Balanced Literacy

Literacy and how to teach all children to read is my passion.  Recently, I have been working on a project dedicated to balanced literacy.  Each time that I have started to read an article, I have found that I didn't own a particular source, so have purchased it.  It seems that through interpretation and language, researchers, writers, politicians, and some educators are making it more complicated by rehashing old debates.  Through reading the research and available literature, I have found that an effective approach was introduced in 1996.  However, through philosophical intrepretations and differing points of view, it has taken a decade to implement.  Currently, I am reading a book with a copyright date of 1996 which supports current trends in reading.  It seems to me that many children could have benefitted over the years if we could have come to consesus sooner.