Things Taught: Systematic Instruction in Composition and Object Lessons

Cloth-backed 12mo, 96pp. Good to Very Good with superficial cracking at the hinges, binding firm. Soil and discoloration to boards, rubbing and scuffing to edges. Offsetting to flyleafs only. Inscribed "J. R. Hale from L. R. Christmas 1888." Scarce.

"This little volume differs widely from the usual text-books. It is a book of questions without direct answers. It does not address itself to the memory alone, but to all the faculties of the pupil's mind; nor does it confine the learner within the straight-jaccket of a text-book, but seeks to acquaint him with the world, with which man has always had to deal." (p3)

Max Lilienthal (1815-1882) was an educator, author, and rabbi born in Germany who promoted Jewish education reform in Russia, specifically the teaching of secular subjects. He emigrated to the United States and founded a Jewish boarding school in New York before moving to Cincinnati. "Lilienthal was rabbi of the important Bene Israel congregation of Cincinnati, which he led in the direction of moderate Reform. As a civic leader in his city on friendly terms with its Christian clergy, he was a member of its board of education and a trustee of the University of Cincinnati from 1872 until his death. He was perhaps the leading Jewish exponent in his day of the rigorous exclusion of all religious teaching from the public schools." (Jewish Virtual Library)