Rudolf Flesch's scorching 1955 best seller Why Johnny Can't Read turned the pendulum back toward phonics in the 1960s. By the 1980s, the glory decade for whole-language, the pendulum had swung again.

As the debate raged back and forth, one supervisor finally blurted out: “But if we approve this book, other people will think we are giving in to Rudolf Flesch.” If 1955 was notable for ...