Frightened George: how the pediatric-educational complex ruined the Curious George series

Journal of Social History, Fall, 2005 by Daniel Greenstone

In addition to this general trend, by chance, the year separating the publication of the fourth and fifth books, 1957, saw two seminal events that reshaped the world of children's literature. First was the publication of Dr. Seuss's landmark The Cat in the Hat. As is well known, The Cat in the Hat was written with a limited vocabulary, intended to aid in the teaching of phonics. The modern phonics movement had been inaugurated two years earlier with the publication of Rudolf Franz Flesch's Why Johnny Can't Read, which denigrated the word recognition theory that was the basis for the Dick and Jane readers. The enormous success of The Cat in the Hat convinced publishers that the once barren landscape of children's literature was fertile ground for profits. (22)

The second earth-shaking event in the world of children's literature was the launching of Sputnik into orbit, by the Soviet Union. Panic about American educational deficiencies ensued, and education leapt to the front of the nation's agenda. The National Defense Education Act of 1958 proclaimed, "The national interest requires ... that the Federal Government give assistance to education programs which are important to our defense." (23) This focus on education gave the phonics movement, already underway, a sense of urgency, and, as Louis Menand has argued in The New Yorker, the pediatric-educational complex began to view children's literature as another battleground in the Cold War. (24)

So, for the fifth book in their series, Curious George Flies a Kite (1958), the Reys took the advice of the experts and, like Dr. Seuss, employed a restricted vocabulary list of 219 words. (25) Alas, Margret did not have Seuss's flair for verse (but then who does?). The book is tedious and (perhaps weighed down by the import of its mission to further literacy) interminable--at 79 pages it's 75 percent longer than the original story. Margret later acknowledged that the restricted vocabulary was a mistake: "It was a fad then, and many educators thought first-graders could learn to read quicker that way. Like so many things, it proved to be nonsense and was given up after a while." (26)

But in addition to the problems with length and style, the fifth story marks the dawn of the new, timid George. With this volume, the Reys appear to have at last fully absorbed the ethos of the vulnerable child sweeping across Dr. Spock's America. On the first page we learn that the gradual erosion of George's freedom that began in the third and fourth books is now nearly complete. The man goes off again, but, before he does so, he gives George explicit instructions about where and how to play, "Have fun and play with your new ball, but do not be too curious." (27) But George forgets his instructions, and a complicated series of events culminates with him flying a kite. A gust of wind propels him aloft, and when the man hears that George is floating in the air, his face projects a look of utter panic. "I will get him back," he says, as he springs into action. "I must get him back." (28) Gone are the days when the man looks on George's madcap escapades as good-natured fun. George has adventures, yes, but they are frightening, unsanctioned and unintentional. "George was scared," reads the caption, "What if he never got back? Maybe he would fly on and on. Oh he would never, never, be so curious again, if just this one time he could find a way to get home." (29)