Fun with Dick & Jane

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

“The final steps in the formation of the modern reading series came in the 1920s and 1930s as more books were added to the typical series and as stricter controls over vocabulary and syntax were adopted into the reading selections, particularly in the lowest reading levels. The Dick and Jane series, issued by Scott Foresman & Co in the 1930s, was responsible for many of these changes and remains today as the proto-typic [sic] American reading program of the 20th century.”

Richard L. Venezky
“American Primers”
Univ. Publications of America, 1990

“I was schooled in West Virginia in the 60’s. By some piece of fortune every teacher I had for my first umpteen years was well on the way to retirement or serving their final year. So I had a group of people teaching in “the really, really old school.” I’d place their collective training in the 1930’s. So I would call them “Depression era” teachers. And they were frugal, strict, socially oriented, and their conception of school was a place to “get ahead.” I call them American Dreamers.”

Sarah McIntosh Puglisi
Morgantown, WV
http://borderland.northernattitude.org

More on primary rural schools:

One Room Schoolhouse(Opens in a new browser tab)

Tater Valley one-room schoolhouse(Opens in a new browser tab)

You had to work. It was hard work.(Opens in a new browser tab)