This paper examines a case of educational innovation--the introduction of new methods for teaching reading in the Republic of Guinea, West Africa--as a reality check on the appealing but sweeping theory of John Meyer and his colleagues about the diffusion of educational ideals. The paper focuses on Guinea's official adoption of the "mixed" method ("la methode semi-globale"), an approach meant to balance phonics with reading for meaning. It draws from a case study using participant observation and ethnographic interviewing which traced ideas about good reading at the Guinea Pedagogical Institute. At the level of what Meyer calls rhetoric, the paper argues that the global model of modern schooling includes the premise that ordinarily the mixed method of reading instruction is preferable and the sub-premise that within the mixed method, it is preferable to emphasize reading for meaning. The paper states that world institutions theory implies uniformity in the model of schooling among core nations, since they have been borrowing from one another since the 19th century, but the question is whether the core really holds a single model of modern schooling available for the periphery to borrow. The paper as a whole involves a 3-way comparison among Guinea, France, and the United States. (Contains 5 figures, a table, 13 notes, and 47 references.) (NKA)