I believe she had a point. Many kids (including later blooming gifted) are pushed to achieve too soon and too fast in accordance with the NCLB push in K. She just saw dd as a victim of the public schools. My theory is that Waldorf doesn't attract the early developers and never sees them and therefore, doesn't believe they exist.
I agree. The problem with putting a timetable--any timetable!--to things like reading is that there will always be kids who bloom early and kids who bloom late. As long as there are no problems or issues beneath the surface, then I really think it pays to respect a child's own timetable for learning.
There are definitely "sweet spots" with kids for learning specific things. Hit them in the sweet spot, and learning is easy. Someone here called it something like "the zone of proximal development," I think. (Not sure I got the term right and can't remember who said it--argh!
Sorry!) I think that idea is totally right on!
