So many advocates require phonics to teach reading – which is for some children but not at all for others. I’m retired now but taught beginning reading for many years. I used various approaches because all children are different. Some need phonics and others, not at all and learned to read very easily without phonics. See my blog about a variety of readers and how they learned to read:

http://peggybroadbent.com/blog/index.php?s=A+Variety+of+Readers+Learning+to+Read+With+or+Without+Phonics++++________________________________________________________________________