McGuffey and His Readers: Piety, morality, and education in nineteenth-century America

by John H. Westerhoff III

Learn about William McGuffey and the impact his readers had on the piety, morality and education in 19th century America.

Genres: Biography, Education

216 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1978

Reviews

[Christine Norvell]

Westerhoff provides a fascinating context for the idea of public education, a new concept in 1820s America. He describes William McGuffey's life and how he aimed for a middle ground in education, a place where diverse Americans could come together around shared values. Among education reformers like McGuffey, democracy depended on educated, virtuous citizens so states must fund common schools. Overall, it was a quick and informational read.

[Ben Bookman]

What original content the book contains is interesting. Yet more than half the book is chunks of other things just added whole. Including examples of writings or the readers would be fine, with context or analysis. But it felt like a brief essay on the man and then many pages of random selections jumbled together. Worth reading the brief biography section, but just not enough there to be a whole book.

[Jeff]

I must admit I didn't finish this book. A large section toward the end includes some sample pages from various editions of the Readers, and some essays by McGuffey. I may at some point see if I can track down a copy of one or more of the complete Readers, but I wasn't inclined to read extensive sections at this time. With that said, the information Mr. Westerhoff provides on McGuffey is quite impressive. He helps us to understand the mindset that brought about the Readers, the comparison to other children's educational books of the time, and the change in the McGuffey Readers as America changed in our views of God, the Bible, and morality. Most people who view those Readers today would be shocked at the overt presence of those three now largely forbidden & ridiculed terms. Not to mention how far advanced in education student's were in those days compared to our current age. Perhaps McGuffey was overly didactic in his approach, and perhaps he focused too much on the judgment of God over His love and grace, but we can only keep wondering what our society might look like today had we not shifted so far from those lessons.

[Rae]

An interesting and short biography of the man who created the readers used in most American schools for quite a long time. They were full of Christian principles that would never be seen in schools today. "Progress" is not always a good thing.

[Barbara]

Very interesting perspective on curriculum used in the 1800's in our schools vs now...