Education: A Modern McGuffey

Early in the 20th century, the sternly preachy anthologies called McGuffey’s Eclectic Readers faded out of the American classroom. Ever since, many elementary-school teachers have been stumped by the problem of instructing pupils in moral themes without committing the modern sin of sermonizing.

The problem now appears solved by a set of morals-based readers called the Golden Rule Series, published by the American Book Co. of New York City. Subtitle of the series: the Modern McGuffey Readers. Wary of its competitors, American is keeping mum about its total sales. But, says contented President Grant Houston Brown: “We haven’t had such an immediate acceptance in 30 years.”

Right or Wrong. The major difference between the old McGuffey and the new is the technique of teaching moral principles. McGuffey did not hesitate to spell out the point of his stories: e.g., the idle boy is almost invariably poor and miserable; the industrious boy is happy and prosperous. Dr. Ullin W. Leavell, “senior author” of the Modern McGuffey Readers, realized that today’s schoolboy is too sophisticated to sit still for such out-of-date preaching. The Golden Rule Series only suggests the principle in its stories, lets the teacher bring out the point in discussions. The stories are built around eleven moral themes selected by Leavell and American Book: cooperation, courage, fairness, friendliness, honesty, kindness, patriotism, perseverance, responsibility, reverence and unselfishness.

Ullin Leavell (rhymes with revel) was an obvious choice to oversee the Modern McGuffey. He heads the McGuffey Reading Clinic at the University of Virginia, where McGuffey himself taught for 28 years (1845-73). Leavell even owes his first name of Ullin to McGuffey. His parents were especially fond of Thomas Campbell’s poem Lord Ullin’s Daughter, which they had read as children in a McGuffey reader. For years Leavell has argued for a new version of old values. “It takes no more time to teach the child the phrase ‘right or wrong,'” he says, “than it does ‘quack, quack.’ “

Funny & Serious. Impetus for the series came from the late Texas Publisher-Philanthropist Clyde E. Palmer, a loyal McGuffey old grad. The Palmer Foundation is underwriting $200,000 of the capital costs of the series, gets in return a 4% royalty. American Book started the series in 1956 with readers for the fourth, fifth and sixth grades, this summer brought out books for the first three grades. In 1959: volumes for seventh-and eighth-graders.

Optimistically, Brown and Editor Walter M. Mason hope that the Golden Rule Series will help curb juvenile delinquency by exposing pupils to their eleven themes. So far, at least, the children are meeting them halfway. In Cincinnati public schools, which bought sets of books for their fourth, fifth, and sixth grades, boys and girls are even reading the Modern McGuffey on their own time. The favorable reaction of one fifth-grade girl: “Things that are funny really are funny, and things that are serious really are serious.”