As children are pushed to achieve academic goals at earlier andearlier ages, the incidence of learning disabilities is growing atan alarming (some say epidemic) rate. There may be a host of rootcauses, from immune response issues to dietary and familialproblems, but one factor is susceptible to immediate control byparents who choose to homeschool and that is the age at whichtraditional academic work is introduced to their children. Onehundred years ago, it was common for children to enter school atage 8 or even later. Two hundred years ago, children were not evenaccepted in most schools until they could read. Today, in contrast,the most arduous efforts of our public schools cannot produce highschool graduates who can compare favorably in knowledge and skillswith the 8th grade graduates of 1900. What on earth is going on? Itis claimed by the education establishment that the fault liesvariously with the children (learning disabled), their parents(incompetent and /or uninterested), or the government/tax payers(low funding), or all three. Educators seldom blame their ownmethods, materials, timetables, etc. Most people would agree that“one size fits all” items actually don’t fit most people very well,but when it comes to education, otherwise intelligent folks areinclined to bow to the “wisdom” of the established educationalorder in the matter of what a child should learn and when he shouldlearn it. Homeschool parents come to me every day asking for “thelist” of what their children should be learning at each gradelevel. Or, they come in very worried because Jr. is in third gradeand doesn’t yet know his multiplication facts or parts of speech orthe difference between a parallelogram and a trapezoid! Oh, my! Asa former primary teacher, I can attest to the almost totalincompetence of the school bureaucracy – from the teacher collegesto the state mandated textbooks. Even though the new emphasis onphonics is a promising sign, it appears that the manic insistenceon developmentally inappropriate “academic” goals will insure alarge number of educationally handicapped children for years tocome, incidentally providing job security for legions of specialeducation teachers. As principal of a large, private homeschoolIndependent Study Program (umbrella school for homeschoolers), Isee children daily who have been battered by this insane andinhumane system. But, that is not the worst of it. The problem iscompounded by the tyranny of “experts” who are determined to “help”homeschoolers by “diagnosing” and offering to “treat” all manner ofsuddenly discovered maladies from ODD (opposition/defiant disorder)to ADHD (attention deficit hyperactive disorder) to my favorite:Auditory Processing Disorder(APD), a wonderful catch-all for thelate bloomer who hasn’t yet cracked the phonetic code of English.These “experts” would have us believe that otherwise normalchildren suddenly become “disordered” when they enter school orbegin formal “homeschooling.” This is not to say that there are notchildren with very real medical and /or psychological problems, butthe vast majority of children diagnosed with a “learningdisability” are simply normal children with either a low tolerancefor boredom (ADD), too much energy to sit still for long doingboring, repetitive work (ADHD), developmentally unready to absorbthe material presented (LD, ADD,APD, Dyslexic, Dysgraphic, etc.) orpossessed of a learning style which is incompatible with thecurriculum in use(ADD, etc., etc.) The labels fly so rapidly andpredictably to so many children that they have become virtuallymeaningless except to the professional “experts” whose livelihooddepend on a full IN basket of educationally handicapped kids. Manydistraught parents opt to homeschool after receiving one or more ofthese dred diagnoses for their children. They remove them fromschool in order to help them overcome their “disability” and“remediate” their “deficiencies.” Although they intuitively knowthat their children are bright and can learn, they cling to thestandards and timelines of the system that condemned their childrenand in so doing, create unnecessary difficulty for themselves andtheir offspring. Often, parents come to me in search of acurriculum to help their children “catch up.” I have to ask, ”Catchup to what?” In trusting that the state and the state’s schoolsknow the best way to educate a child, they are in danger ofdestroying their children’s best opportunity to learn in the homeenvironment. By pushing children too hard too early, resistance,aversion and fear of failure create barriers to learning, onlycompounding the damage already done by the school system. Teachingand learning are neither difficult nor mysterious. It does not takea trained expert to teach the phonetic code to a child who isready. READY is the operative word. As a former first grade teacherwho learned to read in the first grade, I once thought that allchildren could and should learn to read at age six. It took adetermined homeschooling neighbor, my own “late” reading daughtersand the research of pioneering homeschool advocates, Raymond andDorothy Moore to convince me otherwise. We were very excited abouthomeschooling and started right in with MCP Plaid Phonics whenTenaya was five years old. She learned the letter sounds quicklybut could not put them together to make words. We were bothfrustrated while the neighbor boys, two years older than my girls,played happily and didn’t even attempt to read. Their mother,Susan, introduced me to the Moores’ books and philosophy. I wasunconvinced but I had no choice. My very bright and eager daughterwas not reading no matter what we did. Had she been in school, shewould have been labeled dyslexic simply because she did not read.Her sister, however, would have earned a whole list of labels: ADHD(she bounced off the walls when she wasn’t climbing them), APD (shemade no sound/symbol connections until she was about nine),dyslexic (she couldn’t read), dysgraphic (she couldn’t write) amongothers. Dr. and Mrs. Moore’s first book, School Can Wait and itstwin for laymen, Better Late Than Early, introduced me to the factsabout education and child development. The Moores collected earlychildhood research from medicine, ophthalmology, neurology, andpsychology and came to the inescapable conclusion that for mostchildren, the optimum age to begin formal academics is between theages of eight and twelve! For those of us who are steeped in theculture of early academics, this is a strange pill to swallow. Butthe Moores didn’t stop with mere laboratory research; they studiedhomeschool families in the 70’s and 80’s to see what happened whenchildren were free to learn at a more natural pace. The result wasseveral more books, culminating with The Successful FamilyHomeschool Handbook. This volume elaborates on “The Moore Formula”which Dr. and Mrs. Moore developed over the years as they combinedresearch with practical application. The “Moore Formula” includesthree elements in approximately equal portions: study, work andservice. They do not recommend formal academic studies before age 8and in some cases, as late as 12. (My younger daughter fell intothis older category.) This does not mean that the child does notlearn anything until age 8+. Children are learning voraciously frombirth and only the roadblock of clumsy “schooling” can retard orstop a child’s otherwise insatiable thirst for knowledge. Books areuseful and important tools, but for a young child, the world isfilled with much better learning opportunities than can be found onthe printed page alone. When a child is allowed to explore andquestion and wonder, whole worlds of interest can open that mightnever be discovered otherwise. In this homeschooling style, a childmight learn to read at five, at seven or at twelve, depending onthe child. This more relaxed early learning/teaching style willincorporate important developmental areas often neglected orignored by formal curricula: listening, hand-eye coordination,large motor skills, spatial relationships, personal relationships,knowledge about the physical environment, memory development,imagination, logic and many more. Because of the overwhelmingpresence of electronic media in our lives, children are often havedifficulty using their own imagination or even listening to a storywithout pictures. They are so bombarded with constant sound fromradio, TV, and electronic games that they can hardly think forthemselves. Giving children time in the early years (hopefully witha minimum of TV, etc.) to develop physically, neurologically andemotionally allows them to move into formal academics with amaximum of preparedness and energy. Since we are on the topic ofphysical and academic readiness we should spend a few moments onlearning styles. It is important to understand that each child hasa unique learning style that might be different from yours or hissiblings. Regardless of when you start teaching your childrenformally it is critically important to teach in a manner that bestfits the child’s learning style. The absolute best publication weknow of to assist you in determining and understanding your child’slearning style is Mariaemma Willis’ and Victoria Hodson’s book,Discover Your Child’s Learning Style. The blending of this bookwith the works of the Moore’s will provide you the foundation of ahighly successful homeschool experience. Delayed academics does notmandate delayed reading; it encourages parents to wait until theirchildren are ready. Until that time, parents can read to theirchildren, play games with letters and sounds, and watch for signsthat their children are beginning to catch on to the code. Oncethat happens, you cannot stop a child from reading. Some will movequickly and others will make slower progress, but as long as theinstruction is phonetic (this is vital), children will make gradualprogress until they are reading at an adult level. The catch hereis that although you can toss out the LD labels, you may not beable to use a packaged curriculum (Oh shucks!) One of my daughterslearned to read (effortlessly) at age 8 and the other at 10 ½. Oneused Primary Phonics readers and the other preferred Dr. Seuss ICan Read primers. Once past the primers, they simply selected (withmy guidance) books they enjoyed. Gradually, they moved to more andmore difficult material. Both are college graduates with enjoyablecareers. We used the Moore Formula instead of a formal curriculum.The girls worked at many jobs and invented as many businessesincluding one, Fun Ed, that is still thriving as part of ExcellenceIn Education Resource Center. They were involved in numerousservice projects culminating in overseas missions work. Most peoplewould classify us as unschoolers and I would not argue except toqualify that label by saying we did use the Moore Formula tobalance our lives. This happy ending would not have been possiblewithout the concept of “delayed academics,” for our daughters wouldhave been labeled early and often had we taken our littlenon-readers to the “experts.” Thankfully, we went instead to Dr.Raymond Moore and his wonderful wife Dorothy, who told us that aslong as they were making progress, we should not worry. They wereright! Modern schools were intended to do for education what HenryFord did for auto manufacturing. In some ways they have succeeded,but remember that children aren’t molten blobs of metal that can bereshaped by any mold to fit in any space for any purpose. Childrenare unique and delicate human beings with special talents,strengths and weaknesses. Each has his own developmental schedule,which we ignore at our peril. As homeschoolers, we have rejectedthe “system” for a variety of reasons; we have stepped outside thebox. Remember that the box includes much more than just thebuilding. Stepping outside the box and giving our children the verybest tailor made education includes questioning the school scheduleand curriculum as well. Things that are mass-produced are never ofthe finest quality and the same goes for a copy of a mass- produceditem. The best education for your child is one that is developedfor his or her unique learning schedule and learning style. Onlythe parent can judge the appropriateness of the schedule bywatching for things to “click,” but we can get quite a bit ofguidance from Raymond and Dorothy Moore’s many books onhomeschooling and Willis and Hodson’s Learning Style Profile foundin Discover Your Child’s Learning Style. Trying to get a head startby pushing early academics can backfire, causing difficulties foryears to come. Instead of worrying about a “learning disability”because your child does not fit the style and sequence of “in thebox” schools, spend your energy on developing your child’s naturalinterests. You will be amazed at the results.

Question...

What factors would influence your decision? Were you surprisedat the articles that question the value of early childhoodeducation?