Primers
prevalent theories identified letter, sound, syllable, or word as the basic unit of
understanding. From these elements, theorists and authors built up pedagogical
structures of increasing complexity. The emphasis on introducing the young child
to education and society makes primers valuable resources for the study of childhood itself.
Although the three- and four-letter words in the earliest readers are familiar to us, the
nineteenth-century child’s world is revealed as more difficult and dangerous than our own.