McGuffey's Readers

The original 1836 version of the fabled reading instruction books, were used for three-quarters of a century were by four-fifths of all American school children. Some 120 million sets were sold. No other books ever had so much influence over so many children over such a long period.

McGuffey's educational course begins, in the Primer, by presenting the letters of the alphabet to be memorized, in sequence. Children are then taught, step by step, to use the building blocks of their language to form and pronounce words. Each lesson begins with a study of words used in the reading exercise - the words presented with markings to show correct pronunciation and syllabification.

Stories in the First and Second Readers picture children in their relationship with family, teacher, friends, and animals. The Third Reader expands this world. In a story entitled "The Widow and the Merchant," a merchant befriends a widow in need. Later, when the widow proves herself to be honest, the merchant gives her a handsome gift.

The child is not, however, encouraged to believe that charity is expected only of the wealthy; it is a virtue to be cultivated by the young, practiced by all. Here are some of the titles of reading material in the Second, Third and Fourth Readers: "The Greedy

Girl"; "The Kind Little Girl"; "The Honest Boy and the Thief"; "The Lord's Prayer"; "The Effects of Rashness"; "On Speaking the Truth"; "Consequences of Bad Spelling"; "Happy Consequences of American Independence"; and "Decisive Integrity."

Assuming that a child's brain reacts to what is fed into it, and that his entire life is thereby influenced, educators of the McGuffey era provided the most wholesome fare available. Material in the readers is taken from writings, which extol, explain, and illustrate such virtues as honesty, charity, thrift, hard work, courage, patriotism, reverence for God, and respect for parents.