The Commercial Appeal (Memphis)

September 5, 1995

SCIENCE FICTION? Factual results needed from reading program

ANY literacy program that claims to raise reading ability as much as four grade levels in two months is asking to get a third-degree grilling from school officials.

Degree one: Prove it. Degree two: Prove the first results weren't a fluke. Degree three: Prove the results can be realized by a broad group of students, not just by a few exceptional ones.

The issue came up in Memphis recently because the World Literacy Crusade of Los Angeles, which has ties to the Church of Scientology, is promoting a pilot program it conducted last winter at the Martin Luther King Jr. Educational and Cultural Center. The crusade is seeking funds to help make the program permanent.

The city school district owns the center property and sponsored the after-school tutorial in which the crusade participated.

Memphis musician Isaac Hayes, who converted to Scientology in 1993, is a spokesman for the literacy program. School board member Carl Johnson and Circuit Court Judge D'Army Bailey say they have agreed to serve on the program's board of advisers.

Some questions have been raised about whether the crusade's participation at the King center violated school policies, including a permit requirement. City schools Supt. Gerry House said she will review the matter.

The Church of Scientology has been involved in controversies for years. It has been accused of gouging money from members, of brainwashing recruits, of building an economic power base of financial assets and real estate and of trying to infiltrate other organizations and institutions.

In the 1980s, 11 leading Scientologists were convicted of committing burglary and other crimes in an effort to block a government investigation. The church filed a multimillion-dollar libel suit against Time magazine in 1992 for a story entitled: "Scientology: The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power."

Hayes says that the reading program has nothing to do with Scientology, although "the Study Technology" that the program is based on was written by Scientology founder and science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard. Hayes says he has promoted the literacy crusade for Memphis because it has been successful in inner-city Los Angeles.

Crusade co-founder Rev. Alfreddie Johnson makes impressive claims: "We've been able to take kids out of gangs, off gangs, and give them back hope and a future because now they believe they can read and write and understand. . . . In a period of say three months or two months we can raise (reading levels) two or three or sometimes even four grade levels."

Numerous reading programs have been developed since the 1950s, when Rudolf Flesch shocked America with his book, Why Johnny Can't Read. Fleschattributed the decline of reading to the abandonment of phonics in favor of look-say instruction in the public schools. The battle among educators has been raging ever since.

Memphis city schools have tried their share of innovations, including computer-based programs that other experts swear will transform problem readers into happy, eager achievers.

At day's end, the statistics continue to be frustrating. Some people will grasp at any new angle that promises success, but that also can contribute to loss of confidence in the schools if the failures merely mount up.

There is no simple, easy alternative to develop in children an enjoyment for reading. The greatest teacher is incentive.

The World Literacy Crusade has a lot to prove before it can be taken at its word.

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