Webster's Blue-Backed Speller apparently had a very significant influence on the intellectual development of schoolchildren in the United States for more than a century. Some of the sentences in it that were construed to teach the meaning of words the children learned to spell were claimed also to teach fundamentals of economics. Examination of these sentences leads one to conclude that the claim was not warranted. In retrospect, the neglect of economic education in the Speller may be viewed as an important factor for a century or more in economic illiteracy of Americans.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
CommagerHenry Steele, “Noah Webster 1758–1958, Schoolmaster to America,”Saturday Review41 (October 18, 1958), pp. 10–12, 66–67.
2.
WalstadWilliam B., “Economics Instruction in High Schools,”Journal of Economic Literature30 (December, 1992), pp. 2019–51.
3.
WarfelHarry R., Noah Webster Schoolmaster to America (New York, 1936).
4.
WebsterNoah, The Elementary Spelling Book, Being an Improvement on the American Spelling Book (New York, Chicago, Cincinnati, 1857).
