Change Your Image
mjmaddox
Reviews
The Secret (1992)
Preposterous Premise
The plot line of this full-length movie would have been better suited to a 20-minute film. The father's furious refusal to have his fourth-grader tested to discover why he has been unable to learn to read is unbelievable and over-acted.
The premise of the film is that both the boy and the grandfather are unable to read because of a condition called "dyslexia." After having been told that this condition has blighted the grandfather's life and threatens to do the same to the grandson, viewers receive an astonishing revelation: The $1200 specialist who tests Mike tells him that the grandson can learn to read if he is taught to "sound out letters."
It is incredible to me that a child could get as far as the fourth grade without having been taught to sound out letters.
Surely the "secret" here is that children should be taught the sound/symbol relationships in the first grade, instead of withholding the information until they develop reading problems.