Would you scar them for life?;Would;CPS;take your children away? Would your children
grow up illiterate? One year I made the
decision not to teach my youngest two
children;to;read.;Why;would;I;make;such
a;decision?;Being;an;enthusiastic;home-schooling mother, I found it easy to teach
my;oldest;two;girls;to;read;at;age;4.;Piece
of;cake.;Then;the;three;boys;came;along.
No;more;cake;for;me.
Having a father who taught at FSU
and a sister who is a university professor,
I succumbed to the pressures of meet-
ing the expectations of others and tried,
repeatedly, to teach the boys to read. Fi-
nally, at the suggestion of a friend, I read
several;books;such;as;Homeschooling for
Excellence, Better Late Than Early, and
Learning in Spite of Labels.;Realizing;I
The older two boys did learn to read,
but they did not develop a love for read-
ing.;The;third;boy;(fifth;child);was;fortu-
nate in that I had relaxed before he was
old enough to be damaged by my desire
to;make;all;of;my;kiddos;read;by;a;cer-
tain age, and out of my nine children, he
is my most avid reader. With the next
two children I continued to be relaxed
but did teach them to read, eventually,
using;the;book;Teach Your Child to Read
in One Hundred Easy Lessons. They were
both;reading;by;Lesson;40.
By this time I had authored a few
homeschooling publications, and I was
often;asked;to;speak;at;homeschool;con-
ventions. During my talks I suggested
that a parent could attempt to raise a
child without teaching him anything and
then, in his senior year, catch up to where
the world thought he needed to be, ed-
ucationally speaking. There are a few
problems with that suggestion, to-wit:
( 1);It;is;impossible;not to teach your child
something;every;day,;and;( 2);those;of;us
who love learning and teaching would
find that task impossible. However, in
light of the pressure so many moms were
putting themselves under, I did decide
not to teach my youngest two children to
read;and;see;what;would;happen.;Know-
ing that it is far more important that a
child eventually learns to read than it is
to brag about the age when one learns to
read,;I;was;willing;to;take;a;wait-and-see
attitude. Guess what happened?
Before;I;tell;you;the;rest;of;the;story,
let’s;discuss;the;importance;of;develop-ing an educational mission statement.
By;Pat;Wesolowski
What Would Happen if
You Did
Not Teach
Your Children to Read?
Being;confident;that;my;youngest
two would eventually learn to
read, I made the decision not to
teach them to read in order to see
what would happen.
