American
Secondary Readers
Sarah K. Wilson
Public
schools were first required in America in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in
1648. The goal of these schools
was to teach literacy, that is, reading and writing. To do so, most schools used hornbooks, then battledores, then
primers such as The New England Primer, first published around 1685.
Toward the end of the eighteenth century, the goals of education
began to be reconsidered. Jeanne
Gerlach states that "while the basic definition of literacy is the ability
to read and write, perhaps it was Benjamin Franklin with his secondary academy
in Philadelphia that first expanded that definition to include English instruction
for young men who were about to enter the commercial arena.
They needed to have experiences with language, literature, and composition
to be considered successful in their business lives"(306-07). To meet these changing needs, readers became the primary school
texts and were intended to teach reading, spelling, elocution, grammar, and
composition.
The first reader used commonly in schools was written by Noah Webster. His book, An American Selection of
Lessons in Reading and Speaking, was first published in 1785. According to John
A. Nietz, the book included sections on Rules for Reading and Speaking,
Lessons in Reading, Lessons in Speaking, Dialogues, Poetry, and an Appendix. The reading selections were strongly moral,
patriotic, and historical; Nietz asserts that the reader (like most American
readers of the time) was intended to teach not only reading and writing, but
also history and geography (65).
Caleb Bingham's reader, The American Preceptor (1794), was the next
to be popular in American schools. Like
Webster's, Bingham's book was largely intended to teach elocution and the
selections promoted morality and democracy. The preface of the Preceptor states:
"Convinced of the impropriety of instilling false notions into the minds
of children, he has not given place to romantic fiction. Although moral essays have not been neglected;
yet pleasing and interesting stories, exemplifying moral virtues, were judged
best calculated to engage the attention and improve the heart. Tales of love have not gained admission
. . . neither a word . . . would 'raise a blush on the cheek of modesty'"
(qtd. In Nietz, Old Textbooks, 65-66). Bingham expresses his intention to include readings that teach
moral lessons and that will interest students.
Other early readers included John Pierpont's The
American First Class Book; or Exercises in Reading and Recitation
published in 1823; B. D. Emerson's The First-Class Reader of 1833;
McGuffey's Eclectic Readers, first
published in 1836; and others.
These early readers were more concerned with teaching oral reading than understanding
the meaning of texts. Generally,
the authors chose reading selections based on the moral lessons the selection
taught, the selection's ability to hold the interest of students, and (often
secondarily) the selection's ability to develop the students' literary "taste"
as a means of aiding their own composition.
Charles Sanders, in the preface to his The
School Reader (1855) articulates a popular sentiment: “[E]very course of instruction in reading is, in an important
sense, a course of instruction in taste and morals. Hence, in order to the cultivation of
delicacy and correctness in matters of taste, it furnished, for imitation,
some of the finest models of style in every variety of composition; while
it labors for the improvement of the moral nature, but carefully excluding
every thing unsound or unseemly in sentiment or diction.” Sanders’ commitment is first to morality and second to
taste – in this, he echoes many of the readers of his time.
In the preface to Samuel Putnam’s 1830 The
Analytic Reader, the author expresses his concern for igniting the
students’ interest in reading.
Putnam provides definitions to difficult words in an attempt to make
sure the students comprehend what they read and avoid the frustration that
comes with reading selections that are too advanced. He states: “The monotonous, sing-song mode of reading,
which is common in schools, and which is often retained in after life, is
acquired from the exercise of reading what is not understood; and from the
same cause, it is believed, the scholar often carries from the school a permanent
disrelish for books. That disgust,
with which he frequently throws aside his books, at the close of his school,
is to be attributed, very much, to his habit of reading lessons above his
comprehension.” Putnam,
like many of his contemporaries, is concerned with getting students to like
reading so that they will continue reading as adults. Notice that Putnam assumes that the selections in his reader
will be read aloud.
In the mid-nineteenth century, attitudes toward literature
began to shift; and this shift was slowly reflected in English education. Literature began to be seen as something
worthy of being read and studied. Readers began to be replaced by literature books. The readers that were published
in the last half of the century paid much more attention to literature. They included selections by classical
authors; some, headed by Mandeville’s reader of 1856, even gave biographical
information on the included authors.
Richard Edwards states that the “sole purpose”
of his 1866 Analytical Sixth Reader “is
to teach young persons to appreciate and to read good English.” He states that he has included selections representing six
different categories of composition and written questions to help students
analyze the selections they read. He
outlines his selection criteria, admitting that, like his predecessors, he
was interested in patriotic, amusing works; but “all, it is thought,
are within the pale of good taste.” Edwards makes no mention of morality. Rather, it is clear that his primary goal
was to choose “good” literature.
Even readers like Edwards’ that were conscious of literary
quality were not equipped to provide the kind of textbook necessary for most
classrooms after the 1850s. Literary
critics were changing their attitudes toward literature and pedagogy and curriculum
were following. Soon, high schools
were not looking for readers that included selections as a means of teaching
specific lessons, but for manuals of literature.