OLD-TIME SCHOOLS AND SCHOOL-BOOKS - online book

An Illustrated history & description Of Schools in the 18th & 19th Centurys.

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	270 Old-time Schools and School-books About 1790 Webster published another reader, a square little book called The Little Reader s Assist­ant. It contained " familiar ftories in plain lan­guage for the benefit of children, when they firft begin to read without fpelling." In other words, it was a middle-class reader. A good many years were still to pass before any one would devise a primary reader. The first part of Webster's book is largely
	Story of COLUMBUS. From The Little Reader's Assistant. a relation of the early settlers' experiences with the Indians. No details are too grewsome to be omitted, and the effect on the imaginations of " Little Readers" could not have been altogether salutary; for the stories were sure to be recalled whenever a child had to encounter alone the mysteri­ous dusk of evening or the gloom of night. The book has the honor to be the earliest reader to use