Allison Evans

They had Textbooks back then?

As a child I remember reading the Laura Ingalls Wilder books about her life growing up in Early America. I have always been fascinated by them and more particularly about the education that she and her sister were able to receive (her sister being blind). I am still extremely interested in the books that Laura and her sister read, mainly the Bible and a school primer or two. I know that these books are based on true events, but are mainly factious and therefore do not know how much of them I can believe and take as truth.  Other than what I have gathered since then from books that I have read I know very little about the education that was offered in Early America.  There are so many questions that I have about the education of the past: Are there records of what schools were like in Early America? Was there a curriculum or did the teachers choose what the students were to read? What did they read? For my research I am going to focus on the last question: What did they read?

To start off my research I went to several online libraries in hopes that would have some record of earlier literature. At one site, http://library.thinkquest.org/J002606/1600s.html I found tons of information about schools in Early America. I am extremely fond of how the website gives you dates on the left hand side that are links to a page containing the information about that time period. I also love the timeline button at the bottom of the page and the photos that are given of what was used back then. These photos helped me to visualize what something they were reading back then may have looked like. If I could choose one thing for this site to improve upon, it would definitely have to be the presentation of the materials. I really enjoy the main set up, but I feel as though the teal background and black text is a little depressing. This is just my opinion, but I think the site could use a little bit more color.

An amazing website I found while researching was, http://www.kidinfo.com/American_History/Colonization_Colonial_Life.html This website contains an extreme amount of wonderful information pertaining specifically to children. The site has such wonderful content and pursues everything that was going on during the time of Early America. I loved the list of literary works that were important to the people of this time and were most likely things that would have been read. The website did not just list the books that were available, but it gave them general topics to help you navigate in your search. On the main page there are several links to click on to help you understand what life was like for Early Americans. It pulls together several sites that are child friendly. This would be an amazing site to use as a teacher when allowing students to do some of their own research on the life of Early Americans.

In my research I found the answers to all of my questions listed above, but more importantly I found the answer to my main question, what were students reading? Students were mainly reading the Bible and its scriptures focusing mainly on Psalms at first.  It wasn’t until 1690 that the first primer was published, It was known as the “New England Primer,” and contained lessons in morality. This primer taught writing, spelling, and reading to students in New England for the next hundred years. Below are some photos of the primer’s pages:

If I were to continue on this path of research, I would definitely want to look at the spelling. In the research I did, I found that many of the words were spelled differently than they are now, and that it did not matter so much that the words were spelled correctly, but that your handwriting was perfect. I would be amazed to find out how this lack of correct spelling would influence literature.

Bibliography

"American Elementary Schools in 1600's." Think Quest. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Apr 2010.  

    <http://library.thinkquest.org/J002606/1600s.html>.

"American Educational History: A Hypertext Timeline." cloudnet. Edmund Sass, Ed.D.,,

      31 Jan 2010. Web. 19 Apr 2010.

     <http://www.cloudnet.com/~edrbsass/educationhistorytimeline.html>.

"Colonial Life." Kid Info. Google, n.d. Web. 20 Apr 2010.  

    <http://www.kidinfo.com/American_History/Colonization_Colonial_Life.html>.

Haines, Peggy. "Colonial America Resources." Colonial America Resources.

    PBeckHaines, 2007. Web. 19 Apr 2010.

   <http://www.chlive.org/pbeck/eastlibrary/colam.htm#EDUCATION%20IN%20COLONI  

    AL%20AMERICA>.