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An Analysis Of Historical Studies Of Literacy Standards From Three Epochs In American Elementary Education, Karen Elizabeth Stinson Hanus

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The task of determining the standards of literacy in an historical epoch, the accurate assessment of children's ability to read, and the achievement of universal literacy are like the impossible endeavor of Tantalus in Greek mythology. As one comes closer to achieving one's goal, it changes and moves further away, forever just out of reach. So it is in trying to ascertain absolutes in the field of literacy. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to demonstrate that one definition of literacy is not possible because literacy standards depend upon historical context.

Prominent selected historians' studies of literacy were examined …