The more I look at the Writer's Almanac, the more I like it. It is somewhat focused on poetry and often the poem of the day is quite good. But the notes on historical events that happened on that day of the year are rich and stimulating.
Today, there was a note on Oliver Goldsmith, an Irish writer of the 1700's. Some people think he is the author of "The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes", one of the first books written specifically for children. I had heard reference to Goody Two-Shoes over the years but I didn't realize it was a children's book or one that old. Peoples' references seemed to use the name as a marker for a young girl who was more or less overly sweet and virtuous and neat and clean and every other possible (cloying, annoying ) good property and trait.
Once I find things are pointing to a book, time to check Libby and Hoopla, which are library apps. Check Amazon but also simply put the title into Google Search. What do you know? Goody Two-Shoes in part of Project Gutenberg, an online repository of free books considered important cultural and historical works. It appears that most of the 60,000 works in Project Gutenberg are available in several forms, including PDF and Kindle-readable.
I haven't absorbed the whole book yet but I have read enough to find that there are an excessive number of urges to the young to be good. Got me wondering if kids a couple hundred years ago were more poorly behaved than today. I thought strict obedience accompanied by smacks and blows were the norm.
I can imagine trepidation and caution about having a smart little kid learn to read. One saving factor might be having few books around. But, still, what is the kid getting into? What is getting into his little head? Many adults are not comfortable readers and even more were without a couple of centuries of public schools and hard working young teachers working on their decoding and comprehension.
