A Primer on Primers

Because y'all didn't ask for it, lets go back to Colonial America

Welcome to the late 1600s in Colonial America. Men wear knickers and wigs. We Americans are on the cusp of burning women as witches and going to church like it’s a full-time job. Protestants take their religious life very seriously. How did people learn to read? Mostly, the family Bible.

But when Benjamin Harris settled in Boston in 1686 he started printing the New England Primer, which was largely a reprint of the primer The Protestant Tutor, which he was selling in England before he hopped ship for the new colonies. Many portions of the primer were pulled from The King James Bible, alongside original work, the alphabet, early phonics lessons for children, spelling and reading lessons, a catechism (and yes, I had to google that word), and moral tales. The New England Primer quickly became widely used, and remained in print through the 19th century, though content varied with new editions.

A page from a later edition The New England Primer

To oversimplify the history, as the colonies aged and Puritan fervor waned. Around the 1750’s there was a content shift with primers focusing less on religious texts and moral lessons, and more on secular content designed to engage emerging readers. This shift may have been influenced by English philosopher John Locke whose book Some Thoughts Concerning Education (1693) suggests that reading and “learning might be made a play and recreation to children” but should “never be imposed as a task, nor made a trouble to them.”

These more secular primers included the alphabet and beginning phonics lessons, an introduction to letters with corresponding pictures, and later pages had simple stories consisting mainly of easy one or two-syllable words and content familiar to children.

The Alphabet in The American Primer (1828)

The secular-leaning continued through the American Revolution and during the early days of the new United States, though the New England Primer continued to hold popularity and be sold in large numbers as late as the 1850s.

McGuffy Readers is another popular primer series, first created in the 1830s by William Holmes McGuffy. The books were part of a new movement of primers and readers released in a progressively challenging series and included phonics instruction, stories, Shakespeare, and essays. McGuffy readers didn’t have lists of words to memorize as earlier primers did, but instead introduced new words in active texts and followed up reading materials with discussion questions which were encouraged to be read aloud to the class. Like other primers in American history, the McGuffy Readers were first published with strong religious content to encourage piety but shifted to more secular content over time.

McGuffy Reader

Primers, both secular and religious, held out as the main text for teaching reading and spelling through the educational reform of the 1830s and were in continual use at schoolhouses into the early 1900s. In fact, Henry Ford (b.1863) was one of the last generations to be taught using the McGuffy readers and he so believed in them that he amassed a collection, moved the McGuffy house to a historical site, and touted their use as an educational tool his whole life.

Is this first shift in content and applied methodologies from hyper-religious to more secular the Colonial version of today’s Reading Wars? I wonder, when the primers drifted away from their Puritanical origins, did they get any less moralistic? I doubt it. Even today we use children’s books as tools to teach valuable lessons on how to be a good person — it’s just that the text and the messenger have shifted. It makes me think of this scene in Barbie, but replace ‘patriarchy’ with ‘morality’:

“You guys are clearly not doing patriarchy very well.” “We’re doing it well, yeah. We just…. hide it better now.”

A few years ago I pulled out my beloved copies of the Serendipity books I had pored over as a child and tried to read them to my nieces and had to HARD STOP because the moralistic leaning was so heavy-handed and obvious I felt like I was lecturing instead of entertaining. Too much butter on that bread, in my opinion. However, my daughter likes to lick the butter stick straight from the fridge IRL so maybe the problem is not so much the didactic slant but the problem is ME. I have gained wisdom through age that allows me to recognize a thinly veiled proverbial hand-slap when I am reading one, but the kids (and me as a young kid) loved the story and the moral. Maybe I should sit back and let them lick the butter if that is what they like.

Tune in next week where I hope to take a closer look at Ye Olde Father of Education, AKA Horace Mann - and learn about how his educational reform in 1830’s drastically shifted the American educational system and how we taught kids to read and quite possibly inadvertently gave birth to Dick and Jane.

RESOURCES:

https://library.csun.edu/SCA/Peek-in-the-Stacks/primers, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_England_Primer, https://members.tripod.com/bible_study/courses/locke/locke148.html, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McGuffey_Readers, https://www.lexisnexis.com/documents/academic/upa_cis/3453_americanprimers.pdf, https://www.thehenryford.org/explore/blog/william-holmes-mcguffey-and-his-popular-readers

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FROM THE STAX

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A BED OF STARS by Jessica Love

Sometimes the thoughts that happen at bedtime can get a bit existential, so to help face some fears a father and son go out on a camping excursion and ponder some of the greater feelings that may threaten to overwhelm us when faced with the expansiveness of nature, life, and existence. Not only is this a feel-good story of father and son bonding, but this is one of those books that helps a person feel connected and important while considering how tiny a single life is. Truly a gift of a book.

FESTIVAL OF COLORS by Kabir Sehgal & Surishtha Sehgal Illustrated by Vashti Harrison

Chintoo and Mintoo are getting ready for Holi by collecting all the flowers that will be dried and smashed into powders to help celebrate the Festival of Colors. Holi Hai! This book is an explosion of colors and fun, and every time I read it I want to experience the celebration. My kids love the colorful explosions and want to try to gather their own flowers to dry out and grind into colorful dust. Last week (May 25th) was the festival of colors, and my kids and I have enjoyed learning about this holiday.

EDWINA THE DINOSAUR WHO DIDN’T KNOW SHE WAS EXTINCT by Mo Willems

Everybody in town knows and loves Edwina except for one exceptional know-it-all, Reginald Von Hoobie Doobie (LOL), who is hell-bent on letting everybody know that Edwina is, in fact, extinct. But Reginald keeps having trouble convincing anyone of Edwina’s extinction because of her persistent and annoying existence. With classic Mo Willems humor and wit, Edwina will become an instant “read it again please” classic in any house.

THE NEW NEIGHBORS by Sarah McIntyre

When the bunnies hear that a new couple of new rat neighbors have moved into their building they are excited to investigate! Each new apartment tenant they invite to come along brings their own opinions and ideas about what it means to have rats for neighbors. A cautionary tale about the dangers of letting your preconcieved notions create a snowball effect of negativity, packaged in an adorable and easy-to-swallow story, this book is both important to read and impossible not to enjoy.

DON’T HUG DOUG (HE DOESN’T LIKE IT) by Carrie Finison Illustrated by Daniel Wiseman

Doug just doesn’t like hugs! But he is really cool about helping you understand why, telling you what he does love, and giving you some great ideas about what else you can do to show Doug that you love him. Oh, and he helps little readers (or let’s be honest, adult readers too) understand the importance of bodily consent. One hundred percent a book to be read, especially if you (like me) have some kids who, like Doug, do not like hugs.

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I hope you find these suggested books more riveting reads than colonial primers — although reprints of the primers get surprisingly great reviews on Amazon, so if teaching your kids to read with biblical text and highly moralistic little poems inspired by colonial Puritans is your thing, get yourself a new and revised copy of The New England Primer.

Thanks for being here and happy reading y’all!