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To tell the truth, the field of reading/language arts education has  swordfight 'd  on the point you are making for nearly 30 years with no sign of letting up. One extreme favors stressing phonetics, matching letters and sounds to make individual words. Versus, the other extreme which favors a "whole language" (not whole word) approach. Like your dad, the whole language approach embeds learning sounds and words in an interesting language activity, and uses literature to teach both vocabulary and grammar. 

In the middle, there is always a broad middle, is something called the "blended approach" -- as there are advantages and disadvantages to the phonetic and the whole language/literature based approach.

Teachers and school administrators are at bottom civil servants. The phonetic approach is what the public, politicians, and local authorities favor "because they learned that way" - thus it dominates in schools. Schools dance to the piper's tune - always! welcomekaur