THE TRAGIC DECLINE IN TEXTBOOKS
1)
"Hilda, the Hen Who Wouldn't Give Up," in: Sunbeams, an 8th grade textbook published by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich in 1987.
2)
"On the Value of Studies," in: Fourth Reader for Advanced Students, a book intended, roughly speaking, for 6th through 9th graders, published by William H. McGuffey in 1836.
3)
"Anecdotes of Birds," in: Emerson's Second Class Reader, published by the Claremont Manufacturing Company in 1845 and intended, roughly speaking, for 5th through 7th graders.
4)
"The Long Road West," in: Worlds Beyond, an 8th grade reader published in 1989 by Silver Burdett & Ginn.
5)
LobotoMe Lobotom You"The Rat with a Bell," in: Hillard's Fourth Reader, published by Brewer and Tileston in 1863 and intended for 4th through 7th graders.
The
unfortunate fact of the matter is that, in most cases, modern reading textbooks simply do
not compare to those of a century or more ago. Expectations were vastly higher and, since
rigid age-grading had not yet been introduced, individual students could move as quickly
or as slowly through the progressively more challenging textbooks as was appropriate for
them. While bright eleven- and twelve-year-olds could and did read unedited excerpts from
the writings of Jefferson, Byron, Poe, and other great writers, their modern counterparts
are fed a starvation diet of truncated sentences, simplified grammar, and insipid ideas.
Further discussion of this trend, along with computer generated
grade level scores for old and new textbooks, can be found in the article: "Schooling
and Literacy Over Time: The Rising Cost of Stagnation and Decline." Research in
the Teaching of English, vol. 30, no. 3, October 1996, pp. 311-327. Still more
detail, and the main reasons for the decline, are included in the book Market Education: The Unknown History.
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