THE PSYCHOLOGY AND TEACHING OF READING

FINAL OBJECTIVES
As our final objective we should remember that the
curriculum in the junior school should provide activities
and experiences that will cater for personal needs and
stimulate a social awareness. To achieve this the reading
programme must be at the same time planned yet flexible,
directed yet varied—our aim should be to provide all children
with as many experiences as possible. The enrichment of
language background through oral work connected with
activities will be the surest way of aiding our reading pro-
gramme. For this reason we cannot dissociate the planning
of reading from the various centres of interest or environ-
mental studies based on the requirements of the children.
Group studies of such topics as " Our clothes/' " The story
of books," " The story of time," " How we travel," " How
people live," " The market," " The post office," " Wheat
and bread," "The farmer," "Shops," "The games of
boys and girls," " Our town," can give rise to an immense
amount of selected, informative reading for pupils of different
ages. Moreover, the knowledge thus gained and the attitudes
thus formed should be of great value to pupils later if we
can evolve an enlightened, sensible, realistic curriculum for
our post-primary schools.1
Teachers will find that Projects for the Junior School,
Books i to 4 (R. K. and M. I. R. Polkinghorne) contain helpful
reading matter for use in conjunction with group studies.
In catering for the personal reading needs of pupils it
is essential that teachers should guide boys and girls in
their choice of reading material. Many a child has been
turned away from a particular book for ever because he has
started it too early, and many a child has failed to develop
a stable and steadily improving reading habit because of
1 See The Social Approach to the Curriculum, by C. Fletcher (The
English New Education Fellowship).