Monday January 18,2026 

Please excuse the mess, because for the last several years I have just added videos and articles not putting additional pages or categories. I am now in the process of having done by a Yola my web provider new upgrade Elite in-house design service.

"Some people there are who, being grown; forget the horrible task of learning to read. It is perhaps the greatest single effort that the human undertakes, and he must do it as a child."

  John Steinbeck

Welcome to Billy's Quest! 

I ask as you start this journey with us that you review both the history and facts that the videos below provide. These facts merely disclose the tip of the iceberg of our literacy problem! Our educational system has failed us. That is why Billy's Quest is available to every child or adult, because both children and adults can benefit from the tools we offer here at Billy's Quest. A tool can be anything that helps a child understand their difference, that they are "NOT" broken or damaged. First, we try to help a child regain "belief in themselves". I believe, when a child "TRULY REGAINS BELIEVING IN ONESELF" they can accomplish their wildest dreams! WE as a society have a very bad habit of limiting a child success by either telling them, through actions or words what they are capable of achieving! But I know as parents and teachers how important your children are to you. I have two myself that I would gladly give my life to protect! 

I do not sell anything, so your money is safe here. Yet, nothing is ever "FREE".... the cost?  "YOUR TIME" I know how precious your time is, but for your child could you set aside just 10 minutes a day? There is a free program called Magic Ladder that can really help your child learn to read. Try it yourself by clicking on any word on this page. No more skipping over words I don't know how to pronounce, and if I don't know the definition it's there in REAL TIME. I promise you will see the light in your child's eyes when he or she CAN READ EVERY WORD ON OUR WEBSITE which is just a small peek into the possibilities of Magic Ladder. OLSN pronounced Olsen the Magic Ladder PQ Pop-up  allows you to gain the help on this page or any page on the web. Online Learning support net  https://mlc.learningstewards.org/olsn/ and start a Magical learning journey for your child or an adult like me. 

I was very fortunate to have read and to have watched the wealth of information that Childrenofthecode.org  provides  by Founder and CreatorDavid Boulton who has become both my mentor and friend


What David Boulton might say about reading https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/science-reading-dont-step-cowpie-dr-andy-johnson-timnc/

If you zoom in on the emotional flavor and rhetorical posture of the piece you’ve pasted, the first thing that stands out is that it is performing precisely the sort of adversarial, buzzword-calling, method-war posture that keeps the entire field circling around its own confusion. It is describing “cowpies,” “buzzwords,” “weasel words,” and “straw men,” but the way it is doing so is itself a demonstration of how the field gets stuck — by reacting to abstractions with counter-abstractions, by escalating caricatures into counter-caricatures, and by feeding the very polarity loops that keep us from focusing on the real issue: that millions of children are struggling to learn to read an inherited code that was never designed with learning in mind.

From a learning-first perspective, the problem isn’t Goldenberg, or Hanford, or Stossel, or Edelson, or SoR, or Balanced Literacy, or any particular scholar or faction. The problem is that our field keeps mistaking positional arguments for the work of making the code learnable to children. The heat of these debates becomes its own cowpie field — a place where adults argue about adults’ abstractions while children continue to be forced to learn in an orthographically confusing interface without the support they need.

If we were to strip away all the rhetorical smoke, what matters is this:

• Children don’t struggle because they fail to memorize the “alphabetic principle.”
• Children struggle because the code we ask them to read is inconsistently organized, historically accreted, and confusing.
• Their brains must resolve letter–sound correspondences that are often unstable, ambiguous, or contradictory.
• When their processing hesitates or misfires, they experience shame — and that shame disables the very learning processes needed to improve.
• The adult debates about “the knowledge base,” “the science of reading,” “balanced literacy,” and “foundational skills” rarely address the actual moment-to-moment experience of a learner confronting the code.
• Worse, the debates often generate the very mind-shame, misattribution, and methodological certainty that keep us from exploring better ways to steward learners’ experience.

The cowpies worth avoiding are not just in Goldenberg’s text — they are in how we talk about reading altogether.

Whenever we use large abstractions (“the knowledge base,” “the science says,” “effective instruction,” “structured literacy,” “the alphabetic principle,” “the Simple View,” “the rope”), we risk stepping into cognitive mud. These abstractions become shields that deflect attention away from the lived phenomenology of reading: the split-second timing, the juggling of visual, auditory, lexical, and semantic cues, the constant resolving of orthographic ambiguity, and the affective load that accompanies every hesitation.

If you want a clean path through the cow pasture, here is where I would steer attention:

1. Ask what the code is learning the learner.
Does this interface (texts, scaffolds, instructions) increase clarity or confusion?
Does it reduce or amplify shame?
Does it support or disable curiosity and agency?

2. Ask whether the language used in research accurately represents the learner’s experience.
Does “alphabetic principle” describe what a child is learning in the moment?
Does “foundational skills” capture the felt turbulence of trying to decode irregular, inconsistent spellings?
Does “the knowledge base” point to something a child can use?

If not, it is rhetorical packaging, not help.

3. Ask what the learner needs in the moment of confusion.
A child struggling to resolve “ea” in bread versus eat doesn’t need a buzzword.
They need support that meets the confusion where it arises, reduces cognitive load, and protects learning health.

4. Stop framing the struggle as a war between adults.
The “reading wars,” the SoR/Balanced Literacy polarity, and the cowpie-discourse all share a common flaw:
They locate the problem in other adults’ abstractions, instead of in the interface learners are being shaped by.

5. Focus on making words work to help learners learn to read them.
That’s the direction of PQs, OLSN, interactive orthography, and meaning-first scaffolding.
Not because they belong to a method, but because they honor the learner.

When the field gets lost in cowpies — buzzwords, weasel words, straw men, positional authority — the thing that suffers is the child’s moment-to-moment learning health. The stakes are not academic; they are developmental, emotional, and lifelong.

My advice is always the same:

Don’t step in the cowpies.
Look at the code.
Look at the learner.
Look at the confusion.
Steward that space with precision, humility, and care


Please watch this eye opening presentation by Paula Tallal!

                   

Note: Click on any word on this site (and keep clicking it) to experience the The Magic Ladder PQ Pop-Up, a new kind of technology for supporting reading.

I know there are so many very caring individuals and companies providing great service, help, and products for our children. But there are far too many that I will now "LABEL"  "The False Prophets of Education" because they so easily LABEL our Children Broken or Damaged without any concern of the REAL DAMAGE THEY ARE DOING to our CHILDREN for a LIFETIME!... all for their UNETHICAL PROFITS being made off our children's WEAKNESS. There is no reason a parent should be spending TENS of THOUSANDS of Dollars to help your children learn to read! This has got to "STOP"! Our children have got to become more important than these huge unethical profits being made at off their backs! Billy's Quest will work diligently to provide FREE or inexpensive tools. 

The first step is by educating yourself and your child about what is the cause of dyslexia, and then finding workable solutions to living with dyslexia. The most informed site that has a truly unbiased approach that I have found is Children of the Code. Here you will find hundreds of interviews from the most informed minds on all aspects of the child learning to read, then the child being able to comprehend and retain what they are readings as well! If what you are being told just doesn't feel right or past the smell test (If something smells bad it's a very good chance, it's BAD information or advice!).I know each and every one of you want to help your child ..First PLEASE LISTEN TO YOUR CHILD! you may be pleasantly surprised how something you may think, or feel is very small can make a huge difference in your child's learning.

 Please so everyone is clear I am not saying David has all the answers. What David brings to the table is a wealth of unbiased information freely available to everyone. I ask you..I beg of you....David Boulton has dedicated 30+ years to research and REAL TIME solutions helping our children to learn to Read.

  "We can no longer assume that what we think children should learn is more important than how well they can learn.”                                                                                                                                                             David Boulton

I will provide just 2 comments out of the hundred's and hundred's of comments...   link provided below to view all comments

"I have always felt that I am fairly well read, however, your presentation and now your website has given me new direction...I have always had a sense of urgency for the children in my care (as a speech pathologist, a principal, and now a director of special education) and now your information gives me the meat to start alarming others... I am sending this URL to all of the principals in my district and am going to set up time after school to watch the videos together as a professional learning community... thank you so much for the work that you have done to bring all of these people together, especially the children." - Mary Friesen, Director, Special Education, Thomasville City Schools, Thomasville, GA

"The most powerful professional development experience I have ever had. If you are involved in any way in teaching children to read, you MUST attend one of the seminars. This was truly an awakening for me! I will never look at the reading process in the same way. Attending this seminar will help everyone understand better why we have so many children that struggle when it comes to learning to read." - Julie Colley Lowery, Education Specialist, Alabama State Department of Education, Special Education Services, AL

 I will ask you to take the time to please read just a few comments of some of the most esteemed leaders in education today

                                                                        https://childrenofthecode.org/comments.htm

                                                                                     childrenofthecode.org

                                                                              Laymen's Definition of Dyslexia

Dyslexia is like being tall or short, thick or skinny, left-handed or right-handed. It's just one of the many ways that people are different. Like most differences, it can be both a Gift or Curse. The Gift is the dyslexic think in creative and different ways that help them accomplish great things. The Curse is that learning to read is much harder for people with dyslexia. Dyslexia is caused by the way the brain is wired. The Dyslexic brain wiring affects the way the brain learn to recognize the written words.  By: David Boulton Learning Activist who is my mentor and my friend.

This site is dedicated to every child who have ever been called or told

You were slow and even worse, you were called dumb or stupid please trust me, I know that feeling of shame! We were moved to the back of the class or moved to classes for us that just didn't quite get it.

We are all in this together and I am glad you are visiting "our" site.  I want this to become your home away from home. This is our online meeting place. I know the embarrassment, the guilt ,the why me? We will share ideas, and I will listen if you just need someone that knows your struggles and pain. There will be no lectures here.  This site's sole purpose is to help you find the gift that is in you.

                                                                       

                                                                                        Connect with Billy's Quest

                                                         https://www.facebook.com/Billys-Quest-855520317877193/                                                                                                                                            Instagram

 
 

 

                                                                                     How Billy's Quest Began

 I wrote a song called "Billy" which lit the spark to start the adventure of  Old Man Tony and his imaginary friend Billy that could do anything and everything I thought I couldn't do until that aha moment I realized we only limit ourselves in what we can achieve. Our quest is to help take away the pain and shame that many of our children still face today. The website will continue to improve to help not only our children, but to help those like me that did not find out until later in life that we were dyslexic. A whole new world opened up to me when I found my gift! I would now like to help you find your gift that I know is inside of each and everyone us that is dyslexic. I promise you will be amazed in how your life can change!

For those of you that are dyslexic this website did not come to me easily. I have put in hour after hour, day after day, now I'm into year after year to get "our website" to where it is now. Spell check has been a god sent! So PLEASE don't ever be afraid to use tools that are available to you. I read inspirational quotes daily. I was told by a very dear friend that we're all lazy individuals so to truly succeed we just have to find that passion that makes us want to jump-up out bed in the morning and take on the world! When I took on the challenge to first write a song this is when "Billy" came to life. I beg you never be afraid to accept help, because I accepted the help and inspiration from the Northshore Songwriter's Circle.... please let me tell you I am one of the worst songwriters in the circle now but remember I did say now! 

Quotes that help me first record and then help me get "Billy" up on YouTube (the only way to get onto our website) and then here.

"I haven't failed, I've just found 10,000 ways, it won't work"     

 "Genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspirations"

I ask for your patience because am learning how to record, and I promise you as I add more videos, they will get better. I felt I needed to bring awareness to those of us with dyslexia, and our daily struggles that each of us face. Yes, I know great strives have been made, but I believe there is still so much more that can be done.  "Billy" the recording is a true labor of love for me personally, but more importantly our children to truly understand they never have to be ashamed to admit they are dyslexic. I know that some have ask for the lyrics, so I have added the rough draft of lyrics below. This is not just about my story... it's about the story of a little Billy or Mary that somewhere out there can relate to this song and hopefully help others find the true "gift" I have found. I ask you not to just accept the old, outdated perceptions of dyslexia, and some very outdated treatments being given as we speak never just accept always question the reasoning behind the treatment and any and all medications, and please listen to your child!


         

 I want to thank Dirk Billie and Rabadash Studios in Covington, La who so graciously recorded "Billy" September 2018, I revised the words to "Billy" to reflect what I have learned on my journey. The new live version is here! 

This is a song I wrote about my own experiences of discovering much later in life I was/am/and will always be dyslexic. This is where Billy's Quest was born!

                                                                 

                                                                            “ Billy “                       by Tony Eller        2014 updated October 12, 2018

(G)-Billy is a child  (C)…He sees the world  (G)- in pictures

(C)- an imagination..  that just runs wild you know that Billy he’s  a curious child…(G) unhum

(Em) Why is he so ashamed?

(C)    Why does he hold himself to blame?

        (Repeat)

(G)-Billy is a young man…(C)-…He sees the world (G) in pictures

(C) an imagination.. that just runs wild you know that Billy he’s

 still a curious child…(G) unhum…..

(Em) Why is he so ashamed?

(C)    Why does he hold himself to blame?

(Repeat)

 

(G) (TALKING) An has the years started slipping away

Billy realize something was just not right

So he when looking for answers and to his amazement

What he discovered was his…………….. Gift!

Which he soon discovered can be both a Gift or a Cruse

Billy’s Life changed that day!...... the 100 # weight that was tied around his neck

Was suddenly gone!…Billy no longer had to think he was the dumbest person in the room! Billy finally knew that it was not all his fault. His brain just happen to be wired a little differently.

It was then Billy had the aha moment and  started to realize he learned in a unique way that when tapped into can bring amazing amazing results!

(G)-Billy is an old man…(C)-.he sees the world (G) in pictures

(C)- an imagination ..that still run wild …you know that Billy is still that curious child….Unhum…..

(Em)- Now there’s no more shame

(C)-He won’t hold himself to blame……(G).. ever again

 

        (Repeat)

 

(TALKING) Now what Billy discovered is that 1in5 in our country.. has some form of dyslexia…..at least this is what we’re been told?

Although there have been great strives made, there is still so..so.. much more that can be done…So now  Billy’s…… Quest has become…….

That the next little Billy will never experience this…hidden shame & self-doubt

That’s a “LEARNED” consequence of our present-day school system, and if not corrected this hidden shame and self-doubt will be with the child a lifetime!

I have now been on this journey several years, it seems we take one step forward two steps backwards… When there is a weakness there will always

be a group to profit off the parent’s caring love for their child, by a group labeled the false prophets of education. BUT!.... if we all work together this is what is possible for our children!

 

(G)Billy is child…(C)-.he sees the world (G) in pictures

(C)-an imagination…that just runs wild you know that Billy he’s

A curious child….(G)..unhum…

(Em)  Now there will be no more pain

(C)     He won’t ever hold himself to blame

(Em)- Now she’ll have no more shame

(C)- She won’t ever hold herself to blame….  ever again!

 

                                                                                                   

                                               ______________This quote I hope to use ________________

 Please every child now...... please repeat after me!

Don't underestimate me........    please say it again ......  Don't underestimate me!......... that's better

I know more than I say.........     please a little louder......    I know more than I say!...........much better

I think more than I speak ......  Please please just a little louder.......I think more than I speak! .....   that's beautiful

And I notice more than you realize....ok real loud this time.........And I notice more than you realize!..........that's amazing

God has given me a Gift.....I promise I will share this Gift with the world!


Billy 2018 SoundCloud.mp3