What goes around....

Isn't it funny how old ideas are taken out, dusted off, given an izzy-whizzy name and sold to us as something new? Ever heard of "synthetic phonics"? No, me neither but apparently it's the completely revolutionary idea of teaching children to read by getting them to learn the sound individual letters make, and then building up words by putting these sounds together. Well wow - how on earth did they think of that? But wait a minute - isn't this exactly how I and my generation were taught sixty-odd years ago? And for that matter, my own children thirty something years ago - and indeed, as far as I am aware, my grandchildren currently? So, however it may be presented to us, it's certainly not new.