For anyone wanting even more background and context, I recommend Kieran Egan's "The educated mind" which argues among other things that there are three, not jus

For anyone wanting even more background and context, I recommend Kieran Egan's "The educated mind" which argues among other things that there are three, not just two, conflicting paradigms behind schooling - not just the academic/developmental conflict of which phonics vs whole-language is an example, but also the third paradigm of socialisation. You might or might not agree with Egan's conclusions, but his background and context is properly researched. However, be warned that he is not exactly the most readable author out there, to put it mildly.