Remember Dick? Remember Jane? Oh, oh, oh! I remember Dick. I remember Jane. Where is Dick? Where is Jane? And whatever happened to good, old Spot?
Ask somebody in his 30s if he remembers Dick and Jane, and you're bound to get a smile and a response like, "Yes, yes, yes!""See Spot run" may be one of the best-known short sentences of all time.
Hundreds of thousands - if not millions - of people learned to read in the primary grades with the repetitious, sight-word series of basic readers featuring Dick and Jane.
So whatever happened to Dick and Jane and the sight-word reading method? "Whatever happened to Dick and Jane? They got replaced," said Beverly Brooks, a fourth-grade teacher at Barratt Elementary School in American Fork.
What they've been replaced by is good children's literature and newer methods of teaching reading that focus on whole-language skills and comprehension. And while basic reading textbooks are still being used, they are more apt to include stories about single parents, children with handicaps and minorities rather than the "perfect family" that was portrayed in the Dick and Jane books, where Father went off to work every morning and Mother stayed home and rarely took off her apron.
"What happened was philosophy and research became more informed," said Jim Fitzmaurice, vice president and editor for reading at Scott, Foresman in Glenview, Ill. The Scott, Foresman company published the Dick and Jane series up until the late 1960s, although Fitzmaurice said the company still gets an occasional request for Dick and Jane books.
"The white middle-class `Father knows best' family was not typical anymore," Fitzmaurice said. "We needed to address the needs of various kinds of families. We needed better representation that was more reflective of our society."
Bernice Cullinan, a professor of early childhood and elementary education at New York University and author of the books, "Literature and the Child," "Children's Literature in the Classroom: Weaving Charlotte's Web," and a Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich basic reader, used the Dick and Jane books when she first began teaching. At that time it was believed that children could only learn to read one or two new words a day and that phonics had to be introduced in a slow, logical way, Cullinan said.
"We found that (method) stilted children's writing and that children learned to read faster when language was natural and like what they heard," Cullinan said.
Between the late '60s and today, reading instruction methods have vacillated between sight-word methods, intensive phonics programs and linguistic reading. Today educators have settled into a whole-language approach that mixes sight-word reading, phonics and linguistics with syntax and comprehension.
"There is greater emphasis on natural language patterns, literature and shared reading," Fitzmaurice said. "There is emphasis on rhyme, rhythm and controlling sentence patterns."
Children in kindergarten and first grade read stories that are repetitious and heavy on phonics like"Nat was a Fat Cat" and "Nell Gets a Pet."
By the time students reach second grade, teachers are depending more on such trade books as "Charlotte's Web" and "Black Beauty," and the emphasis is on good literature and comprehension.
"I would say there is a wider range of values reflected in the literature," Cullinan said. "There are stories that don't have happy endings today. A wider range of our society is reflected in children's books . . . but also more of the real problems of the world." Because of that real-life perspective, parents should be aware of what their children are reading, Cullinan said.
So does anybody miss Dick and Jane? No, no, no.
"It was a stage we went through," Cullinan said. "It's all over."
*****
(Additional information)
Dick and Jane grow up, settle into a new world
Whatever happened to Dick and Jane? Marc G. Gallant knows. Gallant wrote a book called "More Fun with Dick and Jane" in 1986 (published by Penguin books) that shows Dick, Jane and baby Sally all grown up.
Dick, according to Gallant, is in his 40s and is a systems engineer for a utility company. He is the father of three sons. Jane is in her late 30s, and is a single parent with two daughters. She works as a loan officer in a bank and sells Amway products in her spare time. Sally, also in her 30s, has been divorced twice and works as a public relations director for a California winery.
Father passed away in 1981. Mother lives in a retirement home. Other than that, the world of Dick and Jane is as repetitious as ever:
Good News
"Oh, Dad!" cried Brad.
"Ms. Stanley says my Language Arts paper is excellent.
"I might even win a trip."
"Go for it!" said Dick. "Go for it!"
"Oh, really Dad," said Brad.
"No one says - go for it - anymore."