I’m also in my 40s and the wiki article sounded exactly how I read, so I did a little searching and turns out this was the method used in schools in Ontario in the late 80s and 90s although not a formal part of the curriculum until 1997. So no, not a new thing. It was reversed after an inquiry by the human rights commission in 2022. That might explain why my spouse who grew up in a different part of the provinces uses phonics and I use… word shapes, idk? I read extremely fast with good comprehension, but can’t spell worth a damn lol.