Oakport
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Books of Oakport School and Their Ethnical Nuances The research in books has taken us from schoolbooks in foreign languages to the books in English. The Books portrayed that:
The First Grade teaches oral exercises, conversational in character and a few simple sentences. They would have some work on the blackboard to show the use of capitalization and punctuation. The Second Grade is the same as the first but learning a bigger vocabulary with speech and spelling. The students are able to see, think and reason more clearly. Essentials of English Grammar cost the school about $4.00. This book will teach the student several concepts of the grammar. The paragraphs are outlined as such; language and grammar, the sentence and parts of speech, infliction, composition, nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, preposition, conjunction, interjection, syntax, compound and complex sentences, infinitive and participle, interrogated and imperative sentences, abbreviated and incomplete sentences. Elementary Lessons in English would cost the school about $4.00. This book will teach the student the basic grammar structure, sentences and what it is parts of speech and how to use them. There are six readers from first to the six from varying publishers. Primer (K thru 1st Grade); Pictorial Primer - (K thru 1st Grade); First Reader (2nd thru 3rd Grade); Second Reader (4th thru 6th Grade); Third Reader (7th thru 8th Grade); Fourth Reader (9th thru 12th Grade). This information is provided by the www.bereanbookshelf.com website. The readers that we have come across from Oakport School are from the Appleton Reader series, The Third Reader. This reader teaches the students about phonetics, spelling and rewriting sentences. The reader also has a nice listing of common misspelled words such as to, too, two. This book will also allow the student to read short stories and many times memorize the story. To have possession of a reader was usually an honor for the students. It would help them get a better understanding of future readings. They would be tested on the ability to read at sight, accuracy, and fluency. Mastering reading skills in first and second grades was strongly recommended by teachers. However, grammar should not predominate during the first four or five years of school. It should not be used until the fourth or fifth grade. Language techniques such as lexicology, orthography, and other aspects of linguistics were the vital part of the teacher's curriculum in helping the students to excel in the art of writing. The price range of the various books was taken from the Spring Prairie Township records located by Hawley Minnesota. The average English Grammar books were priced at $4.60. The school district could purchase the Third Reader for approximately $2.00 and Elementary Lessons in English could be purchased for $4.60. However prior to the textbooks in English we have found two books printed in the German language. We have found the reasoning behind this is due to the English Only Law, which originated out of the Naturalization Act of June 29, 1906 (34 Statutes-at-Large 596) (http://uscis.gov.) This law made the requirement of knowledge of the English language a requirement for naturalization. This act went strongly into effect during 1919 when English-only laws were being used in surrounding states. For example, Nebraska and Ohio passed laws in 1919 and 1923 prohibiting the teaching of German until the student passed the eighth grade. The Supreme Court ultimately held the Nebraska statute unconstitutional as illegal due to the process that took place in Meyer vs. Nebraska, 262 U.S. 390 (1923) (http://archive.aclu.org). The English Only Laws were only made stronger by President Theodore Roosevelt’s “Hyphenated American” speech on October 12, 1915. “He has no place here; and the sooner he returns to the land to which he feels his real heart-allegiance, the better it will be for every good American. There is no such thing as a hyphenated American who is a good American. The only man who is a good American is the man who is an American and nothing else.”
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This web page was created by Senior American Studies Students at Minnesota State University Moorhead Janet Hohenstein and Vusala Bentley. |
