“My juniors and seniors can hardly read. They read at about a fifth grade level, which is when their whole-word memorization program stopped.”
Reminds me of a funny story. When I lived in New Zealand I homeschooled. My neighbor had been a teacher. She was nosy and so very concerned about my daughter’s reading level. After much pressure, I finally said, “fine, test her.” My daughter was 5. She tested beyond the highest grade level. My neighbor shut up after that and quit complaining about homeschooling.
Our son is two, and we plan on homeschooling him.