Turn to page 53 of your McGuffey Reader

In Digital Libraries class this week, we're exploring actual digital libraries. For an example of a book-oriented Digital Library, I discovered these 19th Century Schoolbooks. I'm a bit of a romantic about both learning and about the 19th century. No need to apologize for the former, but I am aware that sustaining romantic notions about the 19th century requires selective attention. So, I was actually surprised by how charming these schoolbooks are.

Take a look at this page, for example. I could imagine a modern first grade teacher having little difficulty teaching from that. Besides learning to read and write the words "cat" and "dog", we could draw cats and dogs, use the drawings to count and add and subtract cats and dogs, and tell stories about cats and dogs. A delightful day for a six year old. Or anyone. Maybe I'll go draw a cat right now....     #

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