Dick and Jane
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Dick and Jane were the main characters in popular basal readers written by Dr. William S. Gray and published by Scott Foresman, that were used to teach children to read from the 1930s through to the 1970s in the United States. There is controversy as to plagiarism of another work however, with Dr. Gray accused of copying Sir Fred Schonell's similar Dick and Dora readers found in his Happy Venture Playbooks. It is known that the original premise of Gray's readers were in fact appropriated from his Australian contemporary Schonell. 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-Gray Readers used in the 1930s. The books relied on sight reading (or "whole word reading") and repetition, using phrases like, "Oh, see. Oh, see Jane. Funny, funny Jane," and they ignored phonics. For this reason, they came to be used less and less as studies supported phonics as a more effective method of gaining literacy.[citation needed]
The simple but distinctive illustrations for the books were done by artists Eleanor Campbell and Keith Ward.
Black characters and characters from other races and cultures were not introduced until 1965, when Dick and Jane books were already declining in popularity. In 1955 Rudolf Flesch criticized the Dick and Jane series in his book, Why Johnny Can't Read, and the push for multiculturalism, and stronger presentation of other races and cultures was partially a reaction to the cultural homogeneity of the series.
First editions of the books are now worth as much as two hundred dollars. The books were reissued in 2003 by Grosset & Dunlap, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA) and over 2.5 million copies were sold, but this time the publishers had warned against using them to teach reading to children. Related 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!"
The title of one of the books, Fun with Dick and Jane, inspired a 1977 film of the same title, and its 2005 remake.
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[edit] Grade levels
- Grade 1 - ''Before We Read, We Look and See, We Work and Play, We Come and Go, Guess Who, Fun with Dick and Jane and Our New Friends
- Grade 2 - Friends and Neighbors and More Friends and Neighbors
- Grade 3 - Streets and Roads and More Streets and Roads
- Grade 4 - Times and Places and More Times and Places
- Grade 5- Days and Deeds and More Days and Deeds
- Grade 6- People and Progress and More People and Progress
- Grade 7- Parades and More Parades
- Grade 8- Panoramas and More Panoramas
- Transitional 3/4 - Just Imagine
In the sixties, the New Basic Readers underwent heavy revision. The books had a larger page size ,new updated artwork and a very large portion of new stories. Dick, Jane, and Sally also were a bit older and a bit more sophisticated. Teaching procedures also were slightly different- the vocabulary control was looser and more phonics was added. Helen M. Robinson became the head author. The earliest materials were released in 1962. The 1962 Established edition titles were: We Read Pictures, We Read More Pictures, Before We Read, Sally Dick and Jane, Fun With Our Family, Fun Wherever We Are, Guess Who, Fun With Our Friends, More Fun With Our Friends (All Grade 1), Friends Old and New, More Friends Old and New (grade 2), Roads to Follow, More Roads to Follow (grade 3), Ventures (4), Vistas (5), Cavalcades (6), Dimensions (7), Challenges (8). In 1965, an integrated edition was added. This Multi-Ethnic edition changed the title of the 1st and 2nd pre-primers to Now We Read and Fun With the Family to reflect the addition of an African-American family. These three children were Mike, Pam, and Penny. The content of the 1962 edition was somewhat altered to include this new family in the first grade. The other books retained the 1962 titles, yet reflected numerous multi-ethnic groups. The 1965 edition books were available in two covers- one featuring characters as in previous books and the other a child-art edition which did not feature any characters. Many people refer to this second cover as a "fingerpaint" cover, but the Scott, Foresman catalog listed it as "child-art". The Think-and-Do Book workbooks were still very much a part of both editions of the 1960s books. An experimental ITA (phonetic alphabet) version was launched of the multi-ethnic series in the 60's as well.
In 1966 two companion series were launched to provide for individual differences – Wide Horizons for advanced readers and Open Highways for below-average readers.
There were also Catholic and Seventh-day Adventist editions of the 1960s series. Sally, Dick, and Jane was retitled Judy, John, and Jean to reflect the characters who were renamed after Catholic Saints. The Seventh Day Adventist versions used the 1965 multi-ethnic characters, but retitled the books. For example, Now We Read became Friends to Know.
Some episodes in the original would certainly raise many eyebrows now; for example, consider the sequence in which the children are given zip-up laundry bags to play with.
[edit] Dick and Jane in popular culture
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[edit] Terry Wogan
The British radio and television broadcaster Terry Wogan regularly satirises the similar British Janet and John series on his BBC Radio 2 show by reading out stories clearly based on the premise of the original books, but deriving humour through euphemism and innuendo.
[edit] Pinkard & Bowden
Country music performers Pinkard & Bowden recorded a song titled The Ballad of Dick and Jane, which similarly used the characters' names for comedic purposes.
[edit] The Bluest Eye
The novel The Bluest Eye, written by Toni Morrison, begins with an excerpt from Fun with Dick and Jane.
[edit] Between the Lions
The PBSKids show Between the Lions has a skit segment that parodies Dick and Jane called Chicken Jane. In this, two naive children, Scot and Dot, place themselves in harm's way. An intelligent chicken named Chicken Jane uses her wing to write an obvious, one-word solution to the problem, which the children sound out using phonics. At the last moment the children get out of the way and Chicken Jane gets hurt instead.
[edit] The Simpsons
The character of Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons wears a parody T-shirt reading "C:\DOS C:\DOS\RUN RUN\DOS\RUN"; when read out loud, this translates to "See DOS. See DOS run. Run, DOS, run!"
[edit] Mad
For many years, Mad Magazine periodically included "primers", on any topical or popular culture subject, in a style that mocked the Dick-and-Jane style as well as satirizing its target.
[edit] The Life and Times of The Thunderbolt Kid
Bill Bryson, in a chapter from his memoir book, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid all about his elementary school days, talks about the Dick and Jane books, describing a utopia with clean green lawns, the simplest and most timeless of toys, pet stores with actual puppies in the windows, the Grandparents' farm where there are allegedly no known barnyard stenches, the Father wearing the same suit-and-tie outfit no matter where he was...and concludes that in this same utopia the characters must have had their minds melted by aliens because of the insipidly simple way they talk, stating the obvious on every page!
[edit] Fun with Dick and Jane (Movies)
A 1977 movie titled Fun with Dick and Jane (1977 film) starring George Segal and Jane Fonda as an upper-middle class couple who turn to crime, poked fun at the books with its title and lead character names.
There is a 2005 remake of the movie Fun with Dick and Jane (2005 film) starring Jim Carrey and Téa Leoni. Also a promotional poster for the 2005 remake shows Jim Carrey in a running motion with a tagline at the top which says "See Dick Run" this also pokes fun at the books.
[edit] See also
[edit] Sources and External Links
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