{"id":216,"date":"2023-04-21T14:14:06","date_gmt":"2023-04-21T14:14:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/ncte\/?page_id=216"},"modified":"2023-04-27T14:45:48","modified_gmt":"2023-04-27T14:45:48","slug":"elementary-section","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/ncte\/exhibits\/elementary-section\/","title":{"rendered":"Elementary Section"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Before his illness, most things had come easily to him. Now he knew what it was like to be helpless, to be weak, to be dependent on others through no fault of your own…. Now he had learned to concentrate on one thing at at time. And he had learned to wait for results.”
\nFrom\u00a0Franklin Delano Roosevelt<\/i> by Russell Freedman, winner of the 1991 Orbis Pictus Award<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

While elementary teachers were not represented at NCTE’s first convention, the Elementary Section was officially formed at the second one in 1912. According to J.N. Hook, the first meeting focused on “decrying a ‘Reign of Red Ink'” in teaching composition. Walter Barnes coined the phrase in his essay that he read before the 1912 Elementary Section. In it, he complained of the rigid, routine nature of English classes. He asserted:<\/p>\n

“As accurately as I can judge from a rather brief experience and limited observation, I believe that the children in the grades live, so far as composition work is concerned, in an absolute monarchy, in which they are the subjects, the teacher the king (more often, the queen), and the red-ink pen the royal scepter (1913, p. 158).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

By no means were the concerns of Elementary Section members limited to grading student papers. As illustrated by the mission statement on its\u00a0website<\/a>, this Section addresses a variety of issues in elementary education: “Our primary task is to connect and support teachers as they work closely with students, administrators, and families to develop and promote lifelong literacy learning. We cordially welcome all educators interested in reading, writing and the language arts.”<\/p>\n

One way that the Elementary Section fulfilled the literacy and reading portion of their mission was through its establishment of the Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children. Named after what is believed to be the first book written for children,\u00a0Orbis Pictus <\/i>(1657) by Johannes Amos Comenius, this award serves to recognize excellent children’s nonfiction. Committee members select one work to honor every year. By awarding and therefore promoting these exceptional works of nonfiction, the Section hopes to encourage reading. After a successful three years of running the award process, the award committee of the Elementary Section was able to convince the Council to continue the program as part of NCTE’s larger award network. To learn more about the Orbis Pictus Award, and how it began and developed, take a look at the featured topics below:<\/p>\n