The amount of time given to reading in the elementary schools of Cleveland, and the average time in 50 other cities[A] are shown in the following table: 

Table 1.—­Time given to reading and literature
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| Hours per year | Per cent of grade time
|-----------------------|------------------------
Grade | Cleveland | 50 cities | Cleveland | 50 cities
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1 | 317 | 266 | 43 | 31
2 | 317 | 235 | 36 | 26
3 | 279 | 188 | 32 | 21
4 | 196 | 153 | 22 | 16
5 | 161 | 126 | 18 | 13
6 | 136 | 117 | 15 | 12
7 | 152 | 98 | 17 | 10
8 | 152 | 97 | 17 | 10
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Total | 1710 | 1280 | 25 | 17
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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.]