[en] Our approach considers the model as a possible bridge between QCD and the experimental data and examines its predictions to see where these succeed and where they fail. We also attempt to improve the model by looking for additional simple assumptions which give better fits to the experimental data. But we avoid complicated models with too many ad hoc assumptions and too many free parameters; these can fit everything but teach us nothing. We define our constituent quark model by analogy with the constituent electron model of the atom and the constituent nucleon model of the nucleus. In the same way that an atom is assumed to consist only of constituent electrons and a central Coulomb field and a nucleus is assumed to consist only of constituent nucleons hadrons are assumed to consist only of their constituent valence quarks with no bag, no glue, no ocean, nor other constituents. Although these constituent models are oversimplified and neglect other constituents we push them as far as we can. Atomic physics has photons and vacuum polarization as well as constituent electrons, but the constituent model is adequate for calculating most features of the spectrum when finer details like the Lamb shift are neglected. 54 references