![Black and white photograph of a seated student using a reading machine]([{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto,t_image_size_1/v1614636811/rectoryschoolorg/rz8i4l5e56jvzjnht7km/1960s_Readingmachine_800x600.png","width":256},{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto/v1614636811/rectoryschoolorg/rz8i4l5e56jvzjnht7km/1960s_Readingmachine_800x600.png","width":505}])
By 1961, Rectory had divided its approach to reading into two general categories, remedial and developmental; and a new course In developmental reading, administered by Mr. Richardson and Mrs Jennings, was added to the academic program. The course was designed to build up a student’s “reading speed, comprehension, and ability to consume whole phrases” (The Rectory News, 11/1/1961).
S.R.A. Laboratories, tachistoscopes, phrase-o-scopes, and rate accelerators, often called reading machines, were among the ”mechanical aids...used in conjunction with advanced reading and study techniques to improve rate.” This article in The Rectory News (4/28/1961) emphasizes ”[a]t no time does this course encourage speed at the expense of comprehension; it tries instead systematically to develop a high speed with rapid comprehension.”
The Developmental Reading Room contained five reading machines, pictured. To prevent rereading, the upside-down T blocked the reader’s vision from previously-read text. Click here for a delightfully detailed explanation of Robert Berman’s (Form II, 1962) first experience with the reading machine. In that same year, Kurt Jones, Form III, concluded, “In all, this is a very worthwhile course and we are lucky to have the chance to take it” (The Rectory News, 11/1/1961).
Image: Rectory Archives, 1960s
- Bell Tower Bulletin