Dick Flashcard used with "Dick and Jane" Reader series published by Scott, Foresman, and Company
date: label: date made
content: 1940-1946
name: label: publisher
content: Scott, Foresman and Company
notes: label: Description
content: By the 1920’s reading specialists, especially those working with John Dewey, William Scott Gray from the University of Chicago, and Dr. Arthur Gates from Columbia began advocating for early readers to have simple stories with a limited vocabulary list. (This was the method used in the Dick and Jane readers as well as others.) During various times, the method has been known as the “look-say”, “sight-word”, and “the whole word method.” Gray also consulted with reading specialist and author May Hill Arbuthnot about the use of numerous illustrations to provide context. Reading specialists, child psychologists, parents, teachers, and former students have debated for nearly 100 years the effectiveness of the approach, particularly when not used in combination with phonics- which was not William Gray’s intention when he promoted the early books. In 1955, Rudolf Flesch’s bestseller Why Johnny Can’t Read- And What you Can Do About It criticized the method, and especially the Dick and Jane readers as not preparing students for reading at higher levels. Further arguments centered on whether the approach assisted or discouraged dyslexia, and whether phonics- based reading is a more lasting, analytical approach as it assists in decoding unfamiliar words. Some experts continued to advocate for the phonics approach. Remember “Hooked on phonics worked for me”? While the method’s effectiveness can be debated, it is indisputable that the majority of two generations of children initially learned reading with Dick and Jane.
label: Description
content: These cards are the embodiment of the process that was used for two generations of students to achieve early literacy in the schools. The cream-colored cards are printed with the name of the character on the front or word side to teach the children to recognize the word, and on the reverse or back side is a colored drawing of the character which acts as the visual clue for the child to decode if they haven’t recognized the word. These cards are particularly significant because they once belonged to Abigail Eliot, one of the first US proponents of early childhood education, Director of Ruggles Street Nursery School and Training Center in 1922 and founder of the Cambridge Nursery School in 1923.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: used
content: United States: Massachusetts, Cambridge
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Education
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Annette Hodess
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2024.0088.01
label: catalog number
content: 2024.0088.01
label: accession number
content: 2024.0088
objectType: label: Object Name
content: flashcard
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: ink (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: printed (overall production method/technique)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 12 in x 6 in; 30.48 cm x 15.24 cm