Dick and Jane
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Dick and Jane were the main characters in popular basal readers written by Zerna Sharp used to teach children to read between the 1930s and 1960s. The main characters, Dick and Jane, were a little boy and girl. Supporting characters included Baby (or Sally), Mother, Father, Spot the dog, Puff the cat, Jack the clown, and Tim the teddy bear. They first appeared in the Elson-Grey Readers used in the 1930s. In the 1950s, 80% of first graders were using Dick and Jane in the classroom. The books relied on sight reading (or "whole word reading") and repetition, using phrases like, "Oh, see. Oh, see Jane. Funny, funny Jane," and rejected phonics. For this reason, they came to be used less and less as studies supported phonics as a more effective method of gaining literacy.
Many people objected to the idealized, white-picket-fence family around which the stories centered. Black characters were not introduced until the late sixties, when Dick and Jane books were already declining in popularity. Rudolph Flesch criticized the Dick and Jane series in his book, Why Johnny Can't Read.
First editions of the books are now worth as much as two hundred dollars. The books were reissued in 2003 and over 2.5 million copies sold, but this time the publishers warned against using them to teach reading to children. Other merchandise, such as shirts and magnets, also gained wide popularity, particularly among people who had never been exposed to the original series but were familiar with catch phrases like "See Spot run!"
Sources and External Links
- Sample pages from Dick and Jane readers (http://faculty.valpo.edu/bflak/dickjane/)
- An article in USA Today. (http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/news/2004-02-25-dick-and-jane-main_x.htm)
- Tag N Wag Children's Books (http://www.tagnwag.com/)