Quotes: Reading (9).

Reading and thinking 24 "They do not read; apparently they do not think." Sinclair Lewis, Main Street. [Reading is thinking. RayS.]

Reading and whole language 79 "…the 'global' method for teaching reading laid out two centuries later (in French, 1787) by Nicolas Adam in his A Trustworthy Method of Learning Any Language Whatsoever: 'When you show a child an object, a dress for instance, has it ever occurred to you to show him separately first the frills, then the sleeves, after that the front, the pockets, the buttons, etc?…of course not; you show him the whole and say to him: this is a dress…how children learn to speak from their nurses; why not do the same when teaching them to read…entertain them with whole words which they can understand and which they will retain with far more ease and pleasure than all the printed letters and syllables.' ” Manguel, A History of Reading. [Persuasive, but specious defense of what today is called "whole language." RayS. ]

Reading and whole language 79 "In our time, the blind learn to read…by “feeling” the entire word--which they know already--rather than deciphering it letter by letter." Manguel, A History of Reading.

Reading history 22 "Ultimately, perhaps, the history of reading is the history of each of its readers." Manguel, A History of Reading. [How do people read?]