The “Immersion Theory” of Teaching Reading Most modern language arts programs seek to teach reading through reading, as if this skill is learned the same way as riding a bicycle, and “reading” is elevated as being the most important skill, demoting speaking, spelling and writing to “lesser skills.”  In other words, the “Immersion Theory,” as it is called, redefines literacy as being able to read, whereas historically, literacy is defined as being able to speak, spell, write and read. The Immersion Theory assumes ability for reading will “rub off” on a student if he is “dunked” in “whole words” for four years.  But “reading” is a “presumed gain,” and Immersion Theory-based language arts programs do not provide explicit instruction toward this gain, and certainly they do not provide explicit instruction for acquiring the “lesser skills,” as they call them, of speaking, spelling and writing English. During this four-year period, the student is given a controlled number of “whole words” to look at and remember (often after filling in a blank with one or two alphabet letters), and he is expected to “recognize these words by their configurations” simply by seeing them time after time.  Also, it is presumed the student will “see” these words or parts of these words in other words which are not part of his controlled word experience, and will be able to “read” these new words [ The Story of Look and Say ]. The “Immersion Theory” is a fanciful and politically motivated ruse, forcibly injected into public education in the 1930’s by its agenda-driven advocates.  It is based on a system designed to teach deaf students to read.  It’s twentieth century revival came in spite of a six-year trial and rejection in the 1830’s by the Boston School Masters who wrote to Horace Mann, “We love the Secretary, but we hate his theories.  They stand in the way of substantial education.  It is impossible for a sound mind not to hate them.”