In an ideal situation, a teacher needs to understand that phonics has a role in decoding and recoding, but not so overemphasized that the other pillars of reading are not given enough time, like vocabulary and comprehension. Teachers also need to know that in English, rules were created that are not necessarily “scientific”. The rule of a silent e added to consonant l syllables is because English “must” have a vowel in all syllables. The history may have been that the “e” was pronounced at one time in the history of English but now that it is not pronounced, the “e” remains. It is also okay for students to know that there are many exceptions to English rules, even though for the most part English follows patterns.