How much do you remember about the days when you first learned to read?

Did you ever know what method was used to teach you?

And did you ever receive any instruction outside of school?

Chances are you learned via a method that was on one side or the other of what's become known as the Reading Wars, and quite possibly one

of the primary villains in that little war, a little method deceptively known as balanced

literacy. And in our extended content for premium members, a look at how the Reading Wars

are really just one more example of the rosy retrospection

fallacy. That's coming up right now on Skeptoid.

A quick reminder for everyone, you're listening to Skeptoid, revealing the true science and true history behind urban legends every week since 2006.

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You're listening to Skeptoid. I'm Brian Dunning from Skeptoid.com.

Balanced literacy and the Reading Wars.

Welcome to the show that separates fact from fiction, science from pseudoscience, real history from fake history, and helps us all make better life decisions by knowing what's real and what's

not. Most of you, listening to this right now, probably got a terrible start when you first

learned to read in school. Since about the

1970s, a teaching method reigned supreme in the United States and in most other English-speaking

countries that resulted in history's lowest reading scores. Only over the past decade or two has

...