On Learning To Read: The Child's Fascination With Meaning
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Chipped and worn with some minor damage
Pages: Good
Markings: Previous owner
A landmark work in educational psychology and child development, On Learning to Read: The Child's Fascination with Meaning presents a bold and provocative argument: that conventional reading instruction in American schools is fundamentally flawed, actively undermining children's natural desire to find meaning in the written word. Drawing on psychoanalytic theory and extensive classroom observation, Bettelheim and Zelan illustrate how the dull, repetitive language of standard primers deadens children's curiosity and turns the act of reading into a joyless mechanical exercise. The authors argue passionately that children are not passive recipients of instruction but active, meaning-seeking minds who disengage when texts fail to engage their imagination and intelligence. With both scholarly rigor and genuine warmth, the work instructs educators and parents alike on how to recognize and nurture a child's innate drive toward literacy, urging a radical rethinking of how reading is taught. It remains an essential and deeply humanistic text for anyone invested in the intellectual and emotional lives of young learners.
Author: Bruno Bettelheim & Karen Zelan
Format: Hardback
Published: 1982, Thames and Hudson
Genre: Education theory
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Chipped and worn with some minor damage
Pages: Good
Markings: Previous owner
A landmark work in educational psychology and child development, On Learning to Read: The Child's Fascination with Meaning presents a bold and provocative argument: that conventional reading instruction in American schools is fundamentally flawed, actively undermining children's natural desire to find meaning in the written word. Drawing on psychoanalytic theory and extensive classroom observation, Bettelheim and Zelan illustrate how the dull, repetitive language of standard primers deadens children's curiosity and turns the act of reading into a joyless mechanical exercise. The authors argue passionately that children are not passive recipients of instruction but active, meaning-seeking minds who disengage when texts fail to engage their imagination and intelligence. With both scholarly rigor and genuine warmth, the work instructs educators and parents alike on how to recognize and nurture a child's innate drive toward literacy, urging a radical rethinking of how reading is taught. It remains an essential and deeply humanistic text for anyone invested in the intellectual and emotional lives of young learners.