A child's mind isn't a blank slate; it's more of a jungle.  Each time a parent helps a toddler read, the child is walked through this jungle from one side to the other.  Trip after trip, a seemingly impossible passage becomes a well-worn path.  Children sent to kindergarten skipping merrily along this path to literacy fare far better than those sent to school with machetes.  --  Keith Mastrion "Reading Man" and 1998 National Teacher of the Year.