Education Week - June 10, 2020 - 18

UPDATED 6/3/2020
OPINION
POLICY

LETTERS
TO THE EDITOR

A Eulogy for Ken Goodman
Several weeks ago, I spoke with an Education Week reporter about Ken
Goodman in anticipation of an obituary about Ken's passing and legacy
("Kenneth S. Goodman, 'Founding Father' of Whole Language, Dead at
92," www.edweek.org, May 21, 2020). Great conversation. I looked forward
to the tribute. I knew it would be complicated and controversial; Ken was
complicated and controversial. But I was sure the controversy would be
treated as part of the tribute. 
Instead, we got another episode of the Reading Wars, but played out in
its latest version-the Science of Reading debate. Ken was positioned as an
iconoclast whose progressive views were eventually overturned by "real" science.
A few celebratory moments were sprinkled throughout the debate narrative. 
No quarrel with methods; the reporter did nothing to compromise canons
of journalism. He quoted me accurately and got my point-that Ken busted
paradigms, influenced theory and practice, and was a hero to me and many
others. But like most reporters, he used a couple of my comments to support a
claim that I would never make.
Two bones to pick. If this was a tribute, why situate it in a tired debate? And
where's the man and the eulogy? 
Here's what eulogy I can squeeze under my 300-word limit:
Ken was a philosopher. 
*	 Epistemology-how do we, including kids, know what we know? We
make meaning, and in the process, acquire facts and knowledge, not the
other way around. 
*	 Ethics-what is right and just? No special privileges for the well-born! Sorry. 
*	 Power-who says what students read, write, and do? Kids, parents, and
teachers-in that order. Government and business get in line behind.
Ken was a mentor-to his own students and to countless others who got in
line for his sage advice. I know because I was in that line.
Peace!

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Education Week - June 10, 2020

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