That’s pretty weird. I wonder what he would have done with my family, since I taught myself how to read, at once, at 4, and my daughter, with a little help from me, started teaching herself by 2, and begged to be allowed to have reading lessons at 3-and-a-half. I obliged her and we had to skip a few grades and were able to finish higher grades in double time.

I wonder if Steiner was the kind who would forbid children books because they hadn’t reached a certain age and thought their brains would be damaged by learning how to read. I have heard stories of this happening in public schools, at least. Anyway, reading is mental exercise and thus it strengthens the brain of anyone.

So speaking of home-schooling, that is what we are doing, classical home-schooling, specifically, with the Good Books and the Great Books and all-classical methodology. If anyone is curious to try it, beware of curricula that have classical content but modern methodologies. That is what is considered classical by what seems like everyone but me these days. I stick entirely with pre-1920 textbooks, except for the things that have changed since then: mainly 20th-to-21st-century history, geography, and upper-level science, also classical composition, since I think the only materials in English are from modern times.

What’s funny about classical education is that it was the only thing considered education from the beginning of recorded history until people started dismantling it in the mid-19th century, but now, people think of it as just another ‘Alternative Teaching Method.” I’m siding with the ancients and busy working on a revival.

I only mention this because I used to teach at the public high school down the street from Phillips Exeter.