**The history of teaching reading for all is not very old**

When America was first colonized it was mother and father teaching the kids in a sort of homeschooling setup. Schools have been around for a long time but they were mainly for the wealthy and elites of society.

In the history of teaching reading there was a very big step about 100 years ago when Maria Montessori started teaching learning and mentally disabled children in Italy.

She brought out the system of learning phonics with sandpaper letters and her disabled kids were learning to read faster than the children in the village school. But as Maria was not politically motivated her system never took off in mainstream schools. Mainstream schools usually switch between phonics and whole word or whole language system, depending on which political force is in play at the moment.

The main problem with reading is a lot of students will learn to read no matter what system is in place, but it has been shown that phonics helps children who are struggling to learn reading.

Success in learning to read depends more on the enthusiasm, ability and energy of the teachers and children than on any particular teaching method. But that has not stopped politics getting involved with how to teach reading. The history of teaching reading in basically a history of how politics influences schools. And if the government is paying the schools then they have the clout.

For more information about phonics courses I recommend including a Montessori course see our Teach Reading page.