Did your grade school celebrate Corn Day? Back in the days when a third of American workers lived on farms, many schools did–in classrooms “decorated so as to give joy and impress the thought that the man who raises a good crop of corn is engaged in an exalted work.”
Amity Wilczek shares some gems from “School Lessons on Corn,” a 1914 USDA pamphlet she found in the Harvard stacks, and offers her own answer to their workshop topic “Why I Think Corn and Boys are Similar.”
1 response so far ↓
1 Betsy Devine // Jul 23, 2003 at 8:19 pm
It’s funny, the patriotic kiddie indoctrination Niek just posted is ugly, but this old effort to help farm kids picture their future as “exalted work” seems to me sweet and well-meant. Maybe I’m a pushover for corny stuff like this….