ABSTRACT
If the American classroom were a stage, then the traditional textbook has played its role from three positions over time: center stage, behind the scenes, and costarring. The first position was center stage-textbook as central to the content being offered, the assignments being given, and the tests being administered. From the New England Primer to the Blueback Speller to Goldsmith’s Grammar of Geography, Americans have experienced book learning. And one textbook per student was an achievement not to be taken lightly. For example, at the beginning of the 20th century, in one-room country schools, children reread the same fourth-grade reader from their fourth-to eighth-grade years. There were often just not enough books; the textbook was a precious commodity. By the 1930s and 1940s, textbooks for different subjects became more commonplace in public schools. Often rented or purchased by schoolchildren’s families, the books were expected to be used, to hold the limelight at center stage.
