FYI@Librarian: Why Picture Books Were Once Considered Dangerous for Children

Tuesday, January 9, 2018

Why Picture Books Were Once Considered Dangerous for Children

Why Picture Books Were Once Considered Dangerous for Children

To anyone familiar with modern elementary schools, a classroom in colonial New England would look strange in many ways. Perhaps most obviously, the curriculum was almost exclusively religious. But in some respects, a bigger difference was the focus on teaching children in entirely abstract ways, without picture books or references to students’ real-world experiences.

Now, there were stories about animals, many more illustrations of children behaving in positive ways.