Learning to Read without School

When I tell people that school was of no value to me, the response I generally receive is, “Aww...come on. You must have learned something there that you liked. I mean, look, you’re successful, you write well, you’re articulate and you have so many varied interests. You wouldn’t be those things without school.” To which I explain, yes, I would. School didn’t push me forward. It held me back. The things I’m good at today, I became good at outside of school. “Well, you learned to read,” they say. “Without school, you wouldn’t have known how to read and write.” To which I explain, I didn’t learn to read at school. I learned to read at home. I started reading at a young age. I was about 3 years old. I liked performing and acting and wanted to read words of stories so I could put on a show. I was also very curious and knew words had the answers. Most importantly my family had books all around and read to me until I read to myself. I also had a room full of books and would be left to read for hours. 

But it seems as a society we have it so ingrained in our heads that it is at school where we first learn to read and then read to learn. I didn’t even realize why it was so important to teach children reading at an early age until I read, research professor Peter Gray’s explanation in Psychology Today.
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