Do you believe in "teaching literacy to 8 year olds?"

[FILLYJONKhasayarnshopASBO]

and would you be shocked to discover a 12 year old who had "not been taught to read"?

have just read johann hari in the indy

(compare and contrast to the FT article by rob blackhurst

Where to start?

I've just been reading the comment thread too.

What a twerp-y article by the Horrid Hari. I hope he publishes an apology, but I'm not holding my breath.

I think generally he is pretty good

he got my respect when he apologised over his stance on iraq. and he is good on a lot of things.

Just not this. It really seems that no original research can have been done.

well I have a child who could not read aged 12-so no would not be shocked.
And no I didn't teach it to her-she left school aged nearly nine having had literacy shoved down her throat and was unable to read or spell even her own name!
As a very severe dyslexic, she ran a mile screaming at anything to do with being made to literacy.
Instead we discovered autonomous home education -and let her education run ahead by watching DVDs/TV programmes/visiting museums/theatres/doing activity based workshops when ever we could.
And of course we talked and talked and talked.
About anything and everything that interested her.

She finally began to 'get it' at around 13-and the biggest and best learning tool for reading and spelling was MSN!
She could have a go at spelling without feeling threatened. She only spoke to friends she knew and felt if she spelled things wrong, they would think she was using TXT or had mistyped. She did start off wanting me to read replies-but no teenager wants her mother reading MSN! As her confidence grew, so did her reading and spelling abilities. She says it was as though someone threw the switch.
We allowed her reading and spelling to catch up in it's own time. She is 15 now. She has recently started reading for novels for pleasure-and the the first one she chose to read? Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde.
And is doing really well on the OU course she is doing.
The same I fear can not be said of the children she left behind in the remedial classes in school.

The journalist in question also misquoted the research by Mike Fortune Wood and I know that Rob Blackhurst is not happy at being misquoted.

Yes julienoshoes,
This is a complete misquote!
I think he was actually supposed to be quoting Mike Fortune-Wood whose ds didn't read until he was 10 and then went on to get an MA in creative writing!

Possibly not a misquote -when I was involved with HE many years ago I used to have a subscription to the US Home Education magazine and came across this quote in one issue:
'One mom's daughter still was unable to read (anything) at 12 years old..' I do remember that this was a child who had been autonomously HE'd and had never attended school.

Yes it was a misquote.
The journalist Rob Blackhurst is complaining about the misquote reporting a discussion with Mike F-W.

As I said our youngest didn't read at all at 12. And she had been to school for four years.

Reads well enough to be doing OU courses at 15 though.