A theoretical understanding of the slow gradualism of gains in reading is an important consideration in taking practical steps to¬ward implementing the practical recommendations of this book. Important test data on reading gains might not become available until a few years after these recommendations are put into practice. After three to five years, however, the gains predicted from theory (and from existing data) will be dramatic. Moreover, until a better theory of optimal reading instruction comes along, these reading gains should be considered the fastest gains that a school program can achieve. In general, as schooling proceeds on its slow, cumulative way, we continually need to rely on good theory - not on isolated pieces of data but rather on the largest possible array of data, which is what good theory by definition embraces.
The two ideologies or philosophies that dominate in the American educational world, which tend to corrupt scientific inferences, are naturalism and formalism. Naturalism is the notion that learning can and should be natural and that any unnatural or artificial approach to school learning should be rejected or deemphasized. This point of view favors many of the methods that are currently most praised and admired in early schooling — "hands-on learning," "developmentally appropriate practice," and the natural, whole-language method of learning to read. By contrast, methods that are unnatural are usually deplored, including "drill," "rote learning," and the analytical, phonics approach to teaching early reading. We call such naturalism an ideology rather than a theory because it is more a value system (based historically on the European Romantic movement) than an empirically based idea. If we adopt this ideology, we know in advance that the natural is good and the artificial is bad. We don’t need analysis and evidence; we are certain, quite apart from evidence, that children’s education will be more productive if it is more natural. If the data do not show this, it is because we are using the wrong kinds of data, such as scores on standardized tests. That is naturalism.
Formalism is the ideology that what counts in education is not the learning of things but rather learning how to learn. What counts is not gaining mere facts but gaining formal skills. Along with naturalism, it shares an antipathy to mere facts and to the piling up of in¬formation. The facts, it says, are always changing. Children need to learn how to understand and interpret any new facts that come along. The skills that children need to learn in school are not how to follow mindless procedures but rather how to understand what lies behind the procedures so they can apply them to new situations. In reading, instead of learning a lot of factual subject matter, which is potentially infinite, the child needs to learn strategies for dealing with any texts, such as "questioning the author," "classifying," and other "critical thinking" skills.