Dick and Jane

[Christianbookworm]

For some reason, my 34 month old niece actually likes those stories! Even though the were written before her grandparents were born. Did anyone here actually learn how to read from these? I don't remember how I was taught how to read, but it certainly wasn't with Dick and Jane. The simplistic stories could only appeal to a two-year old. Apparently this is how kids from 1930-1970 were taught how to read. Maybe that's why many baby boomers I know don't like to read as much as me. Or they just don't have the time.

[mossrose]

[Faber]

I learned from them in the late 1950s. I have a couple of them in my library.

It portrayed a fantasy world where everybody belonged in a white upper-middle-class family with both parents. Nobody was divorced and nobody did drugs or alcohol. Fathers smoked pipes, however.

[Christianbookworm]

Yes? Did you have to read those? The stories don't look like they would appeal to school age children.

[Sparko]

spot was my favorite. he was silly. see spot? see spot run? run, spot, run!

[Catholicity]

My sister loved spot books....

[rogue06]

I learned from them in the late 1950s. I have a couple of them in my library.

It portrayed a fantasy world where everybody belonged in a white upper-middle-class family with both parents. Nobody was divorced and nobody did drugs or alcohol. Fathers smoked pipes, however.

IOW, pretty much like most TV shows from the 50s to late 60s. And society is so much better now that we don't have people on TV who can act as a positive role model for others to look up to and aspire to be like.

Today they would likely have Dick incessantly telling everyone how he's an atheist and vegan then putting on a dress and following a group of girls into the bathroom while Jane would be a militant lesbian who gets pregnant through artificial insemination just so she can exercise her 'right' to have an abortion.





Sorry. Rough morning.

[Jedidiah]

I don't remember exactly how I learned to read. A lot was from laying on the floor in front of the radio on Sunday reading the "funny paper" along with Puck the Comic Weekly man. I also pestered my folks to tell me what every billboard* said. When I entered school they put me in the lowest reading group with Dick and Jane. One day the teacher (in our one room first through sixth grades) caught me reading a sixth grade book.

My daughter learned to read the same way I did, more or less. She would read the newspaper and ask, "What does ####### spell." Soon she stopped asking as she had learned them all.

* We had lots of billboards around in those days. If you don't know what billboards are try google.

[mossrose]

Melmak taught himself to read, I guess. We read to him a lot, and thought he had just memorized books we had read over and over.

Until a doctor gave him a book one day that Melmak had never read before, and the doctor informed us he could read.

He was 4.

[Cow Poke]

spot was my favorite. he was silly. see spot? see spot run? run, spot, run!

See, that's the beauty of Dick and Jane... the story line builds nicely. Run, run, run!

[Christianbookworm]

See, that's the beauty of Dick and Jane... the story line builds nicely. Run, run, run!

No one talks like the kids in the books do. And why is Sally called a baby when she can walk and talk?

[Cow Poke]

No one talks like the kids in the books do. And why is Sally called a baby when she can walk and talk?

My BABY sister is 47 years old!

[Christianbookworm]

My BABY sister is 47 years old!

I know she is the baby of the family.

[Abigail]

Yep we learned to read from a mixture of these and a few others. We also used to have a 15 minute slot at the end of the day where the teacher would read us stories and over the primary school years we worked our way through a lot of Enid Blyton who is now practically banished. Fairy Tales, Faraway Tree, Magic Wishing Chair, Famous Five, Secret Seven , Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys

[Cow Poke]

Yep we learned to read from a mixture of these and a few others. We also used to have a 15 minute slot at the end of the day where the teacher would read us stories and over the primary school years we worked our way through a lot of Enid Blyton who is now practically banished. Fairy Tales, Faraway Tree, Magic Wishing Chair, Famous Five, Secret Seven , Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys

We started our day with a pledge to the flat, then prayer time, including prayer requests from students, then the teacher would read from a story. I most clearly remember Brighty of the Grand Canyon - Mrs Ludlow read with such flair!