This paper is intended to serve as a stimulant to further efforts to interrelate Jean Piaget's ideas on cognitive development with the broad perspective on reading developed by Peter Spencer, the founder of the Claremont Reading Conference. The three sections of the paper deal with the following areas: an analysis and comparison of Piaget's and Spencer's ideas on the relationship between the individual and the environment, the representation of reality as conceptualized by the two men, and the implications the views of the two hold for the development of a reading curriculum. (FL)