Dear Secretary Riley,

The effects of the National Reading Report are going to be intense and long-lasting. They will affect every teacher's practice in some way. We can no longer close our doors and teach. This report is not going to end the Reading Wars, but cause more controversy. I've never considered myself to be any kind of a radical. I'm just a teacher who cares about children. When a friend suggested Carol Edelsky's book Making Justice Our Project, for summer reading, and said that the intro blamed whole language teachers for its problems, I picked it up and started to read. Altweger and Saavedra in the intro state, Whole Language Teachers must become part of a larger educational effort to transform education and society in the direction of equity and social justice.... we must begin to see ourselves not just as whole language educators, but as educational activists with clear pedagogical principles. So I asked myself, how can I do that? At one time I naively thought I had the ear of NICHD higher ups. Actually, I still don't know if I had any effect. I just knew they needed to be listening to teachers, not just physicists, and scientists, and psychologists. Recently I answered my question by enlisting my students and parents in trying to get the ear of Secretary or Education Richard Riley. I just told them about the report and they answered. Here are some of their thoughtful comments to him.

 
Dear Secretary Riley,

My name is Donny. My favorite foods are pizza and spaghetti. My favorite color is blue. I really like Pokemon. I learned to read from my parents. Their names are Janice and Tony. They taught me how to read, Noise. It is still in Mrs. Creech's class....

Dear Secretary Riley,

I learned to read by listening to my family and repeating the story myself. I also learned to read by writing stories with my friends. I did learn to read with some phonics, but not much......
 

Dear Secretary Riley,

....reading is important because if you did not read, you can't read. I learned to read by reading books. I like to read Goosebumps. I learned to read by reading them...
 

Dear Secretary Riley,

...How I learned to read? My family taught me. My favorite thing is reading.
 

Dear Secretary Riley,

I'm in first grade and do second and third grade work. I learned to read when my mom was reading a book to me and I was watching her read.....
 

Dear Secretary Riley,

My name is Matt. I am in the third grade and I am going to be 10 on August 18th. I am doing good in my work. I have two cats and one dog. Their names are Mickey, Mel and Sam. The dog is a boy. I also have a brother. His name is Lyle.My parents helped me read and my friend Danny helped me too,,,,,,
 

Dear Secretary Riley,

My name is Kelly and I think that phonics is not what helps children read. I think having people read to them helps. I learned to read by having my parents read to me and by reading.....You can't learn to read words like pterodactyl by dumb phonics! That's pretty hard.
 

Dear Secretary Riley,

My name is Dana. I am nine and in third grade. I learned to read by starting out with easy books and going to hard books. Phonics is good, but I would rather do it on my own.
 

Dear Secretary Riley,

My name is Krissy and I am seven years old. I learned to read by my mom. I don't need phonics because I know how to read. All the people don't need phonics. They read by reading.

Dear Secretary Riley,

Through the years I learned to read by sounding out letters and breaking them into syllables and looking words up in the dictionary with my mom, dad and teacher. I started out reading The Hungary Caterpillar and now I am reading anything from chapter books to college books. So you see, kids don't just need phonics. There are many different ways to learn how to read.
 

Dear Secretary Riley,

My name is Max. My age is 7. I am in first grade in Mrs. Creech's class. My favorite colors are green, blue and red. My mom helped me to read one sentence and then I read the whole book. I enjoy reading and my favorite books are Dr. Seuss. 
 

Dear Secretary Riley,

Hi! My name is Sarah and I am eight years old. I learned to read by my mom cheering me on. I like to read. I am also good at art.

These letters were sent off to Riley with pictures of the children and letters from the parents. It was an important lesson to these young children, not only in reading, and writing, but also their role in the democratic process. It took some prodding to get Secretary of Education to realize that though.