Monday, February 16, 2009

Early American Textbooks - Education

Check out the link below to the Monoghan Collection of Early American Books.
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10 comments:

  1. Joe JensenFebruary 19, 2009 at 6:39 PM

    What a fun hobby that the Monaghan's have! It's interesting to note how far school books have come, starting with the horn books and to the textbooks we have today. I think that society should go back to the texts that teach morals because in some parts of today's society, morality and respect for oneself or others, are not taught in the home. I remember reading the "Having Fun with Dick and Jane" in grade school. Thanks for the flashback.

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  2. UnknownFebruary 24, 2009 at 5:15 PM

    I remember the Dick and Jane series; you won't find those books in the schools anymore. Joe is right, not many parents teach their kids morals. They don't respect others, nor themselves. Textbooks have come far. However, they do not use textbooks as much in the elementary school I work at. They kids have an SRB for math in their desk, but if they use a book for another subject, it is rare. The books used to teach reading today have more detailed pictures in them. They do not teach children cultural, ethical, nor religious values. Our textbooks have come along way when you think about, but has society? You could teach children about religion and different cultures way back when, but not today. I cannot tell you how many parents it takes to complain (2 families out of 500 families) and then there are no longer holiday parties: it's a winter celebration. Society has evolved and accepted many cultures and religions, but you can no longer write about the differences in textbooks. I love the Dick and Jane books.

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  3. lAURAFebruary 25, 2009 at 10:51 AM

    This makes me laugh because now textbooks hardly ever even get bound anymore. We have to buy a binder to put the book in and still pay the same amount, its insane to me. Looking at how these books started out and how they are right now is insane.

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  4. Michelle F.February 25, 2009 at 3:51 PM

    I had no idea that “Fun With Dick and Jane” was the name of a textbook. I disagree with the text including moral lessons. What happens when the morals taught at home differ from the morals of school? One set of morals is compromised. But either way, I wonder about textbooks of the future. I went to a grade school that uses that these people would collect as antiquities. I’ve heard of kids who go to a school with all the textbooks are

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  5. JamesFebruary 25, 2009 at 9:09 PM

    Textbooks are bias. All of them are. The books of old are bias to the day but this is also the case today. American texts are manipulated by a 4 state committee that decides what will be included in the curriculum. This is a major problem in our education system today.

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  6. Ross CarsonFebruary 25, 2009 at 9:25 PM

    Textbooks helped to change the education system. Students could now take home their books and study and do homework to help contiune their education. It is sad when in this day and age, textbooks are outdated becuase schools cant afford new ones. That is something our new president needs to work on, and I am sure he will.

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  7. RickFebruary 27, 2009 at 12:59 AM

    Schools having to reuse ancient textbooks is such a shame. I remember getting a textbook my own father used in his school one year for music class! His name was printed on it. Since information becomes more readily available at such an astonishing rate, new textbooks should be available every 5 years or so in my opinion

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  8. KyleMarch 2, 2009 at 6:58 PM

    Textbooks have really evolved into something beneficial. Even now schools have outdated textbooks which are written all over and ripped apart. Now and days they squeezed multiple information on such a tiny page to make the book smaller. I guess books back then were huge!

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  9. David BreslinMarch 2, 2009 at 9:39 PM

    Books have really evolved over time. You see a reflection of society at that point in time when you refer to a textbook from any time period. It is also funny to see textbooks about the same topics from different cultures, it really makes you think what the "truth" is.

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  10. Kim MMarch 2, 2009 at 11:31 PM

    In my Children's Literature class at Bucks we discussed early texts and other books used to teach. There was, of course, the bible. This was the original textbook. Morals and other lessons were all taught from its pages. Dick and Jane are not used in schools anymore, public or private, and the bible is used only in private Catholic schools. Since Dick and Jane and Jesus no longer play such a large role in schools, it doesn't seem that children learn morality in school. That is fine, in my opinion, though. Morals are things that should be taught at home. Education starts at home and parents should teach morals and beliefs. That is not the job of a teacher. A teacher can merely enforce moral behavior.

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