The issue of the education establishment not teaching kids to read is one of my hot buttons.
The kid doesn't learn his letters and the sounds made both singly and in combinations and that kid will not be able to sound out/figure out any word he hasn't learned by sight. A couple of generations have already been ruined by this deliberate social-engineering scheme; not only do they not know how to read and pronounce words, too many don't want to know.
Most kids can learn to read and at the appropriate time are eager to read. Unfortunately, kids learning to read seems to be a big mystery to people. It's really simple but the education establishment makes it really boring and tedious. I became a good reader not by any effort on behalf of my teachers but because I discovered a world through books. When I was taught it was some sort of weird combo of whole word and phonics. Honestly, I didn't get the phonics until I'd discover the joy of books and began to see words had patterns.
Three of my 4 kids were late in picking up the reading and not because I was homeschooling them. I used an excellent book called Learn to read in 100 Easy Lessons. !00% phonics. I think it was a combination of developmentally not being ready and also not being interested in a book when life around them was way more interesting (they weren't confined to an institution for hours on end. The world was in front of them and way more interesting. My kids were always popular playmates which I attributed to having active imaginations).
I did the phonics with the 3 at the appropriate age (6-7) and they could parrot back what they were supposed to but for the life of them they were totally uninterested in reading. I'd buy them the easy readers and they act like they didn't know what "cat" was! And when I'd finally get them to read the stupid book they'd make no effort to move on. Fortunately, I only experienced the frustration with my oldest because I did a lot of reading about the subject and came to understand that some children take longer than others. Confident that they had the basics of phonics I relaxed. (I'm sure they would have been labeled as slow learners in school. We did our school lessons verbally for the 1 st three years --they weren't stupid and understood what I taught and could do math).
Anyway, the oldest finally caught on to reading after I gave her a book that captured her imagination. From then on there was no stopping her. The next one at 8 did the same thing to me. But I just kept handing her books. (We're regulars at the library). I again bought her the level one, easy readers, and with my prompting she'd get through them. But it was like pulling teeth. So eventually, I left her alone, satisfied that she had the basics and when she was ready she'd do it. When she turned 8 she wasn't reading anything; 6 months later she was reading LOTR and undrstanding what she read. The last one did the same thing, only she dragged it out to age 9 (we'd finished the 100 lessons and I'd say what's this sound and she look at me as if she'd never heard it) And even then I wasn't too sure she was really reading. But she'd carried books around with her and say she was reading. But then for some reason at 9 1/2 she decided she wanted to read the Narnia books. Then Harry Potter. She's always reading now. I have to tell her to stop reading and go do other things sometimes! I'm beginning to think that my kids weren't challenged by the age appropriate designated readers and were not interested in reading until they found a reason to be engaged.
Then there's the one we all joke about. The one daughter I say I have no idea how she learned to read. We didn't do more than 15-20 lessons in the 100 lessons book and somehow she picked it up on her own around age 7. I remember when she was 9 or 10 trying to figure out exactly how it happened. I have no idea. She's not much of a fiction reader. She devours all sorts of books--in English, French, Greek and Latin. Because I spent so much time with the others she likes to joke that he mom didn't teach her and she had to do it on her own.
I know so many people who HATE to read. I can't help but think that they were forced into it when they were not developmentally ready and on top of that forced to read some pretty boring stuff. Which reminds me of how I ticked off a teacher in 6th grade once. The teacher had set up a reading competition of sorts (I doubt that would be allowed today) and whoever read the most would win and get their name in the school paper. Two thinks I like--a good competition and reading. I won naturally but not before aggravating the teacher. Halfway through the competition she informed me that I was supposed to be reading the books she had in the classroom shelves and not just the books from the library (which were more interesting to me). So I read all the classroom books and then went back to my preferred library books. I was probably reading at the high school level at that point.
Some of my friends tell me they haven't read a book since they were in school. My husband hasn't read a book since he graduated decades ago.
(more than you'd ever want to know but like Pan it sets me off--I have friends who were always so proud their kids were "reading" at 4 or 5 but I discovered the kids had no reading comprehension and to this day they don't read unless they have to. And don't even get me started on grammar!)