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Saturday, 2 June 2007

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Melinda Messenger: My seven-year-old can't read or write

Model's alternative education plan nearly ruined her marriage

Melinda Messenger isn't bothered that her seven-year-old son Morgan can't read or write - because she believes children should play.

The model's kids - Morgan, Flynn, five, and Evie, three - attend a Steiner Waldorf School where spiritual and emotional development are favoured over tests and exams.

But her beliefs - and her decision to move her family 100 miles from Wiltshire to Berkshire to enrol her children last summer - nearly ripped her marriage to childhood sweetheart Wayne, 36, apart.

'It caused endless prolems between us,' she says, 'we were on the verge of breaking up.

'Wayne would say, "What are you doing? Morgan should be learning to read!" He thought I'd gone mad.

'We had some awful fights. During one row, we were driving along and he literally had my hair, I had his and we were screaming at each other.'

Fortunately, Wayne's come round to her new-age way of thinking.

'Wayne's a real stayer,' says Melinda. 'We realised that marriage is about hanging in there, and he now believes in the benefit and value of their new education.'