Fair point, in general. The difficulty is that certain strategies like cueing (using nearby illustrations to help guess what a word is) and relying on just the

Fair point, in general. The difficulty is that certain strategies like cueing (using nearby illustrations to help guess what a word is) and relying on just the first letter of a word leads to improved outcomes at first, but worse outcomes when the kids start reading less-familiar words, and reading books with fewer pictures. A kindergarten or first grade teacher might think that it's great to use cueing and other non-phonics based strategies since it improves her kids' reading ability in the short-run. But studies show that it is harmful in the long-run, and should be avoided.