Ways of learning

Learning the alphabet with mother, followed by further instruction under strict supervision.

Charles Dickens, David Copperfield (1850).

Related reading
All OCA Dickens posts (Pinboard)

[A note in the Penguin edition of the novel glosses the crocodile-book, a favorite of David’s nurse Peggotty: “A book adapted by Dickens from Thomas Day’s The History of Sandford and Merton, a moralistic book of the 1780s, featuring young men pursuing crocodiles and thrusting wood into their mouths.” Like many notes in this edition, it’s less than truly helpful.]