teaching prof

• Oral literature was the principal entertainment for most people during the period from 850 BCE to 476 CE
• Purpose of storytelling


  To entertain each other, to comfort each other, to instruct the young in the lessons of living, to pass on their religious and cultural heritage
• There was no distinction between adults and children's literature during this period
• Greek stories (500 BCE)

  • Stories of the Trojan War (from Homer's Iliad), the travels of Odysseus (from Homer's Odyssey), Jason and the Golden Fleece, and the adventures of Hercules
• Aesop's Fables


  • Animal tales with pointed morals to instruct children in cultural and personal values
• Roman stories (100 CE)

  • Tales of Virgil's Aeneid (stories of Aeneas, the Trojan hero who was credited with founding the Roman race)
  • Tales of Ovid's Metamorphoses (the tales of the gods, goddesses, heroes, and heroines of the classical world)
• Modern retellings of Greek and Roman stories

  • Padraic Colum's THE CHILDREN'S HOMER: The Golden Fleece and the Heroes Who Lived Before Achilles
  • The Adventures of Odysseus and the Tale of Troy
• The Roman Catholic Church dominated the social and political scene and was responsible for what education there was during the Middle Ages (476 to 1450 CE)
• Books were extremely rare and expensive, and few people could read or write during the Middle Ages
• Biblical stories


  • Lives of saints were used to set examples for young people
• Secular stories (Medieval romances)

  • Romantic tales of the legendary King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table
  • The epic describing the great heroes Roland (Song of Roland from France) or the Cid (The Lay of the Cid from Spain)
  • Beowulf (from the Norse)
• Children's versions


  • Rosemary Sutcliff's Dragon Slayer – a retelling of Beowulf
  • King Arthur stories: "Sword and the Circle", "Light Beyond the Forest", "Road to Camlann"
• Johannes Gutenberg's invention of the movable type printing press around 1450 made it possible to print multiple copies of books, thus reducing time, labor and cost
• This technology also made it possible to spread information quickly, therefore opening the door to mass education and increased literacy
• Books for children during the early Renaissance


  • Mostly textbooks or educational books – "books of courtesy" giving lessons in proper Behavior for young gentlemen (Women did not yet merit their own books)
• The earliest children's picture book

  • John Comenius' Orbis Sensualium Pictus. It first appeared as a German / Latin version in 1658 and as an English/ Latin version in 1659, used for the teaching of Latin through pictures. This book provided a wealth of information about 17th century European life.
• Influences that brought a heightened sense of special needs of the child in the 17th Century

  • Spiritual Development: The rise of Puritanism, which placed special emphasis on the individual's need to tend to his or her salvation
  • Intellectual Development: work of John Locke, the English philosopher of education
• Puritanism


  The Puritans placed a high value on reading because they believed the Bible should be accessible to everyone and it helped ensure material success. The Puritans are credited with encouraging literacy among the middle class.
• Hornbooks


  • Consisting of simple wooden slabs, usually with a handle. Parchment containing basic language lessons (the alphabet, numbers, and so on) was fastened to the wood and was then covered with transparent horn (from cattle, sheep, goats), a primitive form of lamination that made these books very durable
• Battledores


  • Cheap books made of folded cardboard and usually containing educational material. They were widely used into the 19th century.
• Chapbooks


  • Small and cheaply made books containing fairy tales and other secular works. Few chapbooks before the late eighteenth century were written with children in mind, but by 1800 chapbooks for children were being produced in some quantity. Many chapbooks were badly written, and they were often badly printed, but nonetheless they display a raw kind of energy and excitement. However, the Puritans frowned on these Books.
• New England Primer


  • The most famous early schoolbooks, first appearing around 1690 and continuing in print in some form or another until 1886. It introduced young Puritan children to the alphabet through rhymes and then to increasingly sophisticated reading material, all with a religious intent.
• Tabula rasa


  John Locke's notion that the minds of young children were similar to blank slates waiting to be filled up. He believed every child had equal capabilities to learn and adults had the responsibility to provide proper education.
• Children's versions of adult works of literature

  • The Pilgrim's Progress (1678) by John Bunyan – the story of a man's journey to Heaven
  • Robinson Crusoe (1719) by Daniel Defoe – a shipwreck adventure tale that is the ancestor of numerous survival stories
  • Gulliver's Travels (1726) by Jonathan Swiff – a satirical travel fantasy
• John Newbery and Children's Book Publishing


  • The serious publishing of children's books began notably by John Newbery (1713-1778), a clever English bookseller. Newbery first successfully promoted children's literature. His books were largely collections of stories and poems with crude woodblock illustrations by various (usually anonymous) writers (including himself)
• A Little Pretty Pocket Book (1744)


  • One of the first published children's books designed particularly to entertain children as well as to teach them.
• Rousseau and the Moral Tale


  Rousseau expressed his ideas about education in Emile (1762), in which he emphasized the importance of moral development that could be best accomplished through living a simple life. Rousseau's followers wrote didactic and moralistic books to teach children how to be good and proper human beings.
• Most writers of children's moralistic tales were women because children's writing was considered inferior to adult writing by men
• The Purple Jar (1796)


  • By Maria Edgeworth
• The Revival of old Folktales


  • The didactic element in children's books persisted through the early 19th century, but the old folktales from oral tradition revived during this time.
• Tales of Mother Goose

  • Originally retold and published by the Frenchman Charles Perrault (1697) and then translated and published in English in 1729. The retellings, including Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, and Sleeping Beauty, so on became staples in English nurseries. These stories were usually retold for a moral purpose.
• Tales from the Arabian Nights


  • Published by Elizabeth Newbery (1791), the first children's edition of the Middle Eastern tales, featuring Sinbad the Sailor and Aladdin and his lamp.
• Grimms' Nursery and Household Tales (1812, Germany)


  • Published at the beginning of the 19th century, inspired a flurry of folktale collecting throughout Europe.
• Hans Christian Anderson's Fairy Tales (1835, Denmark)


  • Considered the first book containing modern fairy tales (i.e. all the fairy tales were created and written, but not collected, by Anderson).
• Some adults felt the folktales unsuitable for children as they contained adult themes, alarming frankness and violence, lack of moral messages
• During the reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901), children's literature first blossomed
• Excellent writers and illustrators were committed to writing entertaining stories for children, as opposed to morality tales, during the Victorian era
• Charles Perrault


  1729
• The retellings, including Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, and Sleeping Beauty, became staples in English nurseries
• These stories were usually retold for a moral purpose