So the public schools are finally catching up to the homeschoolers.

This isn't a fancy new method. It's just phonics.

I learned both phonics and whole language when I went through my teacher training. I only taught phonics in all the schools where I worked and taught first grade. 

Ironically, Caroline is one of the kids the teacher mentioned who actually learns to read without phonics. Phonics was like a foreign language to her when she was little and I gave up. She basically taught herself to read from us reading to her and turning on the closed captioning on TV shows like Curious George, Little Einsteins, Little Bear, etc.