The Heart of Unaga, by Ridgewell Cullum. Published 1920.
Thanks to Mary Meehan for post-processing this project!
The Heart of Unaga
November 30th, 2007 | Project Gutenberg
1920, Fiction
Fundamentals of Prosperity
May 17th, 2007 | Project Gutenberg
1920, Nonfiction
Fundamentals of Prosperity: What They Are and Whence They Come, by Roger W. Babson. Published 1920.
Punctuation
March 11th, 2007 | Project Gutenberg
1920, Nonfiction
Punctuation: A Primer of Information about the Marks of Punctuation and their use both Grammatically and Typographically, by Fredrick W. Hamilton. Published 1920.
This book, like the others in this series, is riddled with typographic errors. I suppose it may have been set by apprentices… Thanks to Sigal Alon for her patience in post-processing this project!
On Education
January 3rd, 2005 | Excerpts, Same Today
1920, DP, Fragments
by Francis B. Pearson
In planning a journey the one constant is the destination. All the other elements are variable, and, therefore, subordinate. So, also, in planning a course of study. The qualities to be developed through the educational processes are the constants, while the agencies by which these qualities are to be attained are subject to change. The course of study provides for the school activities for the child for a period of twelve years, and it is altogether pertinent to inquire what qualities we hope to develop by means of these school activities. To do this effectively we must visualize the pupil when he emerges from the school period and ask ourselves what qualities we hope to have him possess at the close of this period. If we decide upon such qualities as imagination, initiative, aspiration, appreciation, courage, loyalty, reverence, a sense of responsibility, integrity, and serenity, we have discovered some of the constants toward which all the work of the twelve years must be directed. In planning a course of study toward these constants we do not restrict the scope of the pupil’s activities; quite the reverse. We thus enlarge the concept of education both for himself and his teachers and emphasize the fact that education is a continuous process and may not be marked by grades or subjects. For the teachers we establish goals of school endeavor and thus unify and articulate all their efforts. We focus their attention upon the pupil as they would all wish to see him when he completes the work of the school.
The Toziers’ First Collaborative Effort for Project Gutenberg.
The Reconstructed School is a small book aimed at normal school educators (teachers of teachers), which is rather progressive in its outlook. It calls for teaching students to become global citizens, and questions the educational system’s focus on grades and standardized tests
Francis B. Pearson is a hard man to find on the web. He was an educator in Ohio, and may have worked in my hometown of Columbus.
A Librarian’s Open Shelf
September 10th, 2004 | Project Gutenberg
1920, Nonfiction
A Librarian’s Open Shelf, by Arthur E. Bostwick. Blogging in books — the opinions of a librarian.
Clubwomen’s Reading
August 25th, 2004 | Excerpts, Same Today
1920, DP, Fragments
by Arthur Elmore Bostwick
The effort of the text-book writer, as well as that of the maker of programmes, lists, and courses, appears to have been to produce what he calls a “well-rounded” effect; in other words, to make the student think that the whole subject–in condensed form perhaps, but still the whole–lies within what he has turned out. Did you ever see a chemistry that gave, or tried to give, an idea of the world of chemical knowledge that environs its board cover? One has to become a Newton before he feels, with that sage, like a child, playing on the sands, with the great, unexplored ocean of knowledge stretching out before him. Most students are rather like ducks in a barn-yard puddle, quite sure that they are familiar with the whole world and serene in that knowledge.
One of today’s DP finds. What I’ve been able to glean so far (reading only about every 4th page) is that Mr Bostwick was unhappy with how women’s clubs focused on topics that were supposed to be “good for you” rather than on what interested the members. He also decried the (fallacious) notion that a textbook was the sum of all knowledge in a subject, and the selling of same notion to women’s clubs program chairs.
But what is Bostwick’s point? Is he saying that the clubwomen shouldn’t be studying this stuff becuase they lack the intelligence? Or is he just trying to get them to study the stuff that interests them, rather than topics that some program-sellers say are “good for them”? I suppose I’ll have to wait to read the whole essay when it comes out on PG.
We recently found an old program for a women’s club in Bill’s father’s papers. It had been for his (Bill’s) grandmother’s club in Oregon ca. 1917. I’d never known there was such a thing as a club to meet to discuss economics, etc in tiny western towns in the early 20th century. Apparently they were rather common, and promoted heavily during the self-help craze that started in the late 1800’s and continues to this day.
How did we get to be so insecure as to read books that we don’t like simply because they’re good for us, or will tell us the secrets of success, or will help us lose weight, or will make us more gender-ly people? It’s fun to read the old ones from the 1800’s and early 1900’s (with tiles like What a Man of 45 Ought To Know), but sad, also to realize that we are just the same. Not only didn’t our generation invent sex, we didn’t invent social anxiety, either.
Society for Pure English Tract III
May 1st, 2004 | Project Gutenberg
1920, Nonfiction
Society for Pure English Tract III. For example: “Chid and chidden should be taught, and chode and chided condemned as illiterate.”