The world of My Little Red Story Book consists of white children of an upper-middle-class family living in the suburbs with an apple tree, a pony, a two-car garage and heaps of toys. But in Detroit public schools, where this pre-primer is standard for first-graders, 46.5% of the children are Negroes living in city slums.
Supposedly aimed at creating interest by picturing situations that might happen in its readers' lives, the book instead shows a remote and segregated world.
To raise reading interest, Detroit last week brought out three new primers whose characters are mostly Negro children. Aided by the Ford Foundation-financed...
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