From 1930 through about 1970, more than sixty-five million U.S. schoolchildren learned to read using the Dick and Jane readers published by Scott Foresman and Company. The books took their name from the series' lead characters, a boy named Dick and a girl named Jane, who, with a dog named Spot and a kitten named Puff, lived in a friendly neighborhood of white picket fences. It has been estimated that four out of five of the nation's schools used the Dick and Jane readers, ranking them with the nineteenth-century McGuffey Readers as important tools of universal literacy.

The Dick and Jane readers used a limited vocabulary and sight-reading method, with frequent repetition of words and phrases so children could remember them easily. The phrase "See Spot run! Run, Spot, run!" is still remembered by millions of adults as the very first sentences they...