Vintage Curriculum

I really love old textbooks and educational resources. They give a fascinating snapshot of what our culture considered important for children and others to learn at that time in history.

My treasure stack includes:

• Froebel’s Kindergarten Principles Critically Examined by William Heard Kilpatrick, Ph.D, c)1916
• Modern Education in Europe and the Orient by David E. Cloyd, Ph.B., M.A., c) 1917
• The Junior High School by Thomas H. Briggs, c)1920
• Child Life and the Curriculum by Junius L. Meriam, Ph.D., c)1921
• Supervision in Secondary Schools by Harl R. Douglas and Charles W. Boardman c)1934
• C. R. C. Standard Mathematical Tables- Editor in Chief Charles D. Hodgman, M.S. 11th Edition c)1957 by the Chemical Rubber Publishing Company

A couple of years ago I found this English course- The Career Institute Course in Practical English c)1951 by Thelma A. Farison, Ph.B. of the Career Institute Inc., Mundelein, Illinois, and A New Self Teaching Course in Practical English and Effective Speech c)1930 by Estelle B. Hunter, Ph.B. of The Better-Speech Institute of America, Chicago, Illinois.

It’s great- we have to do it for school. Here’s a blurb from Lesson One page 21:

THE OMNIBUS WORD “FUNNY”

For the next week concentrate on another omnibus word, the adjective funny. You recognize at one how greatly this word is overworked. You see a funny play; you know a funny person; you hear a funny story; your soup tastes funny; a man acts funny, and so on indefinitely.

Funny is used in two distinctive ways: (1) to mean amusing; (2) to mean queer or odd. Let us first consider synonyms to use in place of funny when we mean amusing. Read the following list and see whether you know how to use each word in its exact meaning.

laughable, absurd, comical, ridiculous, humorous, waggish, ludicrous, whimsical, entertaining, droll, quizzical, diverting, amusing, burlesque, enlivening

And so it goes. Oh my, has the English language changed in the last 50 years. Waggish? Burlesque?

There is a poem on page 16 in the Lesson Two book by Oliver Wendell Holmes:

As a final drill on enunciation, read this short stanza from a humorous poem by Oliver Wendell Holes. It contains some sound advice regarding enunciation:

Once more: speak clearly, if you speak at all;

Carve every word before you it fall;

Don’t, like a lecturer or dramatic star,

Try over hard to roll the British R;

Do put your accents in the proper spot;

Don’t-let me beg you- don’t say “How?” for “What?”

And, when you stick on conversation’s burrs,

Don’t strew your pathway with those dreadful ur’s.

We are going to enjoy using this course to learn about just how fluid our language really is. Like, way cool.