Found: Golden State Speller

A couple of weeks ago, while unpacking one of the last boxes of books and miscellany left in my parents' garage, I came across this old grade school spelling primer I bought when I was still a college student living in Santa Cruz. I remember buying this on a whim, for super cheap, at a weird old used and antique books store in Moss Landing. In the back, there were boxes full of old text books that had been used by area public schools. I only bought the one; I probably picked it because I liked the cover. I regret not picking up a couple others, especially now that the bookstore's gone. 

This one little artifact is pretty neat, though. I love the Viola Swamp/Big Brother tone of the notice stamped on the inside front cover. Also, note that this particular book was only in use for four years. WHAT.  Those were the good old days, I guess, when the state was somehow flush with cash devoted to education funding. In the middle of the Great Depression. It actually makes me really sad to think about how priorities have changed in this state and the country as a whole. 

How super neat is this? I'm assuming that the "Laurel School" is now the Louden Nelson Community Center in downtown Santa Cruz.

Here's a nice peek at what fourth graders in California public schools were given in order to learn how to spell: 

Trying to come to terms with the fact that people once used the plural of beef -- beeves -- in any way, shape, or form is kind of breaking my brain. 

Similarly, thinking of teaching children vocabulary useful for serving, specifically, good foods really tickles me.

My favorite part about the book, by far, is that it came with a couple pages of notes that a school teacher had written up hidden in the very back. He or she (she? ladies handwriting, or did everybody have lovely penmanship in the '30s?) must have been preparing their lesson plan at the last minute. I WOULD KNOW. 

They look like notes for an American history or regional studies lesson. I'm especially curious about the "demographic" groups listed on the sheet on the left -- antebellum society of the rural South? How many large plantations survived the American civil war? I WILL NOT LET THIS BECOME A NEW PROCRASTINATION INVESTIGATION.