Jean Zeock, age 17, of Utica, N.Y., for her question:

WHEN DID STUDENTS USE THE McGUFFEY'S READER?

During the 1800s, students in schools throughout the United States learned to read with the help of a book called "Eclectic Reader." It was written by an American educator and clergyman named William McGuffey, and the book was commonly called the McGuffey's Reader.

More than 120 million copies of the book were sold, and for many years nearly all American school children used it. The simple readers taught children to respect the United States governmental and economic system.

'The book is said to have played an important part in forming the moral ideas and the literary tastes of the United States in the 1800s.

The illustrated book was for the first six grades of elementary schools.

McGuffey was born in 1800 in Washington County, Pa. He was graduated from Washington College' and became a Presbyterian minister in 1829. He taught at Miami University in Ohio from 1826 to 1836 and was president of Ohio University from 1839 to 1845. After 1845, he taught at the University of Virginia. He died in 1873.