This book offers a brief historical sketch of the development of the elementary school curriculum, a defense of reading as a subject not to be confined to the mastery of skills, and specific constructive suggestions for the improvement of both reading instruction and the curriculum as a whole. For those elementary school pupils who will never enter college, the general curriculum--and the reading curriculum especially--must be revised with the aim of preparing these pupils for full, effective participation in American democratic society. To that end, the reading selections included herein are taken from actual classroom practice, with examples of how to direct the reading of literature, and a selection of materials on the subjects of geography, history, and civics.