Triumphs and wonders of the 19th century, the true mirror of a phenomenal era, a volume of original, entertaining and instructive historic and descriptive writings, showing the many and marvellous achievements which distinguish an hundred years of material, intellectual, social and moral progress .. . to use books which would teach moral books, containing creeds and hymns and catechisms, might be usedin the school for study. Then there were the primers or books to teach theABC. The famous New England Primer was published in the latter partof the seventeenth century. Later editio
Triumphs and wonders of the 19th century, the true mirror of a phenomenal era, a volume of original, entertaining and instructive historic and descriptive writings, showing the many and marvellous achievements which distinguish an hundred years of material, intellectual, social and moral progress .. . to use books which would teach moral books, containing creeds and hymns and catechisms, might be usedin the school for study. Then there were the primers or books to teach theABC. The famous New England Primer was published in the latter partof the seventeenth century. Later editions contained rhyming couplets uponeach letter of the alphabet, illustrated with such imagery as the art wouldallow. A page from the Childs Guide, published in London in 1762, isshown on page 527. Its verses were easily memorized, and sometimes gave abasis for a spelling lesson. There were no graded readers until this century. Writing in some neighborhoods was taught only to boys, on the generalground that it was an unnecessary accomplishment for the sex which neverengaged in business. Ink was home-made from bruised nutgalls placed in abottle with water and rusty nails. The writing was done with a quill pen,and one of the foremost duties of the old-fashioned pedagogue was to makeand mend INTERIOR OF SCHOOLROOM. SLEEPY HOLLOW. N. (Courtesy of The School Journal, New York.) The master set the copies by writing a lesson which was to be imitated bythe pupils. There was no set style, but usually the teacher wrote a bold,legible hand which in time was acquired with a fair degree of success. 526 TRIUMPHS AND WONDERS OF THE XIXth CENTURY Arithmetic was taught without text-books. Sums were given out by themaster and worked out on paper on the desk. Nothing but the more rudi-mentary principles was taught, and the higher branches of algebra andgeometry were unknown in the public schools of this time. Spelling wasone of the favorite studies. It gave free scope for the memory, and pro
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