This article considers the role of the basic cognitive unit, called the "story engram," in young children's learning to read, including children ranging in ability from severe mental retardation to giftedness. It illustrates how the "Ball-Stick-Bird" method of beginning reading can facilitate this process because of the method's simplification of the mechanics of letter recognition and immediate story immersion. The method's early lessons begin by telling a story primarily with nouns and verbs, then add adjectives and adverbs, and finally include articles and prepositions, thus mimicking the language learning process. Traditional measures of intelligence are contrasted with the ability of humans to impose cognitive structure by utilizing story engrams, a skill that can be taught. The resulting greater intellectual equality, in which knowledge and intelligence quotient need not be correlated, is thought to have potential for leading people out of the information age and into the knowledge and sharing age. (DB)