In this essay I argue that when children come to school they are confronted by an intervention in their learning, and comprehension of the world in general, that contrasts with the experiences of learning that they have generated previously to make sense of their world. Prior to schooling, where learning is directed from outside, children have undertaken the most staggering feat of learning in their lives; that is, coming to comprehend and speak their native tongue. They have done this mainly by use of imaginative schemes of which we have little comprehension. We take little cognizance and no advantage of their prior learning when we intervene in schooling to teach literacy. We need to examine the attainment and teaching of literacy more thoroughly and not see it as just drilling in reading and writing, but embracing a comprehension of language as an object of thought, here called meta-linguistic awareness. This comprehension should be encouraged throughout the years of schooling. We need also to employ the child's native imaginative capacities and relate them to this comprehension.