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