ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an interpretation of George Spache’s reading views, based primarily on his lifetime of professional writing and research. For the most of Spache’s career, the dominant approach to the teaching of reading was use of the basal reader. Despite the research support, Spache opposed this philosophy of reading materials: The adherents of a limited vocabulary will hasten to point out that, in all probability, the child does not learn this wider vocabulary in comics and other recreational material. Oral reading has been a constant source of difficulty for many years in reading education. A related approach to reading instruction that Spache advocated was the use of individualized reading. The classroom literacy curriculum, in its various forms and developments, is certainly not immune to the effects of outside influences in many different ways. Spache was especially concerned about the many outside pressures that shape and mold the literacy curriculum on a daily basis.
