Speed reading course helps . . .
By RHONDA WATTERS
Battalion Reporter
Miss Munuzzo, can you ever
forgive me?
Good old Miss Munuzzo-my first
grade teacher. She taught me ev
erything I know about reading. And
now after 15 years of loyalty to her
teaching, I go against all the good
reading habits she taught me.
Well, Miss Munuzzo, it’s not my
fault. If you’re going to blame any
one, it will have to be Evelyn Wood.
After years of listening to ads,
glancing at flyers and wondering
how those people on TV could read
as fast as they turned the pages,
my curiosity got the best of me and
there I sat in a free introductory
speed reading lesson. And in spite
of everything Miss Munuzzo taught
me, I was, heaven forbid, even
reading with my hands.
I admit I was skeptical about
going to the lesson. After laughing
over Cheech and Chong’s “Evelyn
Woodhead sped redding course”
routine, I felt the whole idea was
kind of silly.
My friends didn’t help much
either. When I sat wondering out
loud about the methods that could
make a person read that fast, they
offered constructive suggestions
such as .45 magnums, leveled at
the head, or electric cattle prods,
while yelling “Faster, faster!”
The introductory lesson was in
the banquet room of a local hotel. It
was given by a pleasant-looking
young man who said he was a full
time law student who traveled
around one month of the year
promoting Evelyn Wood.
In spite of my skepticism, I had
to admire his approach. He started
the lesson off by answering the two
questions that were in everyone’s
mind: Did the course work, and
how much did it cost?
After explaining about the
background and development of
speed reading, and giving the de
tails of a money-back guarantee,
he told the audience the special
student price: $325.
An unnatural hush fell over the
class and judging by the looks on
some of the faces and the several
low whistles, I decided there were
probably some people there with
bank accounts as low as mine. By
the looks of one face, maybe even
lower.
But no one got up to leave and
after letting the cost sink in, the in
structor started reciting what the
Evelyn Wood course had done for
him.
He said he had taken the speed
reading course while he was still in
high school. It had improved his
grades and left him with enough
extra time to work 20 additional
hours a week at his part-time job.
He said he continued to use his
reading skill throughout college
and after graduating, obtained a
real estate brokers license (that
can take several years of study), in
only six weeks.
Now, he said, he was a full-time
law student and a part-time real es
tate broker and speed reading, of
course, was responsible for much
of his success.
Impressed, but still skeptical
about the smoothness of the talk, I
decided to reserve judgment until
the lesson and see what speed
reading could do for me.
Before showing us the first
method, the instructor tested our
reading so each of would know our
present reading speed.
According to the statistics he re
cited, one-third to one-half of a
person’s reading time is spent in-
between lines. He said that all that
time was wasted and we were
going to learn how to use some of
it.
First, we were to forget what we
learned in grade school (poor Miss
Munuzzo) and start following our
reading with our fingers.
After getting used to that and
getting over the guilt of using our
hands when we’ve been told all our j
life not to, we had to quickly jerk j
our finger back from the end of one I
line to the beginning of the next. I
Since the eye natrually follows * - ^
movement, this cut down on the
time spent from one line to another.
We practiced that for a little
while, then tested our speed again.
I have to admit I was impressed.
A fairly fast reader to begin with, I
increased my speed from 560
words per minute to 740, and still
kept my comprehension.
After explaining about possible
ways of financing the course, the
instructor then told us how we
could sign up. Out of the 23 people
that attended, slightly less than half
enrolled for the class.
In spite of Cheech and Chong,
Miss Munuzzo and my friends, I
had seen for myself. \ came away Speed reading, as taught by Evelyn Wood, means jerking
from the lesson satisfied that the the finger back to the next line so as not to lose time spent
class really can improve one’s jn between lines,
reading speed.
. . . but it has its drawbacks
By RHONDA WATTERS
Battalion Reporter
Although speed reading can be
a useful skill, according to a Texas
A&M reading specialist, it may not
be all it claims to be.
Some of the advertising or
speed reading courses are mis
leading and unrealistic, said
Joseph llika, associate professor in
the Curriculum and Instruction De
partment.
“These claims of 6,000 words a
minute, I wish they were true,” he
said. “It would be a wonderful
compliment to our public school
system.”
llika, a reading teacher since
1959, has done research on the
subject, including experiments, re
search papers and speed reading
advertisements, many from the
Bryan College-Station area.
“It takes time to improve read
ing,” he said. “For people who
have good basic reading skills,
speed reading can be of some
help. But to people who are weak
in these skills, it can be a disaster.”
Because the mind can only pro
cess about 350 words a minute,
llika said when people make claims
of reading thousands of words a
minute, they are actually scanning
or skimming.
Scanning is reading to find a
single fact or bit of information
without reading everything. Skim
ming is reading to grasp main
ideas, not details.
In Bryan-College Station, there
are several different speed reading
courses taught.
One course uses machines to
increase reading speed. The
machines, such as a “T-bar” that
travel down the page forcing the
reader to keep up, are designed to
change eye movements.
Nancy Womack, who headed
the U.S. Army’s reading program m
Berlin two years ago, is the owner
of a firm that teaches such a
course.
“We retrain how the eye
moves,” she said. “In the normal
reader the eye makes a “hit’ on
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every single word. To get high
speeds, you take in several words
as a group.”
Evelyn Wood, which is taught
nation-wide, uses a method that
does not utilize machines. It claims
the machines become a crutch and
that the eyes can be trained with
out them.
Dee Harris, a pre-vet student
here, took one of the courses that
uses the machine method.
“For pleasure reading it was
great,” she said, “but I couldn’t use
it that much for technical reading.”
Dr. William C. Harrison, profes
sor of Journalism here, said he
took one of the nation-wide
courses in 1969.
Harrison said he became bored
with reading, even though his read
ing speed was increased.
“It took the joy out of reading
and made it hard work,” Harrison
said. “I would not recommend it for
someone who reads fairly fast.”
Wesley Duffard, a Texas A&M
student who took the same
nation-wide course more recently,
said he increased his speed
somewhat but not enough for what
it cost.
One big question about speed
reading courses is whether com
prehension goes down as speed
goes up. Most advertising claims
comprehension either improves or
stays the same.
According to llika, as speed in
creases, comprehension can in
crease only to a certain point, then
will begin to go down.
It varies with different people, he
said, but anyone wanting to in
crease his speed should find a
point where comprehension and
speed are somewhat balanced.
Though some speed reading
courses may not increase word
speed as much as advertised, they
are teaching better study methods
and skills as part of the class, llika
said.
These courses could be valu
able, he said, because few stu
dents have good study habits or
even know how to study at all.
For anyone wanting to improve
their reading and study skills with
out taking a speed reading course,
llika recommends several books
that can help.
“Making Better Readers,” by
Ruth Strang and Dorothy Kendall
Bracken, had these suggestions.
—SKIM: Any directory, dictio
nary or material that will yield a
specific answer; easy simple mate
rial such as newspapers or fiction;
study material that must be or
ganized before careful reading.
—SCAN: Any material in which
main ideas and supporting facts
are to be picked up, such as easy
textbooks, magazines and stories.
—STUDY READ (slow):
Textbooks, technical articles; any
material that requires remembering
specific details.
—CAREFUL AND REFLEC
TIVE READING: Material such as
how-to directions,; any work that
contains great thoughts; technical
experiments; poetry.