By Harry Kallshian

Kallshian’s Corner

For those of us who are interested in education, some current headlines are devastating. One of the latest is that in one of our district’s 90 percent of third-graders can’t read.

Some of us “old guys” learned how to read in the first grade. Our teaching techniques are partially to blame - not the teachers.

We started in kindergarden. The teaching technique was commendable.

The teacher had 26 cards, 12 inches square. Each card had a large letter of the alphabet. Each card had a cartoon that related to the sound of the letter.

The “A” card had an apple. The letter “M” had a cow saying “moo.” The letter “S” had a sizzling snake. The letter “Z” had a zebra.

Every day the class went through a routine of the teachers holding up each card.

The students shouted out the noise the card represented. By the time we got to third grade, reading was not a problem - pronunciation was.

Students were regularly given tests in reading, spelling and arithmetic. Those who excelled skipped a grade.

How did we ever get to memorizing words instead of learning the sound of each letter? No wonder so many students can’t read.

The answer: clean up our alphabet so it’s pure phonics. No two letters that sound the same and no letter that has two sounds.

Example: “ph” does not sound like an “f” -phone. “C” does not sound like “k - cake- or sound like an “s” - scissors.

Let’s not blame our students of foreign heritage. Would you think the brains of Silicon Valley could solve this problem?

The answer is pure phonics. Each letter has one sound.

Kallshian, a former Los Altos mayor, is a longtime Los Altos resident.