This is an excerpt from “Upgrade” by K. Swanson.
A good education will teach a child to read well and write well. A recent study, released by the National Institute for Literacy, found that about half of American adults were functionally illiterate, unable to read or comprehend at an eighth-grade level. Our young people may learn a great deal about a good number of subjects, but sadly they are not learning to read well. This puts these students at a severe disadvantage. Most students with very few exceptions should be able to read a normal length chapter in about 10 minutes. In my experience teaching in public and private schools, it is rare to find high-school students who can read any particular text relatively rapidly and smoothly. It is also rare to find students who like to read.
From the beginning of my family’s homeschooling experience, we have emphasized reading as a fundamental part of our curriculum. As a result, by the time my children are ten years old, they are able to read aloud as well as any adult.
Tom Watson
The Good Curriculum is a comprehensive video-based, self-taught, self-paced, reading-intensive, writing-intensive, systematic online K-12 curriculum.