skills, forces most if not all students to used their strong ability to memorized. to compensate the hidden deficits. The students are learning for the most part using their memory strengths, rather than relying on their memory ability to remember key information. and allowing the higher cognitive functions to kick in to make the connections.

Schools have the cart before the horse, and more so today, when critical thinking skills is the focus, and not the crucial foundation of lower skills, It is ironic when the educrats, especially the ones from the teachers’ colleges wail about the destructive damage of rote learning and boring lessons on spelling and grammar, when the current instruction and pedagogy is forcing all of the students to used their memory as the default button, when it comes to learning.

As a result, by high school and I have observed this in my dyslexia 16 year old and her classmates, most students become specialized readers. My 16 year old, loves her science, and reads science terms with ease, because I taught her at home latin and greek root words, as well as the grammar and spelling rules. In English class, learning root words have help her to maintain a 70 something average, but the surprising part are the high achieving students, who are no longer receiving straight As in English class, or in the science classes if they relied only on their excellent memory processes. High school, is where the the ABTs really shows up in all their glory, in the form of students’ relying on memory skills because they have not been taught.

The current pedagogy practices and other education practices of the public education system, uses the memory processes as the default button, rather than the hard work beginning with systematic direct instruction in the 3 Rs. It is left up to the parents , and the billion dollar plus tutoring industry to sort out.

I got to learn in the new year, to quit reading the bits and pieces of news, that leads to steam blowing out of both ears.

Reading an article in the National Post, on ‘trust me science’, especially on research in the social sciences, such as education and psychology…....

“The answer, according to a growing number of statistical skeptics, is that without release of raw data and methodology, this kind of research amounts to little more than “‘trust me’ science,” in which intentional fraud and unintentional bias remain hidden behind the numbers. Only the illusion of significance remains.”
http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/12/30/how-one-man-got-away-with-mass-fraud-by-saying-trust-me-its-science/

Further down the article, “Technically known as the incorrect rejection of the null hypothesis, a false positive is “perhaps the most costly error” a scientist can make, according to a trio of leading American researchers who this fall published “False-Positive Psychology: Undisclosed Flexibility in Data Collection and Analysis Allows Presenting Anything as Significant.

.At worst, correcting a false positive can cost lives and fortunes. At best, it is a distraction. In the paper, the authors argued that modern academic psychologists have so much flexibility with numbers that they can literally prove anything. False positivism, so to speak, has gone rogue.”

Education research within the education system, is based on false positivism. Whole language and its many different versions, as well as the progressive pedagogy is a prime example.In a nut shell, the educrats and special interests can declared whole language as well as much of the progressive pedagogy research to triumph and disprove any other research that states otherwise. Hence whole language wins over systematic explicit phonics, spelling, hand writing instruction, grammar and all other low skill ability.

Objectivity, replication is not of importance nor when the ‘decline effect’ kicks in, and the original education research can no longer be replicated, in the classroom. Emphasis is than place on engineering the classroom, instruction to replicate an illusion of the original education research. As a result, the advances and new knowledge being made outside of the public education field, such as a strong ability to memorize can mask crucially-important learning deficits is ignore inside the schools, as well as the research centers within the education system.

Students who already have difficulties with language processes pay a very dear price in the public school system, because they are the children that can disprove the original research, as well providing evidence on a daily basis that the current pedagogy and instruction practices have been developed based on false positivism, that allows the educrats the flexibility to constantly prove the original hypothesis of the research is correct.

Much like the achievement stats that are published, where the numbers are engineer to highlight the positive, and downplay the negatives, by not disclosing the raw data, and hard copies of the assessments. Can’t have that, because it would be discovered that students have a combination of reading and writing deficits, that is hindering their progress, and not a knowledge deficit. Very much the same way, when public education assessments do not test for phonemic awareness, fluency, accuracy and other important sub-skills needed to become proficient in reading tasks. If the public education system did that, it would certainly disproved that whole language and the many versions, impedes and hinders reading proficiency, as well as preventing steady progress in learning and acquiring advance knowledge.