For example, Kim Peak (the model for Dustin Hoffman’s character in the film Rain Man) was reported to have memorized the contents of 12,000 books and could read at more than 4,000 words per minute. There are some people who do have a natural ability to read extraordinarily fast with high comprehension. Evelyn Wood died in 1995, but her methods are still taught through Fred Pryor Seminars. At its peak, Evelyn Wood Reading Dynamics seminars were taught at more than 150 outlets. President Kennedy sent many staff members to Reading Dynamics courses, as did Presidents Nixon and Carter. As Woody Allen sarcastically commented, “I took a course in speed reading and read War and Peace in 20 minutes. Many people are skeptical that reading at this speed results in any real comprehension of the material. At 15,000 words per minute, you could read Gone with the Wind in twenty-eight minutes. Wood herself claimed to read anywhere from 2,700 words per minute to 15,000 words per minute depending on content (Van Gelder 1995). Some of her students allegedly could read 6,000 words per minute. Students were promised they could increase their reading speed by two to five times, with improved comprehension. She began teaching speed reading seminars, and in 1959 she founded the Evelyn Wood Reading Dynamics Institute in Washington, D.C. She would also use her finger as a guide to the eye, running it straight down the middle of a page at high speed. Wood claimed to greatly speed up reading by eliminating subvocalization and looking at groups of words instead of individual words. People typically read about 250 to 300 words per minute. The term speed reading was coined by a school teacher named Evelyn Wood in the 1950s. Much later I learned that my experience was quite typical. I concluded that for some reason I just wasn’t a good candidate for speed reading. I re-read the instructions and was urged to go faster! Skip words! Ignore the unimportant stuff! I did all that and my speed improved, but my understanding and retention of what I read dropped dramatically. To my disappointment, my reading speed did not improve very much. Intrigued by promises of reading thousands of words per minute, I worked my way through the book. Several years ago, I came across the manual for a self-paced speed reading course.
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