Ah, reading! My daughter was born in 1970. Even then I was worried about how they were teaching reading in the schools, so I read to her constantly and taught her to read myself before she even went to kindergarten. Same with my son, born 16 years later! The result is that they have always been heavy readers (little interest in TV) and intellectually curious, and have demonstrated to me that with a solid, early foundation in reading you become a lifelong learner. The kids who struggle with reading or don't learn to read well go on to be people who just don't read or learn much, with the expected results.