. . . Mr. Itzkoff places most of the blame for America's alleged intellectual decline on what he sees as an economically and intellectually elite cast of misguided liberals. They have isolated themselves from American society, he says, by their paternalistic treatment of the underclass, by discounting the importance of traditional family values and by failing to raise enough bright children to sustain national competence. The New York Times Book Review Few doubt that the United States has slipped from its longstanding eminence as the world's wealthiest and most productive nation. The problem for the past 30 years has been the diagnosis of both the decline and then the cure. Literally trillions of dollars have been expended in futile programs to stanch the hemorrhaging of our economic wealth, jobs, educational achievement, and cultural elan. Itzkoff argues that we will never stop the fall until we understand our real national dilemma. This is the decline in our national intelligence profile: fewer citizens of high intelligence, educational potential, and economic productivity. These ideas are taboo. Itzkoff, however, insists that these are the facts, and they must be examined. In this book, he lays out the available evidence for our social disintegration and suggests a rational program of policy initiatives that would begin to restore us to what we were as recently as 1955--the great hope of the world.

This is a unique book for parents, educators, and policymakers. It is alone in setting forth a clear presentation of the learning stages through which children must pass in order to become fluent, independently literate readers and writers. It explains the developmental dangers unique to each child that parents and teachers may have to confront, as well as the educational confusions and pathways to success that may determine the educational fate of each child. It illustrates the learning process clearly and nontechnically, and does not hesitate to point to the educational errors as well as successes in the teaching of children to read. It will be controversial because of its clarity and scientific accuracy. This volume brings together the sciences of psycholinguistics and developmental psychology with the practical knowledge of classroom practice in literacy education to create a unique, but accessible explanation of how children learn to read. It explains the necessary educational and pedagogical steps that parents and teachers both can take in assisting the child to make a smooth transition from infant babbler to eight-year-old fluent reader. It also points to the possible developmental as well as educational danger signals that tell us when things are not going as they should and suggests what we can do to overcome the problems, slowdowns, and seeming failures to learn to read and write. This volume discusses such important issues as emergent literacy or reading readiness; phonics and slow reading; fluent reading and the reading system; the dangers of the first-grade Rubicon; reading problems of unique children; the dangers and benefits of Whole Language reading rograms; Reading Recovery for endangered young readers; the role of writing; parents, TV, and the school program. The book is clearly written, uses nontechnical terminology, and should provide teachers and parents a guide to evaluating the progress of youngsters from the time they approach child-care and pre-school stages of socialization to that point where they should be reading independently for pleasure as well as searching for information and subject-matter competency.