I personally know of what he speaks. I nearly learned not to read in public school and it was quite traumatic. If I wasn't privately tutored when I was six I would've been a functional illiterate.
I can never forget the horrified feelings the look/say method instilled in me at the time.
A lot of our homeschool friends, regrettably, bag-out of the program when their kids reach the final two years before graduation: fears of getting the kids "certified" for college. Fear not! The trend is that colleges are developing programs to access and recruit homeschooled kids, based upon excellent performance of current and past homeschoolers in the colleges. Such is now the case with Massachusetts Maritime Academy. Roy Fulgueras, Dean of Admissions, will be attending an upcoming homeschool conference in MA to pitch the school--a uniformed, military-styled institution (in its 100th year) that produces engineers and deck officers for Merchant Marine service. In fact, more flag-rank Navy officers come from there than from any other single institution. If your homeschooler is interested in a Navy Academy education, but unsure of the military comittment, that's the place to go.