<p><img src="images/stories/OAKI-logo.png" border="0" alt="The Oak Initiative" align="left" /> American children of the mid-nineteenth century were essentially educated by the works of one man, William Holmes McGuffey. The McGuffey Eclectic Readers sold 120 million copies between 1836 and 1920. These sales are comparable only to the Bible and Webster's Dictionary.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;" align="justify">William Holmes McGuffey [1800-1873] began his educational profession at the age of fourteen after receiving a teaching certificate from his educator, Reverend William Wick. As instructed, he put an advertisement in the local paper that he would begin a four-month session of classes, six days a week, and eleven hours a day on the first day of September 1814. Forty-eight students assembled from the West Union, Ohio community, now Calcutta, Ohio. McGuffey drew his lessons primarily from the Bible.</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;" align="justify">A traveling Presbyterian Pastor took notice of McGuffey's teaching skills and offered to take him to reside in his home while he attended Old Stone Academy. McGuffey did so for the next four years. He then continued his education at Washington College for the next six years, where he worked the farm to pay for his education, taught, and studied. <a href="http://www.theoakinitiative.org/oak-leaf-24" target="_blank" style="font-family: Helvetica,Calibri,Arial,sans-serif; color: #0000ff; font-size: 12pt;">...read</a></p>