Historical information
This item was reprinted in 1949 (first edition in 1934) in Great Britain and used in Victorian Infant school classes.This was in the era where "mother England" was still the favourite source of educational text books for Australian primary schools. "Australianism" was frowned upon by educational institutions as being not proper English. This belief lingered on for a longer period in private schools, where "ockerism" was a dirty word. It was not until the mid 1950s that the Australian dialect and social mores were accepted as suitable for educational activities.
Significance
This item was used in Mount Beauty Primary School as part of a teacher's curriculum. The fact that it is in a rural area, Kiewa Valley did present a slightly different learning atmosphere than in the larger towns and cities. The majority of parents within the Kiewa Valley, had a slight resentment of the "high and mighty" attitude of city dwellers with a "plum in their mouths" and the effectiveness of city bred teachers was to overcome these ingrained mores. The mentioning of European nations and lifestyles was to the pupils in the infant schools far more like "fairyland" than the realism that they experienced on the "land". However at this age level fantasy was more important than reality. Australian fantasy tales e.g. Blinky Bill (circa 1930s) introduced main characters that infants could identify, especially in rural schools.
Physical description
This item is a green coloured hard backed book containing 2067 double sided pages. Nearly all pages have black writing and free hand sketches. There are some pages of duplicated sheet music.The last 13 pages contain the index of the total 5 volumes of the set. See KVHS 0045, KVHS 0046, KVHS 0047 for the the volumes held.
Inscriptions & markings
On the spine is "MACMILLANS TEACHING IN PRACTICE" below this "PROJECTS and PICTURES" underneath "VOL 5". On title page "edited by E.J.S.Lay" underneath"VOLUME FIVE". Below this there is printed a two branch wreath within these an "Olympic" type torch.
