The Bookless Curriculum

Abstract

As more children in this country are exposed to education, and for longer periods of time, the number who are encountering difficulty in school increases. For many of these children, the problem is simply that, in order to learn, they must read. For a large number of children with learning problems or IQ's below 100, this requisite artificially deprives them of comfortable avenues for learning. Modern technology provides equipment to educate many of the children for whom reading is either an uncomfortable or inefficient technique. For such children, a bookless curriculum is proposed which would provide children with an education while reading is relegated to a more realistic role in education, that of a skill area which is only one of the many tools available for learning. Development and preparation of the material was made possible under a Grant RT-2 of the Social and Rehabilitation Service of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, awarded to the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation of the University of Minnesota Medical School, and the Kenny Rehabilitation Institute.