The amount of time given to reading in the elementary schools of
Cleveland, and the average time in 50 other cities[A] are shown in the
following table:
TABLE 1.--TIME GIVEN TO READING AND LITERATURE
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| Hours per year | Per cent of grade time
|-----------------------|------------------------
Grade | Cleveland | 50 cities | Cleveland | 50 cities
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1 | 317 | 266 | 43 | 31
2 | 317 | 235 | 36 | 26
3 | 279 | 188 | 32 | 21
4 | 196 | 153 | 22 | 16
5 | 161 | 126 | 18 | 13
6 | 136 | 117 | 15 | 12
7 | 152 | 98 | 17 | 10
8 | 152 | 97 | 17 | 10
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Total | 1710 | 1280 | 25 | 17
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During the course of his school life, each pupil who finishes the
elementary grades in Cleveland receives 1710 hours of recitation
and directed study in reading as against an average of 1280 hours in
progressive cities in general. This is an excess of 430 hours, or 34
per cent. The annual cost of teaching reading being about $600,000,
this represents an excess annual investment in this subject of
some $150,000. Whether or not this excess investment in reading is
justified depends, of course, upon the way the time is used. If the
city is aiming only at the usual mastery of the mechanics of reading
and the usual introductory acquaintance with simple works of literary
art, it appears that Cleveland is using more time and labor than other
cities consider needful. If, on the other hand, this city is using
the excess time for widely diversified reading chosen for its content
value in revealing the great fields of history, industry, applied
science, manners and customs in other lands, travel, exploration,
inventions, biography, etc., and in fixing life-long habits of
intelligent reading, then it is possible that it is just this
excess time that produces the largest educational returns upon the
investment.
[Footnote A: Henry W. Holmes, "Time Distribution by Subjects and
Grades in Representative Cities." In the Fourteenth Year Book of the
National Society for the Study of Education, Part I, 1915. University
of Chicago Press.]
It would seem, however, from a careful study of the actual work and
an examination of the printed documents, that the chief purpose of
teaching reading in this city is, to use the terminology of its latest
manual, "easy expressive oral reading in rich, well-modulated tone."
It is true that other aims are mentioned, such as enlargement of
vocabulary, word-study, understanding of expressions and allusions,
acquaintance with the leading authors, appreciation of "beautiful
expressions," etc. Properly emphasized, each of these purposes is
valid; but there are other equally valid ends to be achieved through
proper choice of the reading-content that are not mentioned. There is
here no criticism of the purposes long accepted, but of the apparent
failure to recognize other equally important ones. The character of
the reading-content is referred to only in the recommendation that
in certain grades it should relate to the seasons and to special
occasions. Even in reference to the supplementary reading, where
content should be the first concern, the only statement of purpose
is that "children should read for the joy of it." Unfortunately, this
mistaken emphasis is not at all uncommon among the schools of the
nation. How one reads has received an undue amount of attention; what
one reads in the school courses must and will receive an increasingly
large share of time and thought, in the new evaluation. The use of
interesting and valuable books for other educational purposes at the
same time that they are used for drill in the mechanics of reading
is coming more and more to be recognized as an improved mode of
procedure. The mechanical side of reading is not thereby neglected. It
is given its proper function and relation, and can therefore be better
taught.
So far as one can see, Cleveland is attempting in the reading work
little more than the traditional thing. The thirty-four per cent
excess time may be justified by the city on the theory that the
schools are commissioned to get the work done one-third better than in
the average city. The reading tests made by the Survey fail to reveal
any such superiority. The city appears to be getting no better than
average results.
Certainly people should read well and effectively in all ways in which
they will be called upon to read in their adult affairs. For the most
part this means reading for ideas, suggestions, and information in
connection with the things involved in their several callings; in
connection with their civic problems; for recreation; and for such
general social enlightenment as comes from newspapers, magazines, and
books. Most reading will be for the content. It is desirable that the
reading be easy and rapid, and that one gather in all the ideas as one
reads. Because of the fact that oral reading is slower, more laborious
for both reader and listener, and because of the present easy
accessibility of printed matter, oral reading is becoming of steadily
diminishing importance to adults. No longer should the central
educational purpose be the development of expressive oral reading.
It should be rapid and effective silent reading for the sake of the
thought read.
To train an adult generation to read for the thought, schools must
give children full practice in reading for the thought in the ways
in which later as adults they should read. After the primary teachers
have taught the elements, the work should be mainly voluminous reading
for the sake of entering into as much of the world's thought and
experience as possible. The work ought to be rather more extensive
than intensive. The chief end should be the development of that
wide social vision and understanding which is so much needed in this
complicated cosmopolitan age. While works of literary art should
constitute a considerable portion of the reading program, they should
not monopolize the program, nor indeed should they be regarded as
the most important part of it. It is history, travel, current news,
biography, advance in the world of industry and applied science,
discussions of social relations, political adjustments, etc., which
adults need mostly to read; and it is by the reading of these things
that children form desirable and valuable reading habits.
The reading curriculum needs to be looked after in two important ways.
First, social standards of judgment should determine the nature of the
reading. The texts beyond the primary grades are now for the most
part selections of literary art. Very little of it has any conscious
relation, immediate or remote, to present-day problems and conditions
or with their historical background. Probably children should read
many more selections of literary art than are found in the textbooks
and the supplementary sets now owned by the schools. But certainly
such cultural literary experience ought not to crowd out kinds of
reading that are of much greater practical value. Illumination of the
things of serious importance in the everyday world of human affairs
should have a large place in reading work of every school.
It is true that the supplementary sets of books have been chosen
chiefly for their content value. Many are historical, biographical,
geographical, scientific, civic, etc., in character. On the side of
content, they have advanced much farther than the textbooks toward
what should constitute a proper reading course. Unfortunately, the
schools are very incompletely supplied with these sets. If we consider
all the sets of supplementary readers found in 10 or more schools, we
find that few of those assigned for fourth-grade reading are found in
one-quarter of the buildings and none are in half of them. The same is
true of the books for use in the fifth and seventh grades. Some of the
books for the sixth and eighth grades are found in more than half
of the buildings, but there is none that is found in as many as
three-quarters of them.
The second thing greatly needed to improve the reading course is
more reading practice. One learns to do a thing easily, rapidly,
and effectively by practice. The course of study in reading should
therefore provide the opportunity for much practice. At present the
reading texts used aggregate for the eight grades some 2100 pages. A
third-grade child ought to read matter suitable for its intelligence
at 20 pages per hour, and a grammar-grade child at 30 to 40 pages
per hour. Since rapidity of reading is one of the desired ends, the
practice reading should be rapid. At the moderate rates mentioned, the
entire series of reading texts ought to be read in some 80 hours.
This is 10 hours' practice for each of the eight school years, an
altogether insufficient amount of rapid reading practice. Of course
the texts can be read twice, or let us say three times, aggregating
30 hours of practice per year. But even this is not more than
could easily be accomplished in two or three weeks of each of the
years--always presuming that the reading materials are rightly adapted
to the mental maturity of the pupils. This leaves 35 weeks of the year
unprovided for. To make good this deficit, the buildings are furnished
with supplementary books in sets sufficiently large to supply entire
classes. The average number of such sets per building is shown in the
following table: