Frederick R. Smith Speaks: McGuffey’s Eclectic Reader

Frederick R Smith has moved to Frederick R. Smith Speaks (substack.com)

The wonderful series of schoolbooks called the McGuffey’s Eclectic Readers are virtually unknown to the vast majority of people. What is more disturbing is the fact that our teachers today have never heard of McGuffey. Why? The professionals controlling our schools (for lack of a better word) regard the Eclectic Readers as outmoded historical objects from the 19th century. McGuffey’s works are indeed something to scorn as his books provided students with a Christian worldview along with solid morals, values, and principles. Cannot have such things today; this would be a breach of the worshiped wall of separation.

The above aside, the most important consideration with respect to McGuffey’s Readers is the fact is that they are all about something that the school system frowns upon – students reading good wholesome material. In addition, our school system has failed to give people the tools necessary for learning beyond the classroom. Specifically, the ability to read, understand and think. The reading crisis is the direct result of a century of radical educational experimentation. Every day the news abounds with facts about the terrible state of our education system. Unfortunately, just like the church scandal, the mainstream only reports the surface of the educational crisis, not the core of the problem.

Enter one William Holmes McGuffey (1800-1873) the creator of the Eclectic Readers who was known as “the schoolmaster to the nation.” He was born into a Scottish-Irish family in western Pennsylvania. As a youngster, his devout Presbyterian family moved to Ohio. In 1826, William graduated from college then worked in various teaching positions. He quickly rose to the rank of professor of ancient languages at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.

It was during the 1830s that the Cincinnati, Ohio publisher Truman and Smith approached Catherine Beecher [1] with a request to author a series of readers. Beecher declined but recommended William who agreed to develop four readers. He completed the task in just two years and in 1836-37 the four Readers plus a “Primer” got into the hands of teachers.

After completing the first editions of the readers, the noble McGuffey was ordained as a Presbyterian minister and he also served as president of two colleges in Ohio. In 1845 he moved to the Old Dominion and became a professor of moral philosophy at the University of Virginia.

By the time of McGuffey’s death in Virginia (1873), up to 50 million sets of his books found their way to teachers and students. Nevertheless, he never received more than the original amount supplied for writing the readers - $1,000.

After his death, the Readers continued to be a success, and William’s younger brother Alexander (1816-1896) sustained the excellent work by writing the Fifth and Sixth readers. He also authored the McGuffey Eclectic Speller. The Readers continued in wide use after the death of Alexander.

The Readers dominated education from 1836 through to the 1920s. More than 120 million copies of the Reader were sold during this period. As such, they were one of the most widely used works of literature of this period as many as half the children learned to read the “McGuffey way.” Furthermore, the Readers gave students a common sense of experience through knowledge of our founding history and culture. The Readers influenced many of our influential figures from the past in a positive way. For example, Teddy Roosevelt was known to use the phrase “Meddlesome Mary” about some of our governmental shenanigans. He was referring to a character named Matilda [2].

Today, a person who does not know about McGuffey who first picks up a set of the Readers is bewildered by the elevated level of reading, particularly in the Fifth and Sixth books. Even the college student of today would have difficulty studying the contents of these two Readers. The Readers, originally designed for one-room schoolhouses, helped children from age six to late teens who shared the same teacher. In this setting, learning was natural, and each pupil advanced at his or her own pace. So, there was no collectivist educational system with a penchant for “social studies.” McGuffey’s Readers offered an array of great American and English literature. Selections included the Bible (uh oh), poems by Byron, Milton, Wordsworth, Poe, Shakespeare, etc. The Readers also included a range of texts from the works of such greats as James Fennimore Cooper and Blackstone.

Instead of inflammatory rhetoric, the Readers used a more reasonable method to teach about the evils of slavery. For example, in a lesson called “The Birds Set Free,” a rich man approaches a boy who is selling caged birds for 50 cents apiece. The man then buys all the birds and he lets them loose. The man explains to the boy; “I was shut up three years in a French prison, as a prisoner of war, and I am resolved to never see anything in prison which I can make free.” As for morals, values, and principles, the Readers throughout each book hold tales and lessons about the importance of charity, hard work, and honesty.

Teachers throughout America used McGuffey Readers up to the end of World War I. It was during this period that John Dewey as head of the Teachers College at Columbia University (1904 to 1930) and his colleagues started an assault on traditional American education. It was also during this time that the public education system started to inculcate our children to be socialist members of a one-world citizenry.

The frontal assault aside, the McGuffey Readers have enjoyed the enthusiastic support of many important people in addition to Teddy Roosevelt. Henry Ford who left school at the age of 15 had credited the McGuffey Readers for his success. In 1932, Ford bought the log cabin where William Holmes McGuffey was born. Later he moved it to his famous Americana museum at Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan where it is on display to this day.

Today, the Readers are making a comeback but obviously not in the educational (sic) system. Private schools and home school aficionados find the Readers to be the most important and effective true educational instrument, bar none. Any attempt to introduce the McGuffey Readers into government schools would surely bring on the knee jerk reaction of “right-wing Christian plot.” The postmodern liberal Pavlov Dog reaction aside, thank you, William Holmes McGuffey.

Notes:

Sister of the famous Reverend Lyman Beecher. The Beecher name is well known due to Lyman’s daughter Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) who was the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which helped stimulate the abolitionist cause and contributed to the outbreak of the Civil War. Harriet was the sixth child born to Lyman Beecher and his first wife. Reverend Beecher was a conscientious Presbyterian, unwavering in his social and religious beliefs. He inculcated his children with a sense of social justice for everyone, including women and blacks. Lyman Beecher was, however, an opponent of Roman Catholicism.
“Meddlesome Mary” was a reference to a character named Matilda who appeared in a humorous poem in the Fourth Reader “Matty” who was a curious little girl, could not keep her nose out of her Grandmother’s snuffbox.

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Author and Publisher, Frederick R. Smith
Editor, Sean Tinney

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