Trakka, you are quite right. Responsibility for literacy and numeracy lies at least as heavily on the shoulders of parents as it does on those of teachers.

I have found reading the discussion on Finland v Australia quite interesting. I had rather a different start to education, due to isolation as a child. My mother taught all three of her children to read well before we started school (I was assessed as reading at a 15 year old level, at age 7). Even my dyslexic sister was reading and writing well when starting kindergarten (in the school system she later regressed badly to the point she had to be admitted to a remedial reading program). On top of this pre-school reading, we were home schooled via correspondence for a few years. Being the eldest I had the longest time in home school and probably benefited the most as a result. Our school days would normally run from around 10am - 1pm. It was a system in which once you got your work done, you were free to go outside and play the rest of the day (nothing like some incentive to work hard!!). Despite short days, both my sister and I managed to get 1 year ahead of the standard system quite quickly, although once starting "normal" school, we were held back to our appropriate age levels. My youngest sister also got some benefit, but only got to be home-schooled in kindergarten before starting "normal" school at the age of four (turning 5 within 2 months).

Being a parent now myself, I'd love to be able to ask my mother what techniques she used, in order to give my own kids the same sort of headstart. Instead I can simply try to instill an enjoyment of books and stories, and focusing on counting things as much as possible (the steps to and from the house get a good workout!).

Country gal, my earliest recollections sre of the proverbial "Dick and Jane" Ladybird series of books(with guest stars Mummy, Daddy and Spot the dog("Run, Spot, Run!")).
In addition, I recall numbers being made fun with such things as cuisenaire(?) rods, you know, those coloured bits of wood.
In any case, I think the early start does more good than harm and the simpler the process, the better.
As I may have implied, both my parents were avid readers and sharers and would consider it of sufficient importance to spend time reading with me, helping where needed but otherwise just being around and interested. Family games of "Scrabble" got played a lot, as well as simple card games.
Naming and blaming won't necessarily solve the current problem. If a problem is known to exist, then deal with it, I say. If someone, or a group, can't properly read and/or write, find the reason why and then work with them until they can. If it means holding them back, for their own good, then so be it.
Allowing someone to remain functionally illiterate does no-one any good.
Enough of the problem, we know what it is. Make with the solution!

Yes, Spot featured highly, as well as one book of poems that I cant place the name of, but the final page was a poem called "Who Killed Cock Robin" (going through the list of suspect birds until the sparrow admitted that it was him). The coloured rods are ones that I remember well too.

Maybe better use of music in teaching young children would assist. Few kids dislike music, and songs can be used to teach all sorts of concepts and ideas. Surely stretching little imaginations would go a long way towards priming their minds for other forms of learning. We used to gather around the piano and act out the songs that mum was playing (before we could talk). We had a few records as well, but mostly it was home-created music. Someone told me once that playing music rather than listening to it had wonderous effects on expanding creativity and openness to ideas. Not sure how true it is.

Xoddam
"Educational and social outcomes don't seem very much differentiated between kids who do and don't go to daycare before they start school."

I certainly think that has to be qualified. Poorly run day care centres can have a very detrimental affect on young children, and a number of childhood experts now believe that there is far too much structured and adult organized play occurring with young children.

A belief that any daycare center or any kindergarten or any pre-school is good for children would be a very erroneous belief.

I have noticed university staff blaming secondary schools for poor student outcomes in universities, while there are secondary school staff blaming primary schools for poor student outcomes in secondary schools, and some primary school staff have been suggesting that there should be more pre-school education because of poor student outcomes in primary schools.

But very young children are basically voiceless, so if any testing or intensive type scrutiny is to be made of our education system, then the first priority should be in the area of daycare centres, pre-schools, kindergartens and in the first few years of primary school.

Oh, i couldn't agree more about getting back to literacy, numeracy, sciences, geography, history and with a bit of art, music and sport on a Friday. Likewise, i agree, get rid of these ridiculous worksheets, they accomplish absolutely nothing. As youngster we wrote pages of sums at varying levels of difficulty and we constantly learnt the techniques required for our maths. Spelling, Reading, COMPREHENSION, Sentence structure and dare I say it even Latin comprised our English lessons. We had fun though. Does anybody remember the SRA cards, these were brilliant cards that developed comprehension, you read a story and answered questions that caused you to think about what you had read. The challenge was to go higher and higher up the ladder of the cards. Even dear old Latin was thrown in so we would understand where our language came from. YOu know I still use it today when deciphering unfamiliar words, such a handy subject.

We really do need to go back to the very foundations of education and that includes leaving OUT the calculator and computer until at least Grade 10, the student will survive! By taking away the calculator and computer the students will begin to learn to think about their answers and be able to understand how they got there. Honestly, how is a computer going to help a student to learn their maths effectively. Good grief! Whilst we are discussing maths, can teachers please commence teaching their charges the times tables so that they can at least learn how to do long and short division and give change at a counter.