Ways and means of improving reading instruction in the intermediate grades

"Learning to read is a lifetime process." It is no longer an ability to be acquired at any age or grade level. Rather it is a continuing process, a working medium, a tool by which we gather information, deepen understanding and appreciation, and acquire insight into life, from the primary stages throughout the entire span. This tool must necessarily require a lifetime of sharpening as a result of the rapid development of urban society. The individual of today now faces more complicated problems than in any previous generation. Recent reading conferences indicate a trend toward a far broader concept than in the past. The challenging age in which we are living requires that "Reading must provide more largely in the future than in the past for promoting clear understanding, developing habits of good thinking, stimulating broad interests, cultivating appreciation and establishing stable personalities."