Disrupting Thinking Why How We Read Matters

We are in the midst of a crisis of commitment in the workplace—organizations are searching for engaged employees ("talent") and employees are looking for a place to thrive. Both are struggling. If we fit, we hum, we connect, we create momentum and produce high-value work with grace and ease. But the wrong fit has serious consequences, including frustration, disengagement, and disruption, which undermines every aspect of daily work and the production of value.

The way we teach reading is not working, and it cannot continue. We have largely abandoned phones-based reading instruction, despite research that supports its importance for word recognition. Rather than treating Black English as a valid dialect and recognizing that speaking one dialect can impact the ability to learn to read in another, teachers simply dismiss it as "incorrect English."