"I Like To Con People, And I Like To Insult People, So..."

From The Australian, this may be the worst advice I've ever read:

[E]ducation consultant Kathy Walker said while reading to babies, singing songs and repeating rhymes was great, they should not learn to read until they were at least five years old.

"They don't need to read and write before school," she said.

Ms Walker said teaching babies to read could actually stress or frustrate the child and/or parent at a time when infants should be having fun and learning through play.

"It distracts us all away from what childhood is about and is another example of a global push to make little or no distinction between childhood and later life," she said.

I can spend the rest of my days being grateful that my folks never encountered an "education consultant" during my youth. I started reading at age two myself, and was completely literate long before I started kindergarten, much less grade school (if memory serves, I tested out at high school level in the first grade).

Having that ability early, learned for pleasure--before it could be made into a chore and ruined by "educators"--was, by far, the single biggest advantage I've had in my life.