Middle School Reading Lists 100 Years Ago vs. Today

Better Ed ^ | Annie Holmquist

[Morgana]

I recently dug up a 1908 curriculum manual in the Minnesota Historical Society archives. It provided instructions on everything from teacher deportment to recommended literature lists for various grades. As a book lover, I was especially interested in the latter!

With the exception of a few textbook-like anthologies, the chart below lists the recommended reading material for Minnesota 7th and 8th graders in 1908:

[Morgana]

FYI

[GeronL]

bump

thanks

[2ndDivisionVet]

Take this 1931 8th grade test (you will probably flunk)
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/history/take-this-1931-8th-grade-gradu.html

Examination for Common-School Diplomas.

RURAL SCHOOLS.

Saturday, April 6, 1918.
http://www.kansasheritage.org/orsh/library/final_exam.html

1912 Eighth Grade Examination for Bullitt County Schools
http://www.bullittcountyhistory.com/bchistory/schoolexam1912.html

[MaxMax]

The comparison is astounding. The old books were written in such a way as to intrigue the reader
and to stimulate the imagination. The new books are nothing but John meets Jane. Simplistic and stale.

How this generation will communicate meaning will be a problem.

[GrootheWanderer]

Leave aside for a second questions about which list is better from an educational perspective. That earlier list just looks like it would be so much more interesting to a boy in his early teens. Maybe to a girl as well, but I can’t speak from experience there.

[Vinylly]

I was a substitute teacher once for a middle school reading class. I was told to pass out comic book for the kids to read. I was appalled. My mother was a teacher and she had a copy of MacGuffie's Fifth Reader for fifth graders. What they taught then and what they teach now is unbelievable. Not only that but just about every other story was from the Bible and they included Shakespeare and other classic literature.

[Benito Cereno]

I don’t think you’ve read much young adult literature recently, if that is your opinion. The YA genre is flooded with wonderfully engaging characters and story lines. Give some of them a try before condemning them. Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, the Divergent series, these are all very engaging books for older elementary and junior high kids. Now, what none of these books do is try to inculcate the Judeo-Christian mores and ethics, or the American story that we were taught, but they all certainly speak to big themes like courage, curiosity, and character. I would love to see some author take the imagination and fast pace of The Hunger Games and tie it in with an American/Christian perspective, but I haven’t found anyone who has been able to do that well.

[AnAmericanMother]

That's a pretty fair test.

The history is straightforward, so is the literature, but heavy on the New England School (I had never HEARD of Maud Muller, though. I looked it up, it's Whittier (who has gone out of fashion now) and it contains the catchphrase "the saddest words of tongue or pen. . ." Always knew that, never knew where it came from. But now I know.

I would have to really use up a bunch of paper on the math, and there are some obsolete concepts, but again it seems fair.

[DJ MacWoW]

In 8th grade, (1963/64) I was reading Girl of the Limberlost and Freckles by Gene Stratton Porter for book reports. I think one was written about 1904. I’d have to check.

[chalkfarmer]

www.capitolchoices.org is my “go to” site. My kids are currently reading The Giver and most them are begging for A Gathering of Blue and The Messenger. I just want them to read! I find middle school students lack stamina when it comes to reading, but if you find something they like...they're hooked. I had a sixth grade boy stand up and give an impromptu book testimony for Maze Runner last week! I try to spend my funds on books that kids love. They do disappear..

[AnAmericanMother]

Just the fact that you're putting forward stuff like the Hunger Games and Harry Potter (which is just a typical British school story dressed up a little) as appropriate reading material shows how barren the field is of good literature. Things like the Jennings books, or their female equivalent The Chalet School stories, were read in off hours, not in class.

Any RLS should be very engaging. Treasure Island is the classic, but I'm a minority opinion for Kidnapped. The sequel, Catriona (or David Balfour in America) is a political thriller and probably too deep, as well as having an entire chapter in the thickest of Lothian dialect.

Kipling's later stories are too tough (and the themes too adult) for junior high, but his Jungle Book and some of the Plain Tales would be perfect. I would even give the kids a shot at Beowulf in a modern translation, and the boys should eat Fagles' translation of the Iliad up (in metered doses).

And before you say I'm being unrealistic, I taught a unit on Greek history to my daughter's 7th grade history class. The kids memorized the first six lines of the Iliad in Greek, and we chanted them (a hobby of my first Greek teacher, who also had some odd theories about pronunciation) . . . then we looked at several very different translations and discussed the compromises made by translators. We talked about what it was like in the time of Homer's heroes, and how they were about as far from the Greeks of Classical Athens as we are from the Norman Conquest. Talked about Heinrich Schliemann and his belief that the story of the Iliad was real, and how he went about proving it . . . passed around replicas of the Mask of Agamemnon and a Bronze Age sword (boys loved that), then we dressed up in Greek attire and ate baklava.

They had a ball.

[AnAmericanMother]

Gene Stratton Porter is an undersung writer.

The scene in "Laddie" where her little brother recites apropos Bible verses in meeting is absolutely riveting.

[DJ MacWoW]

I agree. Few people know her work. I also own The Harvester and Her Father’s Daughter. I didn’t like Her Father’s Daughter at all. Very racist and angry. Nasty book.

[Jane Long]

Good article. The comments, following the article, are rather heated and quite entertaining.

[workerbee]

Is ANYthing written less than 75-100 yrs ago automatically disqualified as good? I read the Potter series, and I really enjoyed it, as did my two oldests (my youngest just started them). I enjoyed the Hunger Games series. Not to be snarky, it just seems this is “one of those topics”...

[AnAmericanMother]

She was really worried about the Yellow Peril, wasn't she? It hurt the book. A lot. Plot was contrived, too.

(of course, given what we have learned about Japanese spies in the U.S. prior to WWII, she may not have been ALL wrong. I think Midwesterners who move to California find it very disorienting.)

She was much better when she wrote about what she knew and loved -- the wild places of Indiana (doesn't that sound funny?)

[workerbee]

I would love to see some author take the imagination and fast pace of The Hunger Games and tie it in with an American/Christian perspective

Agree!

[P.O.E.]

Thanks.

I had the "Readers Digest" books for kids set as a young'un read plenty of classics, albeit abridged.

Later in life, I went back and re-read the unabridged for several of them

Also had this set:

[Benito Cereno]

Thanks for the website; I’ll check it out.