ABSTRACT
A major contribution of educational psychology to the practices of American schools is the demonstration which this science has given of the misconception that has long dominated schools with regard to the nature of reading. Traditionally, the schools of this and other civilized countries have proceeded on the assumption that reading is an act of the same pattern wherever it appears. It was not recognized until the most recent times that there are a number of different kinds of reading. The truth of the statement that all reading was thought of as requiring a single kind of mental activity is shown in the fact that a few years ago the method of teaching reading was the same at all levels of elementary education and instruction in reading was entirely discontinued after pupils completed the eighth grade. The passages read in the upper grades contained, to be sure, longer words and sentences of greater complexity than those employed in the books used in the lower grades, but the method of teaching was the same. The teacher called on one pupil after another to stand up and read aloud a few sentences. Some improvement was expected in fluency and in intonation, but reading was looked upon in all cases as the same kind of exercise. The fact that instruction in reading stopped at the end of the elementary school shows that it was generally believed that the art of reading can be cultivated as far as is necessary for all practical purposes by instruction of a strictly rudimentary type.
