Pronouncing the word “chicken” was very difficult for the children in Carl Sandburg's third grade class. “Ch” was pronounced as “sh” in the Swedish language. The girls and boys of Swedish parents heard the “sh” at home so they pronounced it that way when reciting in class. What was a teacher to do?

Sheldon's Second Reader was the textbook used in Galesburg's elementary schools in the 1880s. The aim of the Reader was to help the students learn to pronounce words correctly; to master ideas illustrated in the readings and to study expression of various words.

Sandburg recalled one of the stories was about “Charlie's Chickens.” Each child in the class stood up to read the story. The Swedish children, whether named Nelson, Johnson or Swanson would say “Sharlie's Shickens.” The teacher would correct their pronunciation by saying the words clearly and distinctly and asking for a repetition of the sentence. The Swedish children learned to say the words properly, eventually.

The Reader contained more than two hundred pages and covered a great deal of material to be learned during the school year. A portion of the exercises were to be memorized. Authors of the textbook insisted: “The benefit to be derived from storing the mind with gems of truth and beauty is obvious to every teacher and parent. Copying is one of the most efficient means of fixing anything in the memory.”

Members of the class took turns reading stories from the reader in class. Next, they wrote the words in the blanks of the same sentences in the exercises. This was supposed to help the students remember the words and understand the use of the words in the sentences.

The children were also expected to learn about punctuation as well. They learned about accenting words and emphasizing words in sentences. Punctuation marks, such as periods, commas, question marks and exclamation points had important effects on the meaning of the words and the sentences. The boys and girls learned to use them in the proper way, at least in the classroom.

Sandburg had decided to call himself Charles in school rather than Carl, his baptismal name. The name was a noble one in history and it filled your mouth when you said it out loud. He had no difficulty pronouncing it correctly.

Still, when August Sandburg asked his son to hold a board or fetch a tool, he called his son “Sholly” in the Swedish way.