The Common School Question Book and Review was a collection of questions and answers designed for use by candidates preparing for state and local teacher’s examinations, as well as students. Subjects covered include reading, arithmetic, penmanship, geography, and grammar.
Issac Hinton Brown was an early American educator and author with expertise in reading and elocution. He was born in Fayette County, Ohio on August 17, 1842. Brown authored and compiled several important works used by both candidates preparing for teachers’ examinations and students. In addition to the Common School Question Book and Review, he created Brown’s Standard Elocution and Speaker.
F.A. Owen Publishing Company was a pioneering publishing house that raised standards of the teaching profession. Frederick Augustus Owen was born on March 22, 1867 near South Dansville, New York. He was educated at the Rogersville Seminary. In 1889, he started a correspondence school for teachers, the Empire States Teachers Class (later renamed the American Correspondence Normal). At that time, it was still a common practice for teachers to assume their new profession straight out of high school, with no education in such things as child psychology and teaching methods.
In 1891, Owen introduced a magazine, Normal Instructor. It was intended to facilitate the exchange of ideas and methods of teaching children of elementary school age. Owen moved the business from South Dansville to Dansville in 1892. The Instructor Publishing Company was later renamed the F.A. Owen Publishing Company. For most of the 20th Century, F. A. Owen’s company was one of Dansville’s largest industries. In addition, Owen served as vice-president of the Worden Brothers Manufacturing Company, and as president of the Dansville Board of Trade. Owen died on July 18, 1935 in Geneseo, NY.