Reading.Modern

__ READING __ Every level of the Readers, from Primer to Sixth Reader, contains a significant number of moral lessons, including lessons on kindness towards animals, good manners, and consideration of others. War was usually portrayed as evil in concept, but was occasionally discussed in a manner of heroism. The virtues presented to American youth were the prime values in which Americans professed to believe. Even today, there are many who believe these values should be preserved or restored through the use of the McGuffey Readers. Another reason for the popularity of the Readers was that "grade level" and "age" were not necessarily linked. This was especially true in the nineteenth century as students took time off for planting and harvest-time farm chores. The Third Reader has a story, "Beware of the First Drink," indicating that a sixteen year-old student might get no further than the Third Reader before completing his education. From the Primer upward, new words were presented in logical progression and simple language gradually introduced the child to an ever widening vocabulary. Books were routinely read aloud, so there was concern for enunciation and accent. Syllabication, the use of diacritical marks as an aid to pronunciation, phonics, rhyme, and alliteration were all stressed.

The most popular set of readers was unquestionably McGuffey’s. Issued along with Ray’s Arithmetic as part of the Eclectic Series, these were often the only textbooks available in the log schoolhouses of the pioneers. They formed the foundation stone of learning from about 1830-1890 and were the basic schoolbooks in 37 states. By 1901, the Readers had sold more than 120 million copies. Following the frontier westward, McGuffey’s Readers crossed the Pacific and appeared in Japanese and Spanish translations. The readers consisted of six books in ascending difficulty. Each lesson contained a story, picture, and later study questions. In daily classroom use, reading aloud was favored, with stress on articulation, inflection, pauses, and emphasis.



Resembling texts used in Northern schools, books produced for freedpeople included practical advice on everyday matters and moral instructions, as well as standard lessons. The Freedman's Third Reader contained a lesson on Phyllis Wheatley, an African-American poet who lived at the time of the American Revolution.