The Textbook As Discourse : Sociocultural Dimensions of American Schoolbooks [1 ed.] 9780203836026, 9780415886468

Citation preview

The Textbook as Discourse

The central assumption of The Textbook as Discourse is that, interpreted in the flow of history, textbooks can provide important insights into the nature and meaning of a culture and the social and political discourses in which it is engaged. This book is about the social, political, and cultural content of elementary and secondary textbooks in American education. It focuses on the nature of the discourses—the content and context—that represent what is included in textbooks. The term “discourse” provides the conceptual framework for the book, drawing on the work of the French social theorist Michel Foucault. The volume includes classic articles and book chapters as well as three original chapters written by the editors. To enhance its usefulness as a course text, each chapter includes an Overview, Key Concepts, and Questions for Reflection. Eugene F. Provenzo, Jr. is a Professor in the Social and Cultural Foundations of Education in the School of Education at the University of Miami. Annis N. Shaver is an Assistant Professor of German at Cedarville University. Manuel Bello is an independent scholar and teaches at Miami-­Dade Community College.

The Textbook as Discourse

Sociocultural Dimensions of American Schoolbooks

Edited by

Eugene F. Provenzo, Jr. Annis N. Shaver Manuel Bello

First published 2011 by Routledge 270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 Simultaneously published in the UK by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2011. To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk. © 2011 Taylor & Francis The right of the editors to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging-­in-Publication Data The textbook as discourse: sociocultural dimensions of American schoolbooks/edited by Eugene F. Provenzo, Jr., Annis N. Shaver, Manuel Bello. p. cm. 1. Textbooks–United States. 2. Textbooks–Social aspects– United States. I. Provenzo, Eugene F. II. Shaver, Annis N. III. Bello, Manuel. LB3047.T46 2011 371.3′20973–dc22 ISBN 0-203-83602-2 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN13: 978-0-415-88646-8 (hbk) ISBN13: 978-0-415-88647-5 (pbk) ISBN13: 978-0-203-83602-6 (ebk)

Contents



Preface Acknowledgments

  1 Introduction

vii x 1

Part 1

Studies of American Textbooks and Their Content from the Late Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Early Twentieth Centuries   2 Education and the Iconography of the Republic: Patriotic Symbolism in the Frontispieces of Eighteenthand Nineteenth-­Century American Textbooks

9

11

E uge n e F . P ro v e n z o , J r .

  3 Values Expressed in American Children’s Readers: 1800–1950

23

R ic h ard D ec h arms a n d G era l d H . M oe l l er

  4 Images of Women in Textbooks 1880–1920

36

J oa n N . B urst y n a n d R ut h R . C orriga n

  5 Catholic Textbooks and Cultural Legitimacy, 1840–1935

47

E uge n e F . P ro v e n z o , J r .

  6 The Discourse of Americanization Textbooks: 1914–1924

55

A n n is N . S h a v er

  7 Textbooks and Reconstruction W . E . B . D u B ois

74

vi   Contents

  8 The Lingering Impact of the Scopes Trial on High School Biology Textbooks

92

R a n d y M oore

Part 2

Ideology, Race, Ethnicity, Socio-­E conomic Status, Gender, Disability, and Religion in Twentieth-­C entury American Textbooks

107

  9 Ideology and United States History Textbooks

109

J ea n A n y o n

10 The Representation of Christopher Columbus in High School History Textbooks: A Content Analysis

140

M a n ue l B e l l o a n d A n n is N . S h a v er

11 Don Juan and Rebels under Palm Trees: Depictions of Latin Americans in US History Textbooks

162

B arbara C . C ru z

12 Race, Class, Gender, and Disability in Current Textbooks

183

C h risti n e E . S l eeter a n d C ar l A . G ra n t

13 Brown-­ing the American Textbook: History, Psychology, and the Origins of Modern Multiculturalism

216

J o n at h a n Zimmerma n

14 Making Dick and Jane: Historical Genesis of the Modern Basal Reader

240

A l l a n Luke

15 Harold Rugg vs. Horatio Alger: Social Class and Economic Opportunity, 1930–1960

268

J osep h M oreau

16 Textbook Content and Religious Fundamentalism

310

E uge n e F . P ro v e n z o , J r .



Bibliography Index

331 341

Preface

This book is about elementary and secondary textbooks in American culture. It focuses primarily on their social, political and cultural content. It includes classic articles and book chapters on the role of textbooks in American education, as well as three original chapters written for this volume by the editors. Underlying this work is the assumption that textbooks, interpreted within the flow of history, can provide the researcher with important insights about the nature and meaning of American culture, and the social and political discourses in which it is engaged. Our use of the term “discourse” is very deliberate, and provides the conceptual model for the book. It draws on the work of the French social theorist Michel Foucault, and assumes that elementary and secondary school textbooks in the United States have authority and meaning insofar as they are part of a “discursive field.”1 Implicit in exploring a discursive field, whether it is a fairy tale or fable, a comic book or novel, a movie or television program, or a textbook, is the related question of “What is an author?”2 Asking this question raises a number of interesting issues. Foucault wonders, for example, whether we even need to use the names of authors. He asks, in reference to his own writing, “Why not avoid their use altogether, or, short of that, why not define the manner in which they were used?”3 This assumes that the author is not just simply the individual who writes a text, but is part of a larger cultural discourse. In other words, the formula is not simply that the author writes a text, but that the author writes a text which is situated in a larger cultural discourse. This is what textbooks do and that is the question we are interested in—i.e. “What is the nature of the discourses—the content and context—that represent what is included in the pages of the books we use to educate our children? The academic study of textbooks and their content has a long history dating back to the early decades of the twentieth century. In his 1935 book, Black Reconstruction, the political and social activist W. E. B. Du Bois includes a summary and analysis of Helen Boardman’s research concerning the

viii   Preface

­ iscourse on race (our term) that was constructed in contemporary high d school American history textbooks.4 Specifically, Du Bois points out that American children were taught during the Reconstruction period that: 1. “All Negroes were ignorant”; 2. “All Negroes were lazy, dishonest and extravagant”; and 3. “Negroes were responsible for bad government during Reconstruction.” As Du Bois states, the authors of American history textbooks could not conceive of “Negroes as men; in their minds the word ‘Negro’ connotes ‘inferiority’ and ‘stupidity’ lightened by unreasoning gayety and humor.” The following passage illustrates how the discourse on race functioned in their writings: Assuming, therefore, as axiomatic the endless inferiority of the Negro race, these newer historians, mostly Southerners, some Northerners who deeply sympathized with the South, misinterpreted, distorted, even deliberately ignored any fact that challenged or contradicted this assumption. If the Negro was admittedly subhuman, what need to waste time delving into his Reconstruction history? Consequently historians of Reconstruction with a few exceptions ignore the Negro as completely as possible, leaving the reader wondering why an element so insignificant filled the whole Southern picture at the time.5 Du Bois recognizes, at a fundamental level, that textbooks and their content in the United States represent a clearly constructed discourse on race. In this context, he would appreciate Foucault’s call “to study not only the expressive value and formal transformations of discourse, but its mode of existence: the modifications and variations, within any culture, of modes of circulation, valorization, attribution, and appropriation.”6 It is in this context that we feel textbooks have the potential to reveal to us much about the hegemonic forces at work in our culture. As demonstrated in the various studies included in this book, we believe that textbooks can reveal fundamental elements of key discourses that define who and what we are as culture and society. We think that there are few more interesting topics for those interested in education and its role in defining American culture. Eugene F. Provenzo, Jr. University of Miami Annis Shaver Cedarville University Manuel Bello Miami-Dade College

Preface   ix

Notes 1 According to Foucault: To say that statements are residual (remanent) is not to say that they remain in the field of memory, or that it is possible to rediscover what they meant; but it means that they are preserved by virtue of a number of supports and material techniques (of which the book is, of course, only one example), in accordance with certain types of institutions (of which the library is one), and with certain statutory modalities (which are not the same in the case of a religious text, a law, or a scientific truth). This also means that they are invested in techniques that put them into operation, in practices that derive from them, in the social relations that they form, or, through those relations, modify. (Michel Foucault, The Archaeology of Knowledge & The Discourse on Language (New York: Harper, 1972), p. 245) 2 As Foucault points out, stories, folk tales, epics and tragedies “were accepted, circulated, and valorized without any question about the identity of their author.” What is important to understand is that many discourses are generated from within a culture. As this work will demonstrate, the discourses commonly associated with textbooks are, in fact, part of larger social, cultural and political discourses of race, gender, the meaning of the work ethic and so on. In doing so, this work directly connects the field of curriculum studies and theory to larger social, cultural, political and economic systems. 3 Foucault, “What is an Author?” reprinted in Critical Theory since 1965, edited by Hazard Adams and Leroy Searle (Tallahasee, FL: University Presses of Florida, 1986), p. 139. 4 W. E. B. Du Bois, Black Reconstruction in America: An Essay Toward a History of the Part Which Black Folk Played in the Attempt to Reconstruct Democracy in America (New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co. 1935). New edition with an Introduction by David Levering Lewis (New York: Antheneum, 1992). Other studies of textbooks and their role in the history of American education are referenced in the Bibliography. Particularly useful works include: Ruth Miller Elson, Guardians of Tradition: American Schoolbooks of the Nineteenth Century (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1964); John A. Nietz, The Evolution of American Secondary School Textbooks (Rutland, VT: Charles E. Tuttle, 1966); Frances G. Fitzgerald, America Revised: History Schoolbooks in the Twentieth Century (Boston: Little Brown, 1979). 5 Black Reconstruction, p. 727. 6 “What Is an Author?,” p. 147.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the many people who have encouraged us in undertaking this project: Asterie Baker Provenzo for providing her usual critical and editorial insights; John W. Shaver, III for his support and encouragement throughout the project; and Carmen Bello for creating a caring environment. We especially want to thank Jeanne S. Schumm for her continued interest in and support for our work. There are few better educational leaders in higher education. Orson, Fred, Blondie, Belle, Betsy, Leah, Mauricio, and Gretel reminded us that true friends come in many sizes, shapes, and types of fur.

Chapter 1

Introduction

The thesis of this book is that the content of textbooks reflects the values and beliefs of the culture and historical period of which they are a part. It is an argument that we believe is clearly demonstrated in the different studies included in this work. We are particularly interested in elementary and secondary school text­ books, because, more than any other type of work in American society, their content represents a conscious choice on the part of writers and editors of what should be taught to our children. They are part of a selective tradition— one that is situated in a specific time and culture.1 In this sense, any textbook becomes a signpost or a marker for the values and beliefs of the era in which it was written. Textbooks are by definition consensus documents. They are widely circu­ lated, and, if they are to be successful, they must appeal to a large number of people. Thus, textbooks deliberately tend to avoid controversy. If they alienate their audience, they will not be widely bought and used, and as a result they drop out of not only the economic marketplace, but also the marketplace of ideas. Textbooks in the United States tend to be more conservative in their content than in other cultures. We do not believe that this is because Amer­ ican society is less open, but rather because our textbooks must meet the demands of a much more diverse people than is found elsewhere. Thus, achieving consensus in the content of textbooks in countries such as Japan or Norway is much easier than it is in the United States; when dealing with a heterogeneous population, and the demands of a tradition of inclusiveness, the textbook writer’s job becomes more taxing. The modern textbook has its origins in the Catechisms and religious instructional texts of the Protestant Reformation. The most important of these, in terms of the textbook as we know it today, is Jan Amos Comenius’s Orbis Sensualius Pictus (the world explained in pictures). The first edition of the book was published in 1658 in Nuremberg, Germany in a combined German/Latin edition. Comenius (1592–1670) was a Moravian Bishop who developed the book as a means of teaching children Latin and German. Its

2   Introduction

Figure 1.1  The “Inviatio” from Comenius’s Orbis sensualis pictus (1658).

content was heavily religious. Using approximately 150 pictures or tableaus that referenced words in short sentences, it introduced students to several thousand words and concepts by which to understand and interpret the world. Comenius’ work was widely imitated. In the American colonies, The New England Primer (c.1693), which is widely recognized as the first textbook created in what was to become the United States, reflects the Orbis Sensualis Pictus’ content, design, and layout. Like its Latin/German predecessor, The New England Primer strongly emphasizes religious material. The rhyming alphabet at the beginning of the book includes extensive references to the Bible, such as Adam and Eve’s expulsion from the Garden of Eden and the Deluge or Flood. In the vocabulary section, the words included often have

Introduction   3

religious overtones or uses such as “benediction,” “consolation,” and “fidel­ ity.” They clearly reflect the religious and moral interests of the Puritans. The first volume of Webster’s Grammatical Institute first published in 1783 and the most important textbook to come out during the period of the Ameri­ can revolution, was a “spelling” book, which was eventually published with a blue cover, hence its popular name, the Blueback Speller. By the time of the Civil War, Webster’s Blueback Speller had been used by millions of people— both children and adults. Spellers were the first reading books given to stu­ dents on entering school, and served much the same function as our modern elementary basal readers. The format of these works was consistently the same. After presenting the alphabet, the reader then encountered long lists of nonsense syllables which he or she would be expected to memorize. These syl­ lables would be followed by brief phrases and simple sentences. The reading passages became longer as the reader progressed though the book. The spell­ ers concluded with biblical selections, usually from the Psalms. By the begin­ ning of the nineteenth century, non-­religious materials, such as Aesopic fables, were typically included. As demonstrated in the first study included in this work, Eugene F. Provenzo, Jr.’s “Education and the Iconography of the Republic: Patriotic Symbolism in the Frontispieces of Eighteenth and Nineteenth-­Century American Textbooks” (pp. 11–22), introductory spellers and readers in the

Figure 1.2 Page from the Rhyming Alphabet included in a 1777 edition of The New England Primer.

4   Introduction

years following the American Revolution clearly reflected the development of a uniquely American set of political values or ideologies. Such ideologies play themselves out in many ways. As seen in the case of The New England Primer, they could be religious in nature, or as Richard Dec­ harms and Gerald H. Moeller demonstrate in their work “Values Expressed in American Children’s Readers: 1800–1950” (pp. 23–35), they could reflect eco­ nomic and social beliefs about issues, or concepts such as the “work ethic,” and the need for individual achievement in the culture. These values, however, are not universally accepted and have often been at the core of numerous conflicts over textbook content. One of the earliest examples of such a conflict is the debate over “Northern values” in textbooks used in the South during the period immediately prior to the Civil War. This conflict was a direct reflection of regional differences in values, largely focus­ ing around the issue of slavery, and highlighted the domination of the text­ book field by Northern writers.2 Northern textbooks were used in the South because it lacked the capacity to manufacture its own books.3 Southern resentment over their dependence upon Northern textbooks, authors, and publishers was significant. Southerners argued that the textbooks produced by Northern publishers had the earmarks of sectionalism.4 In addition, textbooks produced in the North were often highly inaccurate when used in a Southern context. As a writer in an 1852 issue of De Bow’s Review explained in an early content analysis of textbooks: What is to be done with geographies that tell pupils “States are divided into towns and counties?” as if, out of New England, the use of towns, as synono­ mous with parish, district, or township, was usual; that devote two pages to Connecticut onions and broom-­corn, and ten lines to Louisiana and sugar? of histories that are silent about Texas? of first readers that declare all spell­ ing but Noah Webster’s “vulgar,” and “not used in good society?” and of “speakers” that abound in selections for southern declamation, made almost exclusively from northern debates in Congress, and from abolition poets.5 In addition to their displeasure that many of the materials included in the Northern textbooks had little relevance to the conditions of the South, there was also a fear on the part of many Southerners that Northern authors would misrepresent the South and its institutions to their children. As an editor of The Southern Quarterly Review explained in 1842: We know that the human mind, in its plastic state, is easily molded into whatever views are most forcibly presented. When arrived at maturity, we care not how much they read and hear from those opposed to our peculiar institutions, because we feel confident that no one can be raised upon the soil of the South, without being conscious, that such institutions are essential and highly beneficial, but with children the case is very dif­

Introduction   5

ferent, and we feel it a duty incumbent upon us to guard their young and tender minds against the reception of bias and prejudice.6 Here lies the essential issue concerning textbooks and their content: What is to be taught? Whose knowledge is to be valued? Which ideas are to be passed on from one generation to the next? In the case of “Images of Women in Textbooks 1880–1920” (pp. 36–46), Joan N. Burstyn and Ruth R. Corrigan demonstrate how textbooks at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries reflect the dominant male culture that is at work in American society. In doing so, text­ books teach specific values as part of a null curriculum by not teaching certain things. Thus, the consistent exclusion from textbooks of the work and experi­ ence of women, and of issues that are vital to them, represents a very specific construction of social content. This process of excluding the experiences and history of women, as well as their concerns, from the curriculum content of texts at the end of the nine­ teenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries represents a selective process at work—one that is the reflective of a specific social and cultural ideology. In this context, the work of the British social theorist Raymond Williams is highly informative. He identifies cultural hegemony in the textbook content by describing the “tradition” of presenting men’s history as universal, that is, as equivalent to women’s history. Thus, according to Williams: What we have to see is not just a “tradition” but a selective tradition: an intentionally selective version of a shaping past and pre-­shaped present, which is then powerfully operative in the process of social and cultural definition and identification.7 Selective traditions work in often unexpected ways. In “Catholic Textbooks and Cultural Legitimacy, 1840–1935” (pp. 47–54), Provenzo demonstrates that Catholics consciously selected and adapted non-­religous textbook con­ tent and models in order to conform with political mainstream values, while at the same time not compromising their religious beliefs. This theme of the selective tradition being at work in the content of text­ books suggests that their purpose, to a significant degree, is not only to teach their users specific academic subjects and topics, but also to shape them in terms of their cultural values and perspectives. This process is clearly at work in Annis N. Shaver’s examination of Americanization textbooks and their use with immigrants in the period of World War I. In her study, “The Discourse of Americanization Textbooks: 1914–1924” (pp. 55–73), she maintains that textbooks written specifically to teach English to newly arrived immigrants had the secondary goal of inculcating the advantages of American democracy and the need to adopt the characteristics of the mainstream culture. The selec­ tive tradition in terms of the content of textbooks also has the potential to

6   Introduction

privilege certain groups over others. Whose history is written and taught is often a result of who researches and publishes a textbook. In the selection from W. E. B. Du Bois’ 1935 work, Black Reconstruction in America (pp. 74–91), the role historians play in constructing racial attitudes in school textbooks is critically examined. He concludes that the depictions that they include largely reflect the cultural and political biases of the main­ stream White historians who wrote them, and that more objective and ideo­ logically free works need to be developed. Often the arguments about the ideological content of textbooks extend themselves over several generations. Randy Moore, in “The Lingering Impact of the Scopes Trial on High School Biology Textbooks” (pp. 92–105) describes how conflicts over issues about evolutionary theory continue to play a role in school textbook controversies almost 80 years after they seemingly came to a head with the Scopes “Monkey” trial in 1926. Jean Anyon, in her article “Ideology and United States History Textbooks” (pp. 109–139), provides what is perhaps the best source currently available in the literature on how textbooks function in an ideological context. She makes clear that despite their scientific claims of objectivity, American history text­ books “consistently serve the interests of some groups in society over others.” Textbooks operate within a selective tradition not only in terms of their hege­ monic function, but in terms of their ideological function as well. According to Anyon, ideology is defined: as an explanation or interpretation of social reality which, although pre­ sented as objective is demonstrably partial in that it expresses the social priorities of certain political, economic, or other groups. Ideologies are weapons of group interest; they justify and rationalize; they legitimate group power activities and needs. An ideological version of a historical period, for example, involves information selection and organization that provides an interpretation of social events and hierarchies that predis­ pose attitudes and behaviors in support of certain groups.8 Anyon’s argument is demonstrated in Manuel Bello and Annis N. Shaver’s “The Representation of Christopher Columbus in High School History Text­ books: A Content Analysis” (pp. 140–161). In their study of high school his­ tory textbooks, Bello and Shaver note that the historic figure of Columbus evolves and is redefined according to changing political ideologies. In the 1890s Columbus exemplified the archetypal hero—one who embodied characteristics that defined the American identity. Columbus was portrayed as a courageous, determined, inventive, and pioneering spirit. As historical conditions changed, and, along with them, the ideological assumptions of the culture, so too did the perception of Columbus. One hundred years later, fol­ lowing the upheaval of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States and the increasing recognition of indigenous people’s rights in the Americas,

Introduction   7

Columbus became a much more problematic figure. Heroes, it seems, are defined according to the needs of a particular historical period and the ideo­ logical values of the culture. Like Bello and Shaver, Barbara C. Cruz demonstrates in “Don Juan and Rebels under Palm Trees: Depictions of Latin Americans in US History Text­ books” (pp. 162–182) that textbook selection and adoption is a highly political process, one that has distorted the depiction of Latinos by omitting them from the historical narratives found in history textbooks, as well as stereotyp­ ing them when they are included. In this context she repeats many of the themes developed nearly 75 years earlier by W. E. B. Du Bois in his analysis of the portrayal of African Americans and their role in Reconstruction by high school American history textbooks, discussed in Chapter 6 of this work. Christine E. Sleeter and Carl A. Grant, in “Race, Class, Gender, and Disa­ bility in Current Textbooks” (pp. 183–215), look at the construction of text­ book content during the 1980s and 1990s, and demonstrate how it reflects the struggle for power between different social groups. In doing so they argue that this content shapes and defines the views of the children who read them. The examination of race and the content of textbooks is also looked at by Jonathan Zimmerman in his article “Brown-­ing the American Textbook: History, Psychology, and the Origins of Modern Multiculturalism” (pp. 216–239), in which he shows how Blacks were either excluded from or mis­ represented in American textbooks following World War II. Zimmerman demonstrates that the rewriting of these texts played a critical role in the desegregation of American schools following the 1954 Brown decision. Alan Luke approaches his examination of the Curriculum Foundation Readers by William S. Gray and May H. Arbuthnot, commonly referred to as the “Dick and Jane” series, in “Making Dick and Jane: Historical Genesis of the Modern Basal Reader” (pp. 240–267) from a different perspective, by applying the conceptual and economic elements of textbook production to his analysis, and by grounding his investigation of these works theoretically and politically. His analysis is framed by the emergent industrial relationship between publishing, curriculum development on a large scale, and economic interests, and examines the production of textbooks as literate art and labor. In “Harold Rugg vs. Horatio Alger: Social Class and Economic Opportunity, 1930–1960” (pp. 268–309), Joseph Moreau examines Harold Rugg’s textbooks which were published during the years prior to World War II, and discusses how his focus on issues of wealth and social class caused him to be targeted politically. The political dimension underlying textbook content made clear in Moreau’s analysis of Harold Rugg’s work can be seen in the piece that con­ cludes the collection, Eugene F. Provenzo, Jr.’s “Textbook Content and Reli­ gious Fundamentalism” (pp. 310–330). This chapter looks at the objection that religious fundamentalists in the United States had to the political and social content of many textbooks beginning in the late 1960s. ***

8   Introduction

In conclusion, the chapters included in this work demonstrate the extent to which textbooks in American culture are not only social and cultural docu­ ments, but also part of a highly charged political and social discourse. In doing so, the authors make clear that as ideological works, textbooks play a critical part in shaping the consciousness of the students who use them and defining who and what is an American. As such, there are few more interest­ ing documents for the historian or sociologist of education, or those con­ cerned with the content and meaning of curriculum.

Notes 1 According to the political and social theorist Karl Marx (1818–1883): Literary scholars and anthologists make their own literary canon, but they do not make it just as they please; they do not make it under circumstances chosen by themselves, but under circumstances directly encountered, given, and trans­ mitted from the past. Quoted by Alan Wald, “Hegemony and Literary Tradition in the United States,” included in Suzanne de Castell, Allan Luke and Carmen Luke (eds.), Language, Authority and Criticism: Readings on the School Textbook (London: The Falmer Press, 1989), p. vii. 2 With the exception of W. H. McGuffey who was from Ohio, the principal textbook authors prior to the Civil War were from New England. These included: Noah Webster, Jedidiah Morse, S. G. Goodrich, C. A. Goodrich, S. Augustus Mitchell, Jesse Olney, and Emma Willard, who were all from Connecticut; Lyman Cobb, William Woodbridge, Richard Parker, and Salem Town, who were from Massachu­ setts; while John Frost was from Maine, and Benjamin D. Emerson from New Hampshire. See: Ruth Miller Elson, The Guardians of Tradition (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press), p. 7. 3 The South’s dependence upon the North for textbooks reflected an important differ­ ence in the economy of the two cultures. During the nineteenth century the manu­ facture of textbooks was a complicated and expensive process. As a result of the widespread use of illustrations, major investments had to be made not only in engravings, but in the physical plants required to produce such works. As Hinton Rowan Helper explained in his work The Impending Crisis of the South (1857): Of the “more than three hundred houses engaged in the publication of books,” to which the writer in the “American Publishers’ Circular” refers, upwards of nine tenths of the number are in the non-­slave holding States, and these represent not less than ninety-­nine hundredths of the whole capital invested in the business. . . . All the paper manufactories of the South do not produce enough to supply a single publishing house in the city of New York. (J. Hinton Rowan Helper, The Impending Crisis of the South (New York: George W. Carlton and Company, Publishers, 1857), pp. 416–417) 4 “Southern School Books,” De Bow’s Review, Vol. XIII, September 1852, p. 260. 5 Ibid., p. 262. 6 The Southern Quarterly Review, Vol. I, January 1842, p. 265. 7 Raymond Williams, “Hegemony and the Selective Tradition,” Castell et al., op. cit., p. 58. 8 See p. 111 of this work.

Part 1

Studies of American Textbooks and Their Content from the Late Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Early Twentieth Centuries

Chapter 2

Education and the Iconography of the Republic Patriotic Symbolism in the Frontispieces of Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-­C entury American Textbooks* Eugene F. Provenzo, Jr.

Overview: Provenzo outlines the development of a distinctive American patriotic iconography by examining the frontispieces of late-­e ighteenth and early-­n ineteenth-century reading and spelling books. He traces the evolution of these uniquely American images by comparing them to their British counterparts. He shows how American textbooks, in using portraits of patriotic figures like George Washington and Benjamin Franklin in their frontispieces, reflected the British tradition of using the image of the monarch. As the fledging Republic begins to define itself, Provenzo notes, there is a corresponding change in the images used. While British textbooks used primarily decorative illustrations, American texts began to use allegorical images adapted from antiquity. These figures, in time, transform into a distinctive American iconography that helps to define the emergent nation and culture. Key Concept: The development of a distinctive American visual metaphorical language in textbooks. Questions for Reflection: How do the different elements in a textbook, visual or written, come together to give meaning to the whole? Did the change in the content of the frontispieces of the textbooks examined in this study come about as a purposeful (conscious) endeavor on the part of the publishers and writers?

12   Eugene F. Provenzo, Jr.

In his work The Will to Power, Friedrich Nietzsche argued that “in our thought, the essential feature is fitting new material into old schemas, . . . making equal what is new.”1 According to C. A. Bowers, what Nietzsche is describing is a fundamental impulse of man toward the formation of meta­ phors. Identified with the “will to power,” this drive to name, to give meaning, and to categorize is dependent on the use of metaphor, “that is, the establish­ ment of an identity between dissimilar things.”2 It is the purpose of this essay to examine the use of visual metaphor in the frontispieces of reading and spelling books published in the United States during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.3 It is argued that through the combination of traditional visual metaphors and symbols, together with the ideals of the new revolutionary American government, there evolved a distinctive patriotic iconography. While by no means limited to the frontispieces of textbooks, the development and evolution of these metaphors and symbols can be clearly traced in them. Such an activity enables us to better understand how children were introduced to the new nation’s patriotic symbols and something of the means by which those symbols were defined. In order to understand the emergence of an American patriotic iconogra­ phy, it is necessary to begin at the time of the American Revolution. The success of the Revolution posed a serious problem for the American people. In declaring their political independence from England, the Americans had also largely rejected England’s political and social traditions. If the Revolution were to be successful and the Republic to flourish, there would have to develop a new communal or “national” consciousness—one that reflected the ideals of the Revolution and the new nation. Fundamental to the development of this new national consciousness was the creation of an iconographic system that either incorporated symbols from the Old World—providing them with new meaning—or created new symbols consistent with the ideals of the Republic. Such symbols, by definition, would be collective in nature.4 Ultimately, they would reflect the memories, beliefs, and hopes of the new nation, providing a means by which to transmit com­ munal emotions, as well as continuity and the opportunity for interaction between generations.5 During the early years of the Republic, many Americans saw the need to consciously develop a unique American identity that in time would erase the memory of British domination and colonial subservience.6 The time was ideal to establish this new identity. As Benjamin Rush wrote in 1786: The minds of our people have not as yet lost the yielding texture they acquired by the heat of the late Revolution. They will now receive more readily than five or even three years hence new impressions and habits of all kinds. The spirit of liberty now pervades every part of the state. The influence of error and deception are now of short duration.7

Education and Iconography   13

Figure 2.1 King George the First (Frontispiece E. Young, The Compleat English School. Oxford: T. Varnum and Osburn, 1714).

The development of a patriotic iconography or symbolism was a gradual process, dependent on the collective history and experience of the nation. It is the thesis of this article that the content of the frontispieces of children’s spell­ ing books published in the United States during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries reveals the emergence of a distinctly American patriotic iconography and symbolism. By examining the content of these frontispieces, it should be possible to understand something of the origins and evolution of our patriotic tradition and the metaphors and symbols associated with it.8 The inclusion of frontispieces in spelling and reading books was a common practice in both England and America throughout the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. In E. Young’s The Compleat English School, for example, there can be found a portrait of King George the First (Figure 2.1).9 The

14   Eugene F. Provenzo, Jr.

i­ nclusion of the portrait was probably intended to celebrate his assumption to the throne, which also took place that year. Portrait frontispieces were com­ monly included in spelling texts throughout the period. Texts such as Thomas Dilworth’s A New Guide to the English Tongue10 and Noah Webster’s The American Spelling Book, or First Part of the Grammatical Institute of the English Language11 both include portrait frontispieces—in these cases, of the authors of the books themselves. Toward the end of the eighteenth century, portrait frontispieces were abandoned, and in their place were substituted more allegorical types of illus­ trations. In those rare instances where portraits were included in the frontis­ pieces of American textbooks, they typically portrayed patriotic figures such as George Washington or Benjamin Franklin (Figure 2.2).12 One of the earliest and most interesting allegorical representations in fron­ tispieces of textbooks published in the United States is found in the first American edition (1799) of Daniel Fenning’s The Universal Spelling Book: the figure of Minerva or Athena “Guiding the American Youth to the Temple of Wisdom” (Figure 2.3).13 Fenning’s text was originally published in England in 1767 and was among the most popular British spelling books of the late eight­ eenth century. Significantly, the frontispieces included in the original English edition of Fenning’s work depicted a series of scenes in which children were receiving instruction, as well as playing outdoors (Figure 2.4).14 Similar types of illustra­ tions were included in the frontispieces of other English spelling books pub­ lished during the first half of the nineteenth century.15 In fact, none of the several dozen different British spelling books examined by the author

Figure 2.2 Franklin, Washington and Lafayette (Frontispiece, Jesse Torrey, Jr., Familiar Spelling Book. Philadelphia: J. Griggs, 1825).

Education and Iconography   15

Figure 2.3 Athena Guiding the American Youth to the Temple of Wisdom (Frontispiece, Daniel Fenning, The Universal Spelling Book. Philadelphia: G. Douglas, 1799).

­ ublished during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries included p allegorical representations in their frontispieces.16 The lack of allegorical representation in the frontispieces of British spelling textbooks is particularly important when they are compared with American texts. In the case of the figure of Minerva included in the 1799 American edition of Fenning, it is clear that a mythological and symbolic system dating back to Antiquity is being adopted and used as the basis for the frontispiece. In this case, an ancient classical figure with her various associations and

16   Eugene F. Provenzo, Jr.

Figure 2.4 Children Receiving Instruction (Frontispiece, Daniel Fenning, The Universal Spelling Book. Philadelphia: G. Douglas, 1767).

meanings was deliberately included in the frontispiece of an American text. Its striking difference from the frontispieces of British editions of Fenning’s spelling book clearly suggests the adoption of a significantly different visual symbolism and iconography in the American spelling texts. The use of Minerva as the subject of frontispieces in elementary textbooks soon became widespread. In William Perry’s fourth Brookfield edition of The Only Sure Guide to the English Tongue, for example, is found a frontispiece with the figure of Minerva surrounded by children. She is pointing to what can be assumed to be the Temple of Wisdom or Knowledge (Figure 2.5). Underneath the illustration is printed the legend: “Tis education forms the common mind, just as the twig is bent the tree’s inclined.”17 Numerous other American texts from the period include the same or similar scenes. The frontispiece of A. Picket’s Juvenille Spelling Book, entitled “Minerva Instructing Youth,” shows the Greek goddess enthroned and directing two

Education and Iconography   17

Figure 2.5 Minerva Surrounded by Children (Frontispiece, William Perry, The Only Sure Guide to the English Tongue, 4th ed. Brookfield F. Merriam & Co., 1821).

c­ hildren toward what presumably is the Temple of Wisdom or Knowledge.18 A similar scene is depicted in the frontispiece of Hall J. Kelley’s The American Instructor,19 and Lyman Cobb’s Spelling Book (Figure 2.6).20 The repeated use of a classical figure such as Minerva as the subject of the frontispieces of spelling and reading textbooks is not unusual. An extremely important reconceptualization of this standard frontispiece, however, occurs in the 1841 edition of Lyman Cobb’s Spelling Book (Figure 2.7).21 Not only are the figures of Minerva and the children included, but a new figure is depicted dressed in a long robe and carrying a spear or staff surmounted by a Phrygian cap. Light radiates from the figure’s head. Minerva stands above the children and is identified by the owl perched on her head—her companion and totem. In her hand is a spear to which is attached a banner on which is inscribed “The Palladium,” which in this case refers to the sacred statue of Pallas Athena

18   Eugene F. Provenzo, Jr.

Figure 2.6 Minerva Instructing Youth (Frontispiece, Lyman Cobb. Cobb’s Spelling Book. Rev. Ed. Brattleborough: Holbrook & Fessender, 1826).

or Minerva, which assured the safety of the city of Troy as long as the statue remained within its walls. In general, the Palladium symbolizes a safeguard of the integrity of a social or political institution. It is the second robed figure that is of particular interest. She is a repre­ sentation of the Roman Goddess of Liberty. Personified as a robed female holding a scepter, the figure was crowned by a Phrygian cap—the pilleus liberatis—given to slaves when granted their freedom. The image can be found on Roman coins from the Republican period, as well as in more modern works such as Ceseare Ripa’s Iconologia and J. B. Huet’s Le Tresor des artistes.22 Holding an open book in front of the children included in the frontispiece, Liberty has taken the place of Minerva as the focal point of the frontispiece. As Minerva ascends toward the heavens she is being supplanted by the figure of Liberty. A new visual symbol or new symbol or metaphor is being

Education and Iconography   19

Figure 2.7 The frontispiece from the 1841 edition of Lyman Cobb’s Spelling Book.

introduced to the children using the textbook. A traditional classical figure or icon, Minerva, is replaced by Liberty—a figure that more completely reflects the ideals of the Revolution and the New Republic. The representation of Liberty included in Cobb’s Spelling Book represents an important step in the emergence of Liberty as one of the major symbols of the American nation. Certainly, the use of Liberty as a symbol of the Amer­ ican Republic was not unique to textbooks such as Cobb’s.23 However, Cobb’s use of the figure reflects the parallel evolution and emergence of a distinctively American iconography. When Thomas Crawford’s colossal bronze statue profile view of “Armed Freedom” (Figure 2.9) was completed in 1863 and placed on top of the Capitol in Washington, D.C., and Felix Bartholdi’s “Statue of Liberty” (Figure 2.10) was unveiled in New York Harbor in 1886, the groundwork had already been laid in the frontispieces of American spell­ ing books for the acceptance of the figure of Liberty as an important icon and symbol of the American people.

Figure 2.8 Roman goddess of Liberty (from J. B. Huet. Les Tresor des artiste, 1810).

Figure 2.9 Profile view of statue of “Armed Freedom,” on the dome of the Capitol, Washington, D.C. Thomas Crawford, sculptor (from Charles E. Fairman, Art and Artisits of the Capitol of the United States of America. Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, 1927).

Education and Iconography   21

Figure 2.10 Statue of Liberty (from Charles Burr Todd, The Story of the City of New York. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1888).

An essay such as this suggests how educational materials such as textbooks reflect the emergence and are part of the evolution of symbols and metaphors that define a culture. In the frontispieces of these textbooks can be seen an example of the development of a complex cultural language—of metaphors and symbols that were part of an emerging culture and its educational system.

Footnote * First published in Teachers College Record, Vol. 85, No. 3 (Spring 1984), 503–12.

Notes   1 Friedrich Nietzsche, The Will to Power (New York: Vintage Books, 1968), p. 273.   2 C. A. Bowers, “Curriculum as Cultural Reproduction: An Examination of Meta­ phor as a Carrier of Ideology,” Teachers College Record 82, no. 2 (Winter 1980): 270–71.   3 The data for the study is based on works included in the Plimpton Collection, in the Division of Special Collections, Columbia University Library. The author wishes to thank the library staff for their invaluable assistance.

22   Eugene F. Provenzo, Jr.   4 The Swiss psychologist Carl G. Jung (1875–1961) defines a symbol as “a term, a name, or even a picture that may be familiar in daily life, yet that possesses specific connotations in addition to its conventional and obvious meaning” (see Carl G. Jung, “Approaching the Unconscious,” in Man and His Dreams, ed. Carl G. Jung [New York: Dell Publishing, 1976]).   5 Marvin Trachtenberg, The Statue of Liberty (New York: Penguin Books, 1977), p. 15.   6 Education was seen by many republican theorists as having a critical role in this process. For further information concerning this matter, see David Tyack, “Form­ ing the National Character,” Harvard Educational Review 36, no. 1 (Winter 1966): 29–41; and Jonathan Messerli, “The Columbia Complex: The Impulse to National Consolidation,” History of Education Quarterly 7 (Winter 1967): 417–31. For ref­ erence to original sources on educational theories during the early republication period, see Frederick Rudolph, ed., Essays on Education in the Early Republic (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1965).   7 Benjamin Rush, “Thoughts upon the Mode of Education Proper in a Republic,” in Rudolph, Essays on Education in the Early Republic, p. 22.   8 Underlying this approach is the philosophy of the German art historian Carl Sch­ nasse, who argues that “the art of every period is the most reliable expression of the national spirit in question, it is something like a hieroglyph . . . in which the secret essence of the nation declares itself condensed.” Quoted in E. H. Gombrich, In Search of Cultural History (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1974), p. 14.   9 E. Young, The Compleat English School (Oxford: T. Varnam and I. Osborn, 1714). 10 Thomas Dilworth, A New Guide to the English Tongue (London: Printed by Henry Kent, 1764). 11 Noah Webster, The American Spelling Book, or First Part of the Grammatical Institute of the English Language (Boston: Printed by Isaiah Thomas and Ebenezer T. Andrews, 1789). 12 Jesse Torrey, Jr., Familiar Spelling Book (Philadelphia: J. Grigg, 1825). 13 Daniel Fenning, The Universal Spelling Book (Philadelphia: G. Douglas, 1799). 14 Daniel Fenning, The Universal Spelling Book (London: Printed by Dean and Munday, 1767). 15 See, for example, the frontispieces included in T. Clark, The National Spelling Book (London: John Souter, 1819); and William Mavor, The English Spelling-­Book (London: Longman, Orme, Brown, Green and Longman, 1838). 16 A few examples of allegorical representation can be found in English children’s books of the period. See, for example, the frontispiece in Arnaud Berquin, The Looking Glass of the Mind (London: E. Newberry, 1787), in which Minerva, aided by Virtue and Prudence, is shown dispensing wisdom to a group of children. 17 William Perry, The Only Sure Guide to the English Tongue (Brookfield: F. Merriam and Co., 1821). 18 A. Picket, Picket’s Juvenille Spelling Book (New York: J. Milton Ferry, 1823). 19 Hall J. Kelley, The American Instructor (Boston: Lincoln and Edmands, 1826). 20 Lyman Cobb, Cobb’s Spelling Book, rev. ed. (Brattleborough: Holbrook and Fes­ seenden, 1826). 21 Lyman Cobb, Cobb’s Spelling Book (Watertown: Knowlton & Rice, 1841). 22 Trachtenberg, The Statue of Liberty, p. 63. 23 The portrait of Liberty, for example, was regularly included on American coins beginning in the 1790s.

Chapter 3

Values Expressed in American Children’s Readers 1800–1950* Richard Decharms and Gerald H. Moeller 1

Overview: In this content analysis of American children’s readers from 1800 to 1950, Decharms and Moeller plot the incidence of achievement and affiliation imagery and moral teaching against data on patent issues per population to investigate psychological variables associated with cultural trends in the nation as a whole. They use children’s readers because these texts are written to transmit cultural values, arguing that their widespread use is a clear indication of their general acceptance in the society. They hypothesize, based on the work of various social psychologists, that the United States has seen a shift from Weber’s Protestant ethic to Whytes’ social ethic, that is, that the individual has gone from thinking that salvation comes through thrift, hard work, and competition to seeing the group as a source of creativity, where “belongingness” is the ultimate goal. To use Riesman’s terminology, they believe the trend is from “inner-­d irection” to “other-­d irection.” They note an increase in achievement imagery from 1800 to 1900, followed by a steady decline in the following 50 years. This tendency is very similar to the data on moral teaching, but no consistent trend was discerned for the affiliation imagery. Key Concept: Investigate socio/psychological changes in the culture through children’s readers. Questions for Reflection: How does the content of children’s readers reflect the culture? What other cultural artifacts reflect changes in the ethos of a nation?

24   Richard Decharms and Gerald H. Moeller

Students of cultural change within the United States seem to have reached some agreement as to a trend observable within the last century. This trend, which deals with some of the basic values of our culture, may be seen as a change from what Weber (1930) called “the Protestant ethic” to what has been called the “social ethic” (Whyte, 1956). Specifically, the dominant value of individual salvation through hard work, thrift, and competition is seen as being replaced by “a belief in the group as the source of creativity; a belief in ‘belongingness’ as the ultimate need of the individual; and a belief in the application of science to achieve the belongingness” (Whyte, 1956, p.  7). In Riesman’s (Riesman, Glazer, & Denney, 1950) terminology the basic trend is from inner-­direction to other-­direction. Actually this process is circular in the sense that the cultural change is probably accompanied by a change in values which starts a new cycle. The psychologist likes to conceive of the basic variables in human behavior as being internally determined and thus breaks this circle and concentrates on motives as basic. The aim of the present paper is to investigate psychological variables which it seems logical to predict will be associated with the cultural changes observed in the United States over the last century and a half. McClelland (1955) has noted striking similarity between his concept of the person with high achievement motivation and Riesman’s inner-­directed character type. McClelland defines achievement motivation as “success in competition with a standard of excellence” (p. 43). According to Riesman et al. (1950) “the drive instilled in the child is to live up to ideals and to test his ability to be on his own by continuous experiments in self-­mastery” (p. 59). For the other-­directed person “making good becomes almost equivalent to making friends” (Riesman et al., 1950, p. 66). This sounds very much like the person with high affiliation motivation. Atkinson (1958) defines affiliation motivation as “concern . . . over establishing, maintaining, or restoring a positive affective relationship with another person. This relationship is most adequately described by the word friendship” (p. 206). Assuming that achievement motivation is a basic component of the inner-­ directed character type, and that affiliation motivation is a basic component of the other-­directed character type, in the context of Riesman’s cultural change thesis, one would predict a decline in over-­all achievement motivation and an increase in affiliation motivation in the last century of United States history. Strauss and Houghton (1960) have found evidence giving some support to these hypotheses in the period since 1924 in a study of 4-H club journals. A meaningful relationship should also be found between achievement orientation and economic and technological change according to McClelland (1955). A further aspect of Riesman’s thesis is that the stage of inner-­direction is preceded by a stage of tradition-­direction. During this stage strict moral codes demand behavioral conformity of the individual. The change from a tradition-

Values in American Children’s Readers   25

­ irected society to an inner-­directed society involves a secularization in the d sense that the individual must prove himself worthy as in Weber’s (1930) Protestant ethic, rather than be told what to do by categorical imperatives. One might thus predict more reliance on moral teaching early in the history of the United States. The objective measurement of cultural orientations or values is always difficult, especially if an attempt is to be made to tap the values of the past. An intriguing attempt to measure the motives of an ancient culture has been reported by McClelland (1958). He has developed a method of assessing achievement motivation in a culture by content analysis of literary products of the culture. Using this tool he found striking confirmation for his hypothesis that achievement motivation preceded the economic and technological development of Athenian civilization in classical Greece, a culture also discussed by Riesman. McClelland’s measure of motivation was developed originally to assess the motives of individuals (McClelland, Atkinson, Clark, & Lowell, 1953). The extension of it to apply to cultures raises questions as to what is being measured. McClelland (1958) has argued that his content analysis of documents produced by the culture will give a measure of the level of specific types of motivation within the culture if the documents are carefully selected to reduce effects of other obviously important variables. The best support for this argument derives from a study which demonstrated that content analysis of American Indian folk tales relates to content analysis of stories obtained from individuals in the manner used originally to validate the measure for studying individual motives (McClelland & Friedman, 1952). It is obvious that a measure which has been shown to be related to individual motives would be expected to reflect the motives of the writer of any document chosen from a culture. In order to use such a measure as an indication of cultural orientation one does not have to assume that the motive score of an individual author is a measure of the cultural orientation alone. One must, however, assume that a portion of the score is a measure of the cultural orientation. The problem of reducing idiosyncratic components in the measure of cultural orientation becomes one of (a) sampling randomly many authors (b) under as similar conditions as possible (i.e., writing similar material) and (c) choosing materials which should place few restrictions on the author’s fantasy. All of the above advantages can be obtained by careful sampling of stories written for children’s readers. In addition, the stories are actually written to be used in transmitting cultural values, and information on how widely they have been used gives at once some indication of cultural acceptance of the values contained in the book and of the extent of its influence. An example of the use of children’s readers to assess values in many cultures has been presented by McClelland (1961). The schema presented above predicts a relationship between cultural achievement orientation and behavior of the members of the culture which would lead to technological advance. Just as one might predict that an

26   Richard Decharms and Gerald H. Moeller

individual with high achievement motivation might strive for some unique accomplishment, one might also predict that a culture with strong achievement orientation would produce many inventions. A measure of the inventiveness of the culture at various periods in history might be obtained from the number of patents issued per population, and one could predict a relationship between this and a measure of cultural achievement orientation.

Hypotheses The present study is an attempt to plot the incidence of achievement and affiliation imagery and moral teaching in a sample of children’s readers from 1800 to the present. In addition, achievement imagery is to be related to data on the number of patents issued per population. Hypothesis I. The incidence of achievement imagery in a sample of children’s readers selected over the period 1800–1950 will decrease over the time period. Hypothesis II. The incidence of affiliation imagery in the same sample of readers will increase over the time period. Hypothesis III. The incidence of moral teaching in the sample will decrease over the time period. Hypothesis IV. The incidence of achievement imagery will be positively related to the number of patents issued, corrected for changes in population. The hypotheses assume, with Riesman, that the nineteenth century in the United States was dominated by the inner-­directed character type. Riesman is not specific as to dates, but it would appear that the early period of the century witnessed the transition from the tradition-­directed character type and that the United States has recently been in transition from an inner-­directed phase to an other-­directed phase.

Method A bibliography of reading textbooks with copyright dates ranging from 1800 to 1952 was compiled. An attempt was made to procure at least four books from each 20-year period beginning in 1800. Readers were excluded which were not in wide use2 during the period or which were used by religious affiliated schools. In the more recent periods from which more than four books were available, the choice of books was made randomly. In the periods in which fewer than four books were available the sample from each book was enlarged in so far as possible. Generally, the sample from each book was obtained by scoring every third page. It was found that the number of words per page was sufficiently similar throughout the total sample to allow use of the page itself as the scoring unit.

Values in American Children’s Readers   27

In order to equate for number of pages available the score was the number of pages containing imagery per 75 pages sampled. A raw score was thus computed for every 75 pages sampled (i.e., 25 pages scored). The readers chosen for the study were, generally speaking, at a fourth grade level. During the nineteenth century many readers were designated in ways which had no relevance to grade level or, as in some cases, grade level was quite different from that of contemporary American readers in which the vocabulary is based on standard word lists. In some instances it was necessary to use the Dale and Chall (1948) formula3 for predicting readability to determine whether the readers might be allowed in the study. The pages selected from each book were scored independently by two scorers as to whether the page contained (a) achievement imagery, (b) affiliation imagery, or (c) a category called moral teaching. Achievement and affiliation imagery were scored according to the procedure outlined in Atkinson (1958). The subcategories usually scored in this procedure were not scored. The category Moral Teaching was developed and defined as explicit or implicit statements of judgment between right and wrong from the point of view of the author. The following (McGuffey, 1857) are examples of items which were scored for moral teaching: The little boy took care of his faithful dog as long as he lived and never forgot that we must do good to others, if we wish them to do the same to us. (p. 42) Now that is the way with a great many thought less, quick tempered people. They try to find fault with somebody or something else, and get into a passion, and perhaps do mischief, when, if they would but reflect a little, it is their own dear selves who ought to bear the blame. (p. 47) Scorer reliabilities, based on presence of imagery only, were consistently high (Achievement Imagery = 94%, Affiliation Imagery = 96%, Moral Teaching = 97%). The number of patents issued by the United States Patent Office and the United States Census figures were taken from governmental documents (United States Department of Commerce, 1960) and a patent index was computed by dividing the number of patents granted in a 20-year period by the population reported in the midyear of that period and multiplying by one million. This results in an index of patents issued per one million population during the period. There are two methodological flaws in the procedure which it was felt might have had an effect on the results. In the first place, the technique of blind scoring was not employed. The scoring was done directly from the book and it was therefore probable that the scorer knew the date of the book. The

28   Richard Decharms and Gerald H. Moeller

effect of this knowledge cannot be assessed. A second methodological flaw lies in the sampling procedure. Systematic samples were taken from each book and the books were chosen as representative and in wide use. However, since each score was based on 75 pages of text, some books were more heavily weighted than others and the individual values of their authors might have unduly influenced the results. In order to correct these methodological flaws it was decided to repeat the study with a drastically smaller sample. A sample of 6 pages was chosen at random from each book. The sampling of books followed the same criteria as those used in the first sample. Four books were selected from each period except the periods 1800–1819 and 1820–1839 where only two were available. The books from these two periods were double sampled. Scores on each variable were assigned to each book giving four scores for each of the eight periods thus resolving the ambiguities of sampling in the first study. The sample had to be drastically cut since the pages were typed and coded for blind scoring. (A total of 192 pages were scored independently by two scorers in the replication whereas 2,375 pages were scored in the first study.) The same number of typed lines were taken starting with each page which had been drawn randomly. Whenever available different books were selected for the second sample. It was anticipated that since this was a much smaller sample than the first the results would not be as statistically significant. It was felt that general trends in the same direction would validate the statistically significant findings of the first sample. Actually, plots of the results of the two studies are almost identical and statistical significance was reached in most instances in the second study, although, as anticipated, the probability levels were not as great as in the first. This comparison of the two replications gives greater confidence in the results of the first study. The data presented here come from the first study. Statistical analyses will be presented for both studies.

Results Table 3.1 presents the mean imagery scores for achievement, affiliation, and moral teaching in each of the 20-year periods. Figures 3.1 and 3.2 are graphic presentations of these data. Hypothesis I predicted a consistent decrease in achievement imagery. The data (see Table 3.1 and Figure 3.1) show a sharp decline since 1890, but a steady increase from 1800 to the peak at about 1890. The second sample showed almost an identical curve with consistent increase up to about 1890 and then a sharp decline. The data of both samples show a significant relationship between amount of imagery and date (First sample, F = 8.09, df = 7/87, p