Reading With the Right Brain: Read Faster by Reading Ideas Instead of Just Words by David Butler
Authors: David Butler
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was still offered as a part of the basic training kit of most speed reading courses for many years. After all, they had to offer something, and a machine like this made a good first impression on students.
Recent History
Before the 1920s, reading instruction stressed “accurate oral reading.” The good reader was one who could “read aloud with expression and fluency .”
But then experimenters at the University of Chicago found that students could read faster silently than they could orally, and they could do it with better comprehension and retention. Research on eye movement during this time also found that a reader could read faster if he made fewer fixations per line of text.
However, further research showed that eye movement could not be consciously controlled. Most authorities concluded that the only way to improve reading would be to improve the reader’s ability to perceive and interpret the material. Therefore, by the 1950s most teachers and colleges were already skeptical of any courses labeled “speed reading.”
But then in 1959, a woman named Evelyn Nielsen Wood set up a course in Wilmington, Delaware called Reading Dynamics. Wood’s method started with what she called "push-up" drills, wherein students would read for one minute and then re-read, trying to cover more material each time. The course also concentrated on exercises meant to widen the eye span in order to see more words at a time. To eliminate subvocalizing, students were encouraged to push their speeds faster than they could vocalize.
Even though these courses concentrated on pushing your speed, the basic theory behind Wood’s exercises was that students should concentrate on reading thoughts instead of words. She described it like this: "The reader becomes part of the story. Since the method relies upon the total idea of the thought rather than the individual words, there is no feeling of hurry or fast motion of speeded reading. The words go in fast, but they go in only to make the complete picture."
Evelyn Wood considered her work an important crusade—one that would improve student reading skills across the country. In the fall of 1960, she set out to change the world, opening twenty-five instruction centers around the United States.
Sadly though, Wood was bankrupt by the following September. She had opened all twenty-five centers within one month, and although Wood had a zealous commitment towards her schools, she unfortunately did not have any real business or advertising experience.
She sold her business to George Webster, who promptly fired the original staff and modified the course and the marketing. He ran a simply worded full-page ad in the newspaper, offering a money-back guarantee if a student didn’t at least triple their “reading index.” Suddenly, Reading Dynamics became a huge success, and Wood was hired to make public appearances and open new schools.
The advertised guarantee was a very effective marketing strategy, but unfortunately for students, the guarantee wasn’t really that easy to qualify for.
First, the promise was only to improve the student’s so-called “reading index.” This index was calculated by multiplying the words-per-minute speed by the comprehension score. It was actually difficult not to improve this index since the final reading exercise was always so much easier than the first. The final comprehension test was so easy that students could score quite high without even reading the exercise.
Second, students had to complete the entire course before qualifying for the refund, and most unsatisfied customers just dropped out, choosing to lose their money rather than more of their time.
In the end, few students actually made the incredible progress that was promised. Over the next twenty years the public became more and more skeptical, and the “speed reading” industry was unable to refute this skepticism with enough student success stories.
This skepticism is unfortunate because
Recent History
Before the 1920s, reading instruction stressed “accurate oral reading.” The good reader was one who could “read aloud with expression and fluency .”
But then experimenters at the University of Chicago found that students could read faster silently than they could orally, and they could do it with better comprehension and retention. Research on eye movement during this time also found that a reader could read faster if he made fewer fixations per line of text.
However, further research showed that eye movement could not be consciously controlled. Most authorities concluded that the only way to improve reading would be to improve the reader’s ability to perceive and interpret the material. Therefore, by the 1950s most teachers and colleges were already skeptical of any courses labeled “speed reading.”
But then in 1959, a woman named Evelyn Nielsen Wood set up a course in Wilmington, Delaware called Reading Dynamics. Wood’s method started with what she called "push-up" drills, wherein students would read for one minute and then re-read, trying to cover more material each time. The course also concentrated on exercises meant to widen the eye span in order to see more words at a time. To eliminate subvocalizing, students were encouraged to push their speeds faster than they could vocalize.
Even though these courses concentrated on pushing your speed, the basic theory behind Wood’s exercises was that students should concentrate on reading thoughts instead of words. She described it like this: "The reader becomes part of the story. Since the method relies upon the total idea of the thought rather than the individual words, there is no feeling of hurry or fast motion of speeded reading. The words go in fast, but they go in only to make the complete picture."
Evelyn Wood considered her work an important crusade—one that would improve student reading skills across the country. In the fall of 1960, she set out to change the world, opening twenty-five instruction centers around the United States.
Sadly though, Wood was bankrupt by the following September. She had opened all twenty-five centers within one month, and although Wood had a zealous commitment towards her schools, she unfortunately did not have any real business or advertising experience.
She sold her business to George Webster, who promptly fired the original staff and modified the course and the marketing. He ran a simply worded full-page ad in the newspaper, offering a money-back guarantee if a student didn’t at least triple their “reading index.” Suddenly, Reading Dynamics became a huge success, and Wood was hired to make public appearances and open new schools.
The advertised guarantee was a very effective marketing strategy, but unfortunately for students, the guarantee wasn’t really that easy to qualify for.
First, the promise was only to improve the student’s so-called “reading index.” This index was calculated by multiplying the words-per-minute speed by the comprehension score. It was actually difficult not to improve this index since the final reading exercise was always so much easier than the first. The final comprehension test was so easy that students could score quite high without even reading the exercise.
Second, students had to complete the entire course before qualifying for the refund, and most unsatisfied customers just dropped out, choosing to lose their money rather than more of their time.
In the end, few students actually made the incredible progress that was promised. Over the next twenty years the public became more and more skeptical, and the “speed reading” industry was unable to refute this skepticism with enough student success stories.
This skepticism is unfortunate because
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