Samuel Blumenfeld (born 1926 in New York, died 2015 in Waltham) was a

phonics Phonics is a method for teaching people how to read and write an alphabetic language (such as English, Arabic or Russian). It is done by demonstrating the relationship between the sounds of the spoken language (phonemes), and the letters or g ...

advocate and

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

writer. He frequently lectured in favor of systematic phonics instruction in the teaching of reading and wrote over a dozen books on education.

Biography

Growing up in the South Bronx, Blumenfeld saw combat in Italy during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

and later graduated from the City College of New York. He published multiple books on education and spent much of his career investigating the decline in American literacy, the rise in

learning disabilities Learning disability, learning disorder, or learning difficulty (British English) is a condition in the brain that causes difficulties comprehending or processing information and can be caused by several different factors. Given the "difficult ...

in American children,

sex Sex is the trait that determines whether a sexually reproducing animal or plant produces male or female gametes. Male plants and animals produce smaller mobile gametes (spermatozoa, sperm, pollen), while females produce larger ones ( ova, of ...

and drug education, and other topics related to education. Blumenfeld was an advocate of homeschooling. Blumenfeld was also active in the Shakespeare authorship question, theorizing in his 2008 ''The Marlowe-Shakespeare Connection'' that Christopher Marlowe may have written many of the works attributed to Shakespeare.

Published works

''How To Tutor'' and ''Alpha Phonics'' outline Blumenfeld's preferred methods for teaching children basic school subjects. Other published works include: * ''N.E.A.: Trojan Horse in American Education'' * ''Why Schools Went Public'' * ''How to Tutor'' * ''The Whole Language / OBE Fraud'' * ''The Victims of Dick and Jane'' * ''Alpha-Phonics: A Primer For Beginning Readers'' * ''Homeschooling: A Parents Guide to Teaching Children'' * ''New Illiterates and How You Can Keep Your Child from Becoming One'' * ''Is Public Education Necessary?'' *
Property in a Humane Economy
' * ''The Marlowe-Shakespeare Connection: A New Study of the Authorship Question'' * ''Crimes of the Educators: How Utopians Are Using Government Schools to Destroy America's Children'' (co-written with Alex Newman)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blumenfeld, Samuel 1926 births 2015 deaths American male writers American academics People from the Bronx City College of New York alumni United States Army Air Forces personnel of World War II