Another peek into the 1920s: The Test and Study Speller

             A hardback book, 64 yellowed pages written by Daniel Starch, Harvard/U-Wisconsin, and George A. Mirick, Harvard, for “Grammar Grades” and published by Silver, Burdett and Company in 1921, was the nearest resource when it came time to write this week’s post.
           Thumbing through the small text—no data on how I came to “own” it—I discovered it was for what is now considered middle school grades. That is, for 5^th through 8^th grades.
           What struck me was a section at the end of each grade’s fundamentals titled, “Stories About Words.” The fifth grade stories were, “How We Got the Word Handkerchief,” “How a Goat Gave Us a Word,” “Who named the Sandwich?” and “How the Days of the Week Got their Names.” Imagine the teacher giving the pupils some “down” time after the spelling test, just to learn new stuff.

                                           “How the Days of the Week Got Their Names”
                “The seven days of the week were named by the people who lived long, long ago in Europe.
                “The first day of the week they called the sun’s day or Sunday.
                “The second day they called the moon’s day or Monday.
                “One of the many gods was Tew. He was very brave and they thought that he helped them when they went to war. So they called the third day of the week Tew’s day or Tuesday.
                “The king of their gods was Woden. The fourth day they called Woden’s day or Wednesday.
                “Thor was the one who made thunder and lightning. The fifth day was named for him. Thor’s day or Thursday.
                “Freya was the wife of Woden and they called the sixth day Freya’s day or Friday.
                “There was a god named Saturn who, they thought, helped them when they planted their gardens. They named the last day of the week after him, calling it Saturn’s day or Saturday.”

                 Jump to the end of the 7^th grade section to “How the Months Were Named.” When did you learn this? Remember, it’s the 1920s here.
             
               “In earliest times the Romans divided the year into ten parts or months. The first of these they named for their god of war, Mars. No one knows whether they did this to honor their god, or to give a warlike name to a very disagreeable month. Perhaps they felt about March as our own American poet, Bryant, did when he wrote—

                                               ‘The stormy March is come at last, 
                                                With wind, and cloud, and changing skies.’

               “If March was the first month, what was New Year’s Day?
              
                “The next month was the beginning of spring. The frost came out of the ground and left it soft and open to receive the seeds. Now the Roman or Latin word for open was ‘aperire.’ They changed this word a little and called their second month, ‘Aperilis’, then’ Aprilis’, and now we have changed it to April. It is the opening or spring month.

                   “No one has been able to find out certainly [with certainty?] why the old Romans called heir third month May. But they had a goddess whose name was Maia, and it is thought that they used her name.

                   “The month of June was named for a powerful Roman family, the Junius family.

                  “We have now accounted for the names of four months. The rest of their ten months they called by number, the Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, and Tenth month. The Fifth and Sixth months were later given other names, but the last four months of the year have kept their number names unchanged to this day.”                           

Pat here: the rest of the story? We’ll have to wait till 2014. Happy New Year.