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Note: Frederick Hagar Birth: 1800 Married: 1 Margaret Hinkle Marriage: 27 November 1818 in Lincoln County, North Carolina Children Arron Hagar b: 1 January 1821 in Lincoln County, North Carolina American Minute with Bill Federer September 23rd Imagine writing a book which would sell a million copies a year for over one hundred years! Well, one man did. His name was William Holmes McGuffey, born this day, September 23, 1800. Considered the "Schoolmaster of the Nation," McGuffey's Readers were the mainstay of America's public school system from 1836 till the 1920's. McGuffey was the president of Ohio University and formed the first teachers' association in that part of the nation. In his Fifth Eclectic Reader, William McGuffey wrote: "Erase all thought and fear of God from a community, and selfishness and sensuality would absorb the whole man." Born the same year as Frederick Hagar, William Holmes McGuffey, wrote McGuffey's Readers. They were used to teach chilfdren in school for many years. They taught the fundamentals of living a life of love thy neighbor. McGuffey's Readers Hardback Cover The original 1836 version of the fabled reading instruction books which for three-quarters of a century were used by four-fifths of all American school children. Some 120 million sets were sold. No other books ever had so much influence over so many children over such a long period. McGuffey's educational course begins, in the Primer, by presenting the letters of the alphabet to be memorized, in sequence. Children are then taught, step by step, to use the building blocks of their language to form and pronounce words. Each lesson begins with a study of words used in the reading exercise - the words presented with markings to show correct pronunciation and syllabification. Stories in the First and Second Readers picture children in their relationship with family, teacher, friends, and animals. The Third Reader expands this world. In a story entitled "The Widow and the Merchant," a merchant befriends a widow in need. Later, when the widow proves herself to be honest, the merchant gives her a handsome gift. The child is not, however, encouraged to believe that charity is expected only of the wealthy; it is a virtue to be cultivated by the young, practiced by all. Here are some of the titles of reading material in the Second, Third and Fourth Readers: "The Greedy Girl"; "The Kind Little Girl"; "The Honest Boy and the Thief"; "The Lord's Prayer"; "The Effects of Rashness"; "On Speaking the Truth"; "Consequences of Bad Spelling"; "Happy Consequences of American Independence"; and "Decisive Integrity." Assuming that a child's brain reacts to what is fed into it, and that his entire life is thereby influenced, educators of the McGuffey era provided the most wholesome fare available. Material in the readers is taken from writings which extol, explain, and illustrate such virtues as honesty, charity, thrift, hard work, courage, patriotism, reverence for God, and respect for parents. Source Research by Jack Underwood (GBP) Author Wm J (Bill) Federer is a personal friend J. U. Public Records
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