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During the course of his school life, each pupil who finishes the
elementary grades in Cleveland receives 1710 hours of recitation
and directed study in reading as against an average of 1280 hours in
progressive cities in general. This is an excess of 430 hours, or 34
per cent. The annual cost of teaching reading being about $600,000,
this represents an excess annual investment in this subject of
some $150,000. Whether or not this excess investment in reading is
justified depends, of course, upon the way the time is used. If the
city is aiming only at the usual mastery of the mechanics of reading
and the usual introductory acquaintance with simple works of literary
art, it appears that Cleveland is using more time and labor than other
cities consider needful. If, on the other hand, this city is using
the excess time for widely diversified reading chosen for its content
value in revealing the great fields of history, industry, applied
science, manners and customs in other lands, travel, exploration,
inventions, biography, etc., and in fixing life-long habits of
intelligent reading, then it is possible that it is just this
excess time that produces the largest educational returns upon the
investment.

[Footnote A: Henry W. Holmes, "Time Distribution by Subjects and
Grades in Representative Cities." In the Fourteenth Year Book of the
National Society for the Study of Education, Part I, 1915. University
of Chicago Press.]

It would seem, however, from a careful study of the actual work and
an examination of the printed documents, that the chief purpose of
teaching reading in this city is, to use the terminology of its latest