Obviously, a person who has a basic skill in reading can read with some skill in a variety of areas. General skills have an application to any field. A person who can read well in literature can read in science. But he may not read nearly as well. A person who can read science well may not be able to read literature effectively. A person who reads scientific materials quite exclusively as a profession tends to be a slow, laborious reader in the are of literature There are certain concepts and generalizations about these disciplines which make them in part mutually exclusive, particularly if the person has very high degree of skill in one or the other.

Many research studies show that there are particular skills related to each area or discipline and these must be taught directly as well as generally through courses in reading. On the other hand, some skills are generally useful in reading in any area. For example, the ability to interpret facts and data is common to all kinds of reading. The ability to discover the main idea, to organize ideas, to draw conclusions and to appreciate the literary devices of the writer are common to all fields.

But on the other hand, vocabulary, experiences and ways of organizing material will vary from one content to another. Thus equally intelligent readers may vary greatly in readiness for a particular type of reading. Each area poses its own problems, e.g., a specialized vocabulary in literature is quite different from the specialized vocabulary in science, even to the point that a word used in science may have a different meaning when used in literature or social studies. Maps, tables, graphs, abbreviations, indexes and diagrams are some of the needed skills when one gets into the special areas of reading.

Reading in Literature

First of all, literature can be considered the world's cultural catalyst. Literature is the product of man's culture, and culture is the product of man's literature. How man's culture developed, how it became a functioning part of the world and how he transmits this culture on from one generation to the next is partially explained through the function of literature. Our world is neither articulate nor meaningful without the catalyzing influences of the orderly recounting of man's interpretation of these phenomena through his literature. Surely one of the great humanizers is man's ability to tell about himself and to record these insights for others to read. As one writer says 'only man tells tales of old heroisms and antique infamies, of things long gone or perhaps never to come; only man puts the word inside his skull at the disposal of others. Man alone is the recorder of myths and battles and hopes and fears, a teller and seller of dreams.' Indeed, man's journey from the cave to the stars has its energy and direction from our innumerable ancestors who have laid out the rail thus far for us through books.

If we accept the idea that the art of being human is locked up in literature, and that we are less human as we are untempered by a knowledge of man's triumphs and losses or unacquainted with his dreams, then we understand that literature is a lively energizer, a potent force that has more power than any other in making a civilization what it is. As someone remarked 'the pen is mightier than the sword'. Prewar Germany knew this because she had her books destroyed to do away with history. Aldous HUXLEY knew this, for he fashioned his brave new world from reshaping its literature.

If one of the great reasons for literature is its humanizing powers, then the teacher of literature becomes more than a technician for unraveling stories; he is indeed a philosopher, psychologist, historian, a believer in dreams and young people. The teacher of literature holds an exceptionally important position in the emotional and intellectual life of the students. If this teacher can give direction and meaning to the ambiguity of his students' split worlds, if he can help to bring to his student a knowledge and understanding of himself and others and if he can help his student to fit all these parts together into a unitary concept of life, he will have made a notable contribution indeed. He is the psychiatrist of the book-shelf rather than the couch. As surely as does the analyst, he helps to bring reality and structure back to his students' lost horizons.

Teacher Attitudes in the Teaching of Literature

But all philosophy, to be useful, must lead to a change of attitudes, and these attitudes to action.
What attitudes can this teacher of literature cultivate that will help him lead his students to gain order out of chaos, direction out of aimlessness?

First of all, he must believe in literature for himself, and believe in it enough to read it widely and intensively, lightly and deeply. He must know it and use it. He must see its relatedness and usefulness to his world and be able to indicate this to others, subtly and without offence. When I was in college, my English literature teacher was to me the epitomy of this ideal. A native of England and a graduate of Oxford, he made the works of the English essayists and poets a part of the reminiscences of his own experiences with a simplicity and charm that brought Blake's London back to life once again, and made Boswell's England a familiar haunt once more I do not remember being required to memorize many lines, or to explain the writer's methods or techniques, but I do remember England and her writers as they somehow were a real part of this teacher I felt with him as he reminisced with Blake on how he-

Loved to rise in a summer morn
When the birds (sang) on every tree;
(And) the distant huntsman (wound) his horn,
And the skylark (sang) with me.1

He made literature a part of our own experience by allowing us to join with him in a vicarious emotion which was a part of himself.

A second construct that may be suggested is that the high school teacher of literature indicates through his assignments and guidance that he believes that every student is in some degree different from each of the others in abilities, interests, drives, motives, experiences, skills and aspirations. There are many studies and summaries of research available which will familiarize the teacher of literature with reading materials recommended for the age/sex/motivation patterns of the average student. But more important than following a reading list, this teacher realizes that while there is probably a central core of interests generally common to his students through which he can make group assignments, the individual represents a core of interests and needs that are his alone. GETZELS2 describes this core of interests as a 'style of life' which helps determine what a person will see and hear, think and say, and remember and forget. Literature that the student selects must either act as a source of information to this 'style of life' or it must act as a vicarious substitution for the real world which he cannot fully sense otherwise. To meet this individual level of needs, books should be available that meet both a wide range of reading levels and skills, and a broad range of interests, including those dealing with the prime motivators of love and affection, belonging, approval, independence, adequacy, prestige, the love of adventure, curiosity and the thrill of discovery.3

There are many needs and problems that the adolescent has that can be met or solved through insights gained through wide reading. Reading can bring to our students suggestions for socially approved patterns of behaviour, confirmation that his own problems are not unique, a knowledge of the diverse patterns of life of the past and present wit intimations for a more ideal society, increased social sensitivity, imaginative sympathy and vicarious participation of experience, and a release from the trappings of time and space.

Many studies indicate that a guided programme,including an interest inventory and group conferences on book selection improved improved significantly both the students' growth in skills and their initiative and interest in books.

It is necessary to understand students' individual differences for proper guidance in book selection. It might be assumed, for example, that because a student comes from a high socio-economic background and is intelligent, he can read any of his textbook's literary offerings with equal skill. But read carefully again, for example, the first lines of Milton's Paradise Lost or Herman Melville's Moby Dick Because the reader can say the words is no indication that he has the readiness to comprehend what he reads. References to mythology, philosophy, the Bible , and the difficult and sometimes obsolete language of these writers may well be far beyond the understanding of a student untrained by a family background accustomed to dialogues with these philosophers on life.

If this can be true of the student from a middle-or upper-class culture, how much more so is it true of the culturally deprived individual? For him the accepted literary experiences of the classroom are foreign to his values and mores. Little or no family interest or pride is indicated in successful work, and his whole verbal communication pattern may represent inferior speech and very limited vocabulary. Studies by LECKY conclude that 'any value… which is inconsistent with the individual's valuation of himself cannot be assimilated, it meets with resistance and is likely, unless a general reorganization occurs, to be rejected'.4 Individual guidance must be a part of the selection of literature, particularly for those students whose life patterns are exceptionally different.

Another frame of reference for the teacher is that a teacher of literature, if he believes in the cultural and humanizing power of his craft, will be somewhat wary in the use of gimmicks and gadgets to produce short cuts to instant culture. Various study formula, if used with discretion, do help to make the student a more efficient reader.

A last general teacher-attitude I shall mention is one that concerns itself with the evaluation of learning in literature. Studies in educational psychology indicate that students learn in the manner of their evaluation, not in the manner of their instruction. That is, a teacher may concern himself wit teaching literature and guiding the student's reading in literature in a way calculated to produce a variety of changes in the student including awareness of his motives and needs, responsibility to others, loyalty, patriotism, fair play, interpersonal relations, the fun of reading for its own sake and the like. But, contrary to all our labours, students do not learn these habits of attitude through reading if evaluation of reading is dominated by factual questions only. Neither will deeper insights in the literature itself be produced if evaluation does not require the student to examine the insights he has gained through reading. It is the student's own insight, after all, that is the important ting. Although detail and structure are important, the private, internalized meaning is the thing we want to have happen. Somerset MAUGHAM, in The Summing Up concludes: 'But the only important thing in the book is the meaning it has for you; it may have other and much more profound meanings for the critic, but at second hand they can be of small service to you. I do not read a book for the book's sake, but for my own'.5

Social Studies

The former part of this discussion was on attitudes in reading literature. The second part of it is a discussion of the skills needed for reading social studies. Here again, the vocabulary is very important because the words may be used quite differently from their use in another field. The use of charts, diagrams, maps and pictures are also important and these the student should know how to read and interpret. The fact that many people have difficulty in gaining ideas from charts and graphs would indicate that very likely they have not been taught how to use these particular aids which in social studies are of great importance.

Another factor in reading social studies is the forming of concepts. To begin wit, the concepts used in social studies are at best difficult for even adults to understand. For example, the words 'liberty' and 'freedom' may differ from country to country. Unless we can involve our students in a free and open discussion of terms like these and help them to look at them from many sources, the idea of forming concepts will be poor indeed.

Critical reading skills which we have already discussed are absolute requirements for reading of social studies. How the writer has arrived at his assumptions and how he directs his thoughts towards the solution of various social problems must be followed by a critical inspection by the reader. The reader should not be interested only in facts but also in the writer's interpretation of these facts. The reader should see whether or not they agree with the interpretations which he has received from various other sources. He should shift and organize the writer's ideas, select some and reject others. In other words, it is the whole process of evaluating the authenticity and validity of the material and formulating an opinion about it based on a pooling of as many ideas on the subject as the reader can bring together.

In terms of the special skills for critical reading in the social studies, one must be able to recognize the author's assumptions and bias, and his special interests. What does he mean by his assumptions? Any writer has to follow some assumptions or he cannot write. But the question is, do you agree with the basic assumptions from which the author makes his remarks? If you do not agree with the rest of what he has to say if it follows that you cannot agree with the rest of what he has to say if it follows from the false premise. For example, if one reads the history textbooks of India in the early twenties-they were written by English writers with their own built in bias. Indian heroes like Shivaji were not pictured in a good light by writers of their period.

The reader should go beyond an evaluation of the adequacy and the appropriateness of what is being presented, and make judgements concerning the wisdom of action taken, and the conclusions arrived at. In other words one should bring into play all of one's basic values. One must not let the writer make value judgements for him; he should bring his own value judgements into play and match them with the writer's.

Has he writer oversimplified problems? Has he ignored evidence? Has he used false analogy? Has he gained his information by inadequate sampling? Does he make presuppositions which cannot be logically made? These are some of the write-errors to look as one uses one's own judgements in reading social studies materials.

Another common error is failure to examine all of the alternatives. In cases where the author has given 'either' 'or' situations one has to think of all the other possible alternatives before accepting the author's alternatives.

He should be able to formulate hypothesis of his own as he looks at various social problems. He should be able to go further a field than a single text to locate other information bearing on the specific problem, and to identify those particular readings which are important to his specific purpose and to do this by a very quick skimming and previewing process. The reader should be able to organize by drawing materials together and by skimming to recognize that there are relationships between one particular reading and another and to select it for further reading and to recognize prevailing trends as they run through a series of materials.

One of the great needs of teaching any type of social studies, particularly in relationship to history or geography, is the understanding of the time and space relationships. This again is related to concept formation and these concepts cannot be found without making available many ways of illustrating them.