Together, we are evolving . . . from what doesn't work, to what does!

So how do we get from solution to implementation?  A great idea without distribution is worthless.  How do we achieve universal dissemination of the tools that children are desperate for and need, RIGHT NOW, in order to learn how to read?

At the American Youth Literacy Foundation, our approach to solving the literacy crisis is 1) to re-invent the way phonics is taught, making it easy, pain free and stress free for young children to learn how to read, and 2) to distribute and make universal our reading solution.  To that end, we've been training high school and college students and now, adults, for free, across the country and around the world, how to become reading tutors.  If you want to become a tutor in your community RIGHT NOW, then please click here.

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But . . . we have a small mathematical problem.  You see, even if we train 10,000 tutors and each tutor teaches 10 children how to read, we'll have only reached 100,000 children.  The literacy crisis affects 21 million children just in grades 2-9 today.  Since 2000, 16 million children have dropped out of high school because they couldn't read.  Another 12 million children ages 0-6 will remain illiterate if we don't achieve universal acceptance for our curriculum.  Add it up and that makes 47 million Americans ages 0-28 who are or will become illiterate.  We could keep going generation after generation, piling illiteracy upon illiteracy upon illiteracy and never reach these millions of children with a tutoring program alone.  

No, the solution MUST BE a change in the public school curriculum.  And for that we need data, money, and grass roots momentum!

Our primary grass roots goal is to move the Phonibet into the mainstream mindset of every pre-school through 3rd grade child, so that they at least know ALL 44 SOUNDS of the English language.  This simple, low cost, elegantly scaleable intervention will do more to reverse the literacy crisis than any other single action that we can take. 

We can reach thousands of communities nationwide, via social media, by teaching children the Phonibet Song (the second verse of the Alphabet Song), and by giving away the Phonibet coloring book called Happy Plaid Cats Stack Black Hats.

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Another goal of ours is to distribute free Happy Plaid Cats Stack Black Hats coloring books that introduce children to each sound of the English language with fun characters and interactive cartoon panels that they can add their own creative flourish to.  This will require funding through donations, grants or sponsorships.  If you want to get involved,contact us.

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If you believe in our youth, and you believe in educational equality, and you believe that literacy is the gateway to freedom, and that illiteracy is an unconscionable injustice, then talk to us about a solution that is as simple as training wheels and that will scale to reach millions of children!

Talk to us about reading, the literacy crisis, the education crisis, global literacy, global ESL, phonemic awareness, phonics, the REAL science of reading, how to solve one of the most difficult social crises of our time, the 1.2 million high school students who drop out of our public schools each year, our broken English code, 24% illiteracy among 2nd-9th grade public school students, more than 60% combined illiteracy and functional illiteracy among all public school students, how to REALLY change the reading learning equation, how to make a REAL difference not only within our lifetimes, but within the next decade, how to save one child, or thousands of children or millions of children from becoming illiterate, how to teach one child or thousands or millions of children how to read without stress, anxiety or frustration!  Talk to us about starting a literacy revolution in your home, neighborhood, community, pre-school or daycare center, private school, homeschool, charter school or public school.

You'll hear lots of people talking about how we need disruptors, interruptors and revolutionaries, how we need new ideas from outside the box; but when the rubber meets the road, many of these same people, sadly, fear change, are skeptical, hesitant, indecisive, unable to trust their intuition in order to act without directives from above; and ironically, they end up becoming the staunch defenders of the status quo they're so desperate to change. Don't let this be you! The status quo has gotten us nowhere and is systematically destroying the lives of our children and the fabric of our nation. Illiteracy is a vice that slowly grips the mind of a child and squeezes the hopes, dreams and creative spirit from their soul! We ALL know this is true, just as a plant that's given no water or sunlight will surely wither away.

Let us show you an exceptionally novel and better way of teaching reading that's 1,000 years overdue, and that will provide your child and / or your students with a faster, simpler, easier way to learn phonemic awareness, phonics, blending, segmentation, basic decoding, fluency and comprehension. It's called FUNetix and if you're an individual or using our curriculum for non-commercial purposes, it's absolutely free! We could charge you thousands of dollars for our materials; but we're not starting a corporation, we're starting a revolution! And you, and ALL of the high school students, the college students AND the caring and concerned adults who've gone through our training program over the past 8 years, and who have taught thousands of kids how to read, are a part of that revolution.  Jump to this link to access our 12 hour comprehensive training and certification program and download our comprehensive reading curriculum for free, so that you can become a literacy expert too.  We'll teach you EVERYTHING you need to know about how to teach reading to children.

We're not saying there aren't a lot of good reading programs out there, ones that teach phonics WITHOUT training wheels; we're just saying that we know, from direct experience and overwhelming testimony, that they're frustrating, painful and will NEVER scale past the 50% mark for the general population.  They require intensive adult intervention; and for those children who don't receive this kind of attention, they fail.  They fail, they will continue to fail, and there's no wishful thinking or good intentions that will change 50 years of hard data.  More than 60% of American students are failing at reading!

What we ARE saying is that if you're not using FUNetix, the Phonibet and Kindercode (the 3 components of our patented, comprehensive reading decoding system), then you might as well be riding a horse and buggy instead of driving a Tesla; you might as well be trying to teach your own 4 year old child how to ride a bike without training wheels, a cruel and perilous prank that will require lots of Bandaids and popsicles for the skinned knees and bruised ego.

Why go down that path when you can click here to become an expert in ALL things literacy by learning everything you need to know in order to teach reading to children the fun, easy, painless way that's faster and more effective than any other phonics program, period.

What's old is new again.  The fundamentals of reading and writing have never actually changed. It's only we who lost our way so many years ago, and never fully recovered.  Reading is simple.  It's a beautiful, elegant . . .  but SIMPLE invention.  Any 5 year old can learn how to read. And ANYONE can learn how to teach reading. Click here to get started; and thank you for taking the first step with us towards this literacy revolution and for joining us on this journey to save, literally, millions of children from a life of darkness, destitution and deprivation of their fundamental human right to fully participate in this wonderful, amazing dance we call "LIFE!"

Mr. R. Kali Woodward
Executive Director
American Youth Literacy Foundation

Connect with Mr. Woodward on LinkedIn