Sociologist Reviews Elementary Readers

"The modern elementary school reader sloughs over the whole business of morality," Jules Henry, sociologist at the University of Washington, said yesterday. "If there is any moral message at all, children are likely to miss it unless the teacher points it out."

In contrast to the theme of hope and confidence in America which characterized the primers of the nineteenth century, modern texts are concerned with "consumer" stories. "A story ends happily," Henry said, "when every body gets what they want."

Henry observed that "in the modern story, males are always insensitive, and brush children off. Females, however, are sympathetic. All women are good in the twentieth century."