Sources of Knowledge for Theories of Reading

Abstract

I am perhaps being bold, not to say foolish, to undertake tq speak to the topic of this paper. My reasons for consenting to do so spring from my own need to explore why, after seventy-five years of research and investigation, there has not emerged a coherent construct within which we can examine reading. Two aphorisms point up my dilemma. Experience keeps a dear school but fools will learn in no other. (Benjamin Franklin) Yet, on the other hand, as an old Welsh proverb states, Experience is the fool's best teacher; the wise do not need it. This paper, then, will attempt first to suggest why this failure has occurred, and then will indicate some points of departure which may be productive for the gradual evolution of theories. More questions will be posed than answers given, but it was Einstein who reminded us that the asking of the right questions may lead to greater knowledge than the discovery of scientific facts. Yet again, I must counteract this with another adage greater fool may ask more than the wisest man can answer. The following topics will be discussed briefly in the remainder of this paper: the reasons for the failure to evolve theories, model making in reading, some questions concerning the assimilation of meaning, and triad of sources for a reading model.