wheelhouze
@wheelhouze.bsky.social
Hey parents! Substitute teacher & tutor exposing what's really happening in our schools📚Former daycare owner + 15 years in law enforcement = I've seen it all. Writer @ The Parenting Revolution (Substack). Real strategies for real families. Coffee-fueled! ☕
If the school can't show you documentation that your child received 100+ hours of systematic phonics instruction, they haven't ruled out teaching failure before diagnosing disability.
December 17, 2025 at 5:56 PM
If the school can't show you documentation that your child received 100+ hours of systematic phonics instruction, they haven't ruled out teaching failure before diagnosing disability.
New today: the five questions every parent should ask before signing a dyslexia consent form—questions that show whether it’s a true disability or broken instruction.
open.substack.com/pub/theparen...
open.substack.com/pub/theparen...
Before You Consent to That Dyslexia Evaluation
The Five Questions That Reveal If Your Child Can't Read—Or Was Never Taught
open.substack.com
December 17, 2025 at 2:41 PM
New today: the five questions every parent should ask before signing a dyslexia consent form—questions that show whether it’s a true disability or broken instruction.
open.substack.com/pub/theparen...
open.substack.com/pub/theparen...
Tomorrow: The questions every parent should ask before consenting to a dyslexia evaluation. The ones that reveal whether it’s a true disability—or a teaching failure.
#ParentAdvocacy #Dyslexia #SpecialEducation #IEP #ParentRights
#ParentAdvocacy #Dyslexia #SpecialEducation #IEP #ParentRights
December 17, 2025 at 2:06 AM
Tomorrow: The questions every parent should ask before consenting to a dyslexia evaluation. The ones that reveal whether it’s a true disability—or a teaching failure.
#ParentAdvocacy #Dyslexia #SpecialEducation #IEP #ParentRights
#ParentAdvocacy #Dyslexia #SpecialEducation #IEP #ParentRights
The special education referral is often how schools avoid admitting their curriculum doesn't work. Easier to label the child than change the instruction.
December 16, 2025 at 5:59 PM
The special education referral is often how schools avoid admitting their curriculum doesn't work. Easier to label the child than change the instruction.
School to parent: 'Your child might have dyslexia. We need to test.' Right response: 'Have you taught systematic phonics? Show me the curriculum and the data.' Make them answer that first.
December 16, 2025 at 12:28 PM
School to parent: 'Your child might have dyslexia. We need to test.' Right response: 'Have you taught systematic phonics? Show me the curriculum and the data.' Make them answer that first.
The child who struggles with balanced literacy but thrives with systematic phonics wasn't dyslexic. They were taught wrong. Schools would rather label kids than admit the instruction failed.
December 15, 2025 at 5:57 PM
The child who struggles with balanced literacy but thrives with systematic phonics wasn't dyslexic. They were taught wrong. Schools would rather label kids than admit the instruction failed.
New article: Dyslexia is real. But when 40% of a school's students are 'dyslexic,' the problem is instruction, not neurology.
open.substack.com/pub/theparen...
open.substack.com/pub/theparen...
Not Every Struggling Reader Is Dyslexic
How Bad Instruction and Wrong Labels Steal Kids’ Confidence
open.substack.com
December 15, 2025 at 2:31 PM
New article: Dyslexia is real. But when 40% of a school's students are 'dyslexic,' the problem is instruction, not neurology.
open.substack.com/pub/theparen...
open.substack.com/pub/theparen...
This past week: exposed balanced literacy as rebranded whole language, showed why teachers are trapped, named the curricula that don't work.
Monday: How to tell if it's actually dyslexia or if your child just wasn't taught to read. The questions that reveal the difference.
Monday: How to tell if it's actually dyslexia or if your child just wasn't taught to read. The questions that reveal the difference.
December 13, 2025 at 2:14 PM
This past week: exposed balanced literacy as rebranded whole language, showed why teachers are trapped, named the curricula that don't work.
Monday: How to tell if it's actually dyslexia or if your child just wasn't taught to read. The questions that reveal the difference.
Monday: How to tell if it's actually dyslexia or if your child just wasn't taught to read. The questions that reveal the difference.
Monday: How to tell if it's actually dyslexia or if your child just wasn't taught to read. The questions that reveal the difference.
December 13, 2025 at 2:03 PM
Monday: How to tell if it's actually dyslexia or if your child just wasn't taught to read. The questions that reveal the difference.
Lucy Calkins herself now says balanced literacy needs to change. But schools are still using Units of Study like nothing happened. Your child is the experiment.
December 13, 2025 at 1:27 AM
Lucy Calkins herself now says balanced literacy needs to change. But schools are still using Units of Study like nothing happened. Your child is the experiment.
New article: The specific reading curricula that research says don't work, but your district probably bought anyway. Names, evidence, and what to do about it.
open.substack.com/pub/theparen...
open.substack.com/pub/theparen...
The Reading Curricula Districts Buy That Research Says Don't Work
A Guide to Identifying Failed Programs in Your School
open.substack.com
December 12, 2025 at 2:29 PM
New article: The specific reading curricula that research says don't work, but your district probably bought anyway. Names, evidence, and what to do about it.
open.substack.com/pub/theparen...
open.substack.com/pub/theparen...
Friday morning: I'm naming the specific curricula that research says don't work, but schools keep buying. This one will anger administrators.
December 12, 2025 at 1:31 AM
Friday morning: I'm naming the specific curricula that research says don't work, but schools keep buying. This one will anger administrators.
The curriculum your district uses probably has testimonials, sales materials, and professional development packages. What it doesn't have: peer-reviewed research showing it works.
December 11, 2025 at 8:30 PM
The curriculum your district uses probably has testimonials, sales materials, and professional development packages. What it doesn't have: peer-reviewed research showing it works.
Schools spend millions on reading curricula without checking if research supports them. Then spend more millions on intervention programs because the curriculum failed. Then blame the kids.
December 11, 2025 at 1:26 PM
Schools spend millions on reading curricula without checking if research supports them. Then spend more millions on intervention programs because the curriculum failed. Then blame the kids.
The three phrases teachers use that reveal balanced literacy training: 1. 'Does that make sense?' (teaching guessing) 2. 'Use your strategies' (avoiding 'sound it out') 3. 'Look at the picture' (context over decoding) These aren't bad teachers. They're teaching what they were trained to teach.
December 10, 2025 at 7:15 PM
The three phrases teachers use that reveal balanced literacy training: 1. 'Does that make sense?' (teaching guessing) 2. 'Use your strategies' (avoiding 'sound it out') 3. 'Look at the picture' (context over decoding) These aren't bad teachers. They're teaching what they were trained to teach.
If your child’s grades say “doing great” but your gut says “something’s not right,” this one’s for you. I wrote about how the system is built, why teachers are stuck inside it, and how parents can start pressing on the weak spots instead of blaming themselves.
open.substack.com/pub/theparen...
open.substack.com/pub/theparen...
The System Isn’t Broken, It’s Built This Way
Why American schools keep failing kids, why teachers already know it, and what parents can actually do about it
open.substack.com
December 10, 2025 at 2:29 PM
If your child’s grades say “doing great” but your gut says “something’s not right,” this one’s for you. I wrote about how the system is built, why teachers are stuck inside it, and how parents can start pressing on the weak spots instead of blaming themselves.
open.substack.com/pub/theparen...
open.substack.com/pub/theparen...
✨The system is very good at grading kids.
Your job is not to raise a perfect student. It’s to raise a person who can think, question, and walk away from what doesn’t make sense—even when every report card says, “Everything’s fine."
Your job is not to raise a perfect student. It’s to raise a person who can think, question, and walk away from what doesn’t make sense—even when every report card says, “Everything’s fine."
December 9, 2025 at 6:07 PM
✨The system is very good at grading kids.
Your job is not to raise a perfect student. It’s to raise a person who can think, question, and walk away from what doesn’t make sense—even when every report card says, “Everything’s fine."
Your job is not to raise a perfect student. It’s to raise a person who can think, question, and walk away from what doesn’t make sense—even when every report card says, “Everything’s fine."
The straight-A student who can't read chapter books independently is the perfect product of balanced literacy. They're 'meeting expectations' on assessments that measure memorization and guessing, not actual reading.
December 9, 2025 at 1:05 PM
The straight-A student who can't read chapter books independently is the perfect product of balanced literacy. They're 'meeting expectations' on assessments that measure memorization and guessing, not actual reading.
If your child’s teacher uses these phrases, they're teaching balanced literacy (rebranded whole language): 'Use picture clues' / 'What would make sense there?' / 'Look at the first letter and guess'. More phrases Wednesday.
December 9, 2025 at 1:32 AM
If your child’s teacher uses these phrases, they're teaching balanced literacy (rebranded whole language): 'Use picture clues' / 'What would make sense there?' / 'Look at the first letter and guess'. More phrases Wednesday.
Schools that banned phonics in the 80s now claim they 'always included it.' The curriculum documents say otherwise. The reading scores say otherwise. The adults who can't read say otherwise.
December 8, 2025 at 6:10 PM
Schools that banned phonics in the 80s now claim they 'always included it.' The curriculum documents say otherwise. The reading scores say otherwise. The adults who can't read say otherwise.
To the teachers who asked how to teach reading science with a balanced literacy mandate: You can't serve two masters. One is research. One is ideology. The kids deserve research. Document everything. Teach the science anyway. Be ready to defend it with data.
December 8, 2025 at 1:16 PM
To the teachers who asked how to teach reading science with a balanced literacy mandate: You can't serve two masters. One is research. One is ideology. The kids deserve research. Document everything. Teach the science anyway. Be ready to defend it with data.
Teachers ask: 'How do I teach reading science when my district mandates balanced literacy?'
My answer tomorrow.
My answer tomorrow.
December 8, 2025 at 1:38 AM
Teachers ask: 'How do I teach reading science when my district mandates balanced literacy?'
My answer tomorrow.
My answer tomorrow.
New article: Balanced literacy isn't a compromise between phonics and whole language. It's whole language with just enough phonics sprinkled in to look credible. Your school might be using it right now. 🧵👇
open.substack.com/pub/theparen...
open.substack.com/pub/theparen...
The Reading Wars Rebranded: Why “Balanced Literacy” Isn’t the Middle Ground
When words mask the evidence: unpacking the language of literacy programs
open.substack.com
December 7, 2025 at 2:49 PM
New article: Balanced literacy isn't a compromise between phonics and whole language. It's whole language with just enough phonics sprinkled in to look credible. Your school might be using it right now. 🧵👇
open.substack.com/pub/theparen...
open.substack.com/pub/theparen...
Tomorrow morning I'm publishing something that will make a lot of teachers uncomfortable: why 'balanced literacy' is just whole language in disguise, and why your child is paying the price for that rebrand.
December 6, 2025 at 2:06 PM
Tomorrow morning I'm publishing something that will make a lot of teachers uncomfortable: why 'balanced literacy' is just whole language in disguise, and why your child is paying the price for that rebrand.
Reading proficiency is the civil rights issue of education. Without it, every other opportunity closes.
#ReadingProficiency #CivilRights #OpportunitiesClose
#ReadingProficiency #CivilRights #OpportunitiesClose
a penguin sits on top of a stack of books reading a book
ALT: a penguin sits on top of a stack of books reading a book
media.tenor.com
December 5, 2025 at 2:43 PM
Reading proficiency is the civil rights issue of education. Without it, every other opportunity closes.
#ReadingProficiency #CivilRights #OpportunitiesClose
#ReadingProficiency #CivilRights #OpportunitiesClose