It has to be a combination of whole word and phonics. All of only one thing is never a good thing. It's always hard to tell which method will work for which kids. My son was initially taught whole word and it failed him dismally. Finally had a teacher introduce phonics and he caught up. Does that mean phonics is better? No. It just was for him. The schools in this area teach using a variety of methods now. Pure phonics is saved for dyslexia programs for the most part.