1.6 The First Year Book: Teacher’s Edition (1914)
Harvard University Library
The facsimile of this popular textbook for the first year of formal schooling is accessible through the page delivery service of the Harvard University Library. (Other similar first-year books can be found at Google Books.) This example was published by World Book Company, which had been founded in 1905 as a provider of English-language educational materials for the Philippines. World Book Company would later capture a significant portion of the domestic American textbook and testing market and become part of Harcourt, a major American educational publishing company until 2007. You are, of course, invited to compare and contrast the content and style of The First Year Book with The New England Primer Improved you read earlier in this chapter.
Before You Read
Write a journal or blog entry about what you recall about the curriculum for your first full year of formal education (presumably kindergarten).
Ask at least two people one generation or more older than you about their recollections of their first year of formal schooling.
Talk to elementary school teachers or students about their experiences teaching or learning in the primary grades today.
Selected Reading
At http://pds.lib.harvard.edu/pds/view/15288459, read the “General Suggestions” on how to use The First Year Book (pp. 129–36). You can access these by clicking on the tab at left called “The First Year Manual.” To research The First Year Book in more detail, continue reading “The First Year Manual” section and read “Suggestions on the Lessons” on pages 137–98.
Source: The first year book: Teacher’s edition. (1914). Harvard University Library Page Delivery Service. Retrieved from http://pds.lib.harvard.edu/pds/view/15288459
After You Read
To what extent is this textbook tailored for use with young children in English-speaking schools in the Philippines in 1914, and to what extent are its lessons and strategies universal?
What does this book tell us about the relationship between elementary school teachers and their students in the first part of the twentieth century? How has that relationship changed in the last one hundred years?
Why is coverage of drawing, sculpting, woodwork, and sewing included alongside coverage of reading and writing?