Changing how we read was fundamental…to the social re-engineering of the nation.
So, if everyone involved from the beginning regarded these revisions to reading instruction and the concept of pedagogy as one big psychology experiment on American school children and ultimately American society, what will happen if the results are poor? Notably, demonstrably, really lousy results? Well, if sufficiently publicized, that might prompt a name change for the reading method or a decrease in the number of sight words in the basal readers to be memorized. No, much as we shall see in the next chapter with the psychology of Math Education, the experiment was not about how to best provide a socially necessary skill at all. The experiment was what would happen to individuals and society without such instruction.
-Robin Eubanks, Credentialed to Destroy – How and Why Education Became a Weapon
