Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

A Content Analysis Of Self-Reliance Or Dependence In A Sixth Grade Reading Text-Book, Roxilu Kelton Bohrer

Student Work

Traditionally, our nation has been one in which individual effort and enterprise are rewarded. Our “log cabin” heroes, our “Horatio Alger” stories, are a reflection of a cultural tradition of interdependence and self-reliance which we cherish. Most of us fondly recall the story of the little train engine who said, “I think I can, I think I can,” and managed to puff over the hill.¹ This little train showed self-reliance and independence in reaching his goal. By contrast, a recent children’s book tells about a little locomotive who goes to school to learn to be a big locomotive and …