I learned to read before I went to kindergarten back when dinosaurs still roamed the earth.
Well, maybe not dinosaurs but Milkmen, Diaper Services and housecalling Doctors still did. 
I could read a newspaper before I went to school, 5th grade readers in first grade and anything I wanted soon after. All because my momma mentioned one day that one of her friends son could read the paper in first grade. I took the bait challenge and began learning. No one encouraged me after Moms initial comment. She showed me how to look words up in the dictionary or the Funk & Wagnalls we owned and off I went. My inspiration came from all the adults telling me I couldn't do it while I knew damn well I was.
I was much the same way. Learned to read by playing on an old manual typewriter Mom had at the house, copying the words from books, catalogs, magazines, whatever I could get my hands on.
My oldest son had a US History teacher in 10th grade that was a first class asshole. He relished in the fact of how many pupils he could flunk, not what he could teach them. At a parent-teacher conference with him right before the end of year finals, he said that my son would flunk his class, and the only way he could see him passing is if he aced the final exam. I asked him how many questions were on it, and from where he would get the questions.
200 questions, all taken from the end of the chapters of the textbook. I reviewed all the material with my son over the course of 5 days, explaining to him what he didn't know, and adding my own "opinion" to what was in the textbook.
He made a 99.5% on the exam (only missed one question out of 200), passed for the year. NO SOB OF A TEACHER WILL TELL ME MY CHILD CAN'T DO SOMETHING!
