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natives and often gave them presents. It was fortunate for him that he had
won the friendship of these people.
...
His [Sturt’s] rescuers were aborigines with whom he had made
friends farther up the river. It was not long before Sturt was in the middle
of an excited crowd of natives who wished now to be his friends. His
kindness to the natives had brought its own reward. (Department of
Education, 1954/ 1963/1966, pp. 113-114, emphasis added)
The second example (see Source 8.2), demonstrates the increasing progressive approach to
curriculum, whereby the two characters, both school aged, ask questions (although not shown
explicitly in this extract) of adults to aid their learning experience, which interestingly, occurs
outside of the classroom.
Source 8.2. Social Studies example narrative extract from Social studies for
Queensland schools grade 4 (Department of Education, 1954/1963/1966, pp. 71-72).
In particular, this second example, which is representative of the narratives generally found in
the Social Studies textbooks, shows that textbooks are not always, as Issitt writes “painful
and...boring” (2004, p. 684). This is not to contradict Issitt, as there are many textbooks that
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