Alice, I do think US public education has been dumbed down quite a bit. A pedological shift did begin in the mid-to-late 1970s, however.

Did I ever hear of The Letter People? No. And I’m glad I missed that silliness. I started kindergarten in 1963, and we didn’t need that then and did just fine.

I think my mom thought me some of it when I was 5 or 6. We didn't learn anything like that in kindergarten. So when I started going to school at 7, I already knew some of the letters. However, I didn't care too much about the direction, and often, since I am left handed, I wrote words mirrored.

I don't remeber how I learned alphabet. My mother taught me how to read when I was four. I think I learned alphabet that time too. At the time I was in the kindergarten, children didn't have educational classes there. Our parents prepared us for school.

I wasn't in the kindergarten/preschool untill I was 6. In the time of my childhood kids were starting school when they were 7 years old and preschool when they were 3 - usually. My first contact with English alphabet were eppisodes of Sesame Street in early 90s. I remember that they were used this methode you described in this show. Kidss are usually started lerning how to read and write in the last year of preschool but my granma taught me how to reed when I was 5 so I knew how to do it much earlier than majority of kids in my age. I had more problems with writing (still I've got some in fact). Before I was 9 teachers were thinking that I will never lern how to write. I think that my problems with it are caused by my disability.