I am also one of those lucky folks who learned to read before starting school. My mom always said that I was taught by Sesame Street.
When I did start school, I didn't pay much attention during reading lessons. Usually the teachers just let me huddle in the corner with a book while everyone else worked. I remember something about this phonics thing, but I figured I didn't need it so who cares?
I learned the whole-language method and I guess I read so much that all the spelling rules became intuitive. Seemed like I just had to see the word once and I had it in my data bank. Oddly enough this didn't help me in spelling bees, I think because I didn't study for them. I remember that in a 4th grade spelling bee I was done in by the word "tassel." I spelled it with an "le." Boy did I feel stupid.
Teaching phonics/whole language methods should be chosen on an individual basis. Some kids learn one better, some the other. My kids are also whole-language and learned to read pretty easily, but the school insisted on teaching phonics and I think that really screwed them up as far as spelling.
Another gripe I have with the school is this--when kids are very young and just starting to write, we are prohibited from correcting their spelling. They write phonetically, and we're just supposed to be so happy that they're writing anything that we fear correcting might stifle their little authorial voices. Therefore it takes at least 4 years of actual spelling grades to break them of this habit of just writing anything and never bothering to check its spelling or even think for a few seconds first. I remember when my daughter was absolutely astonished in 4th grade when the teacher took off points on a paper she'd written for spelling errors. It had never happened before.
It is my personal opinion that schools today place way too much emphasis on developing kids' self esteem and way too little on doing things properly from the very beginning. Whatever happened to penmanship, for example? I remember getting graded on how closely my writing resembled the "ideal." Now all they care about is if it's readable. Which is OK, I guess, but "readable" is rather subjective, isn't it?