The Science of Reading zealots in Minnesota and in other states around the country (Wisconsin, Texas, Ohio, and others) have done something pretty remarkable.  (It’s remarkably bad, but still remarkable.)  They have banned words.  It is now against the law in Minnesota for me to include ‘the three cueing systems’ on my syllabi, reading assignments, or course outlines. 

Imagine that.  A law telling me what I can and cannot say or can and cannot teach in my literacy methods class.  A law put together by people who know nothing of literacy instruction or research.  A law put together by people who sound out words instead of reading for meaning.  A law put together by people who look at every letter when they read.  A law put together by people who ignore syntax and semantics when they read.  A law that says I must ignore my three decades of research, scholarly work, and teaching experience.  It’s a law that states that I must ignore what a body of research from a variety of different fields has determined to be an empirical fact: that we use multiple forms of information to recognize words while creating meaning with print.  According to this brand-spank-n-new Minnesota law, I must instead lie to the students in my literacy methods classes.