At the close of each chapter and at the end of thebook a somewhat complete graded list of books, forthe use of both pupils and teachers, is given. Thesame plan is followed in all the books of this series,so that teachers may be able to supply themselveswith the best helps with as little trouble as possible.
The oral speech through which the stories aregiven to children is completely familiar to them, sothat they, unencumbered by the forms of language,can give their undivided thought to the story. Oralspeech is, therefore, the natural channel throughwhich stories should come in early years. The book[Pg 6]is at first wholly foreign to them, and it takes themthree years or more of greater or less painful effortto get such easy mastery of printed forms as to gainready access to thought in books. A book, whenfirst put into the hands of a child, is a completeobstruction to thought. The oral story, on the contrary,is a perfectly transparent medium of thought.A child can see the meaning of a story through oralspeech as one sees a landscape through a clear window-pane.If a child, therefore, up to the age often, is to get many and delightsome views into thefruitful fields of story-land, this miniature world ofall realities, this repository of race ideas, it mustbe through oral speech which he has already acquiredin the years of babyhood.
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It is an interesting blunder of teachers, and onethat shows their unreflecting acceptance of traditionalcustoms, to assume that the all-absorbing problemof primary instruction is the acquisition of a newbook language (the learning to read), and to ignorethat rich mother tongue, already abundantly familiar,as an avenue of acquisition and culture. But weare now well convinced that the ability to read is aninstrument of culture, not culture itself, and primarilythe great object of education is to inoculatethe children with the ideas of our civilization. Theforms of expression are also of great value, but theyare secondary and incidental as compared with theworld of ideas.[Pg 7]
Children should doubtless make much progress inlearning to read in the first year of school. Butcoincident with these exercises in primary reading,and, as a general thing, preliminary to them, is alively and interested acquaintance with the beststories. It is a fine piece of educative work to cultivatein children, at the beginning of school life, areal appreciation and enjoyment of a few good stories.These stories, thus rendered familiar, and others ofsimilar tone and quality, may serve well as a part ofthe reading lessons. It is hardly possible to cultivatethis literary taste in the reading books alone, unrelievedby oral work. The primers and first readers,when examined, will give ample proof of this statement.In spite of the utmost effort of skilledprimary teachers to make attractive books for primarychildren, our primers and first readers showunmistakable signs of their formal and mechanicalcharacter. They are essentially drill books.[Pg 8]
It seems well, therefore, to have in primaryschools two kinds of work in connection with storyand reading, the oral work in story-telling, reproduction,expression, etc., and the drill exercises in learningto read. The former will keep up a wide-awakeinterest in the best thought materials suitable forchildren, the latter will gradually acquaint them withthe necessary forms of written and printed language.Moreover, the interest aroused in the stories is constantlytransferring itself to the reading lessons andgiving greater spirit and vitality even to the primaryefforts at learning to read. In discussing the methodof primary reading we shall have occasion to mentionthe varied devices of games, activities, drawings,dramatic action, blackboard exercises, and picturework, by which an alert primary teacher puts lifeand motive into early reading work, but fully asimportant as all these things put together is thegrowing insight and appreciation for good stories.When a child makes the discovery, as Hugh Millersaid, "that learning to read is learning to get storiesout of books" he has struck the chord that shouldvibrate through all his future life. The real motivefor reading is to get something worth the effort ofreading. Even if it takes longer to accomplish theresult in this way, the result when accomplished isin all respects more valuable. But it is probable thatchildren will learn to read fully as soon who spenda good share of their time in oral story work.[Pg 9]
The oral method offers a better avenue for all vigorousmodes of expression than the reading book.It can be observed that the general tendency of thebook is toward a formal, expressionless style inyoung readers. Go into a class where the teacher ishandling a story orally and you will see her fallingnaturally into all forms of vivid narrative and presentation,gesture, facial expression, versatile intonation,blackboard sketching and picture work, theimpersonation of characters in dialogue, dramaticaction, and general liveliness of manner. The childrennaturally take up these same activities and modesof uttering themselves. Even without the suggestionof teachers, little children express themselves in suchactions, attitudes, and impersonations. This may beoften observed in little boys and girls of kindergartenage, when telling their experiences to older persons,or when playing among themselves. The freedom,activity, and vivacity of children is, indeed, in strongcontrast to the apathetic, expressionless, monotonousstyle of many grown people, including teachers.
It is a favorite maxim of college teachers and ofthose who deal mostly with adults or older pupils,that if a person knows a thing he can teach it.Leaving out of account the numerous cases of thosewho are well posted in their subjects, but cannotteach, it is well to note the scope, variety, and thoroughnessof knowledge necessary to a good teacherto handle it skilfully with younger children. Besidesthe thorough knowledge of the subject which scholarshave demanded, it requires an equally clear knowledgeof the mental resources of children, the languagewhich they can understand, the things whichattract their interest and attention, and the ways ofholding the attention of a group of children of differentcapacities, temper, and disposition. Any dogmaticprofessor who thinks he can teach the story of"Cinderella" or Andersen's "Five Peas in the Pod,"because he has a full knowledge of the facts of thestory, should make trial of his skill upon a class oftwenty children in the first grade. We suggest, how[Pg 22]ever,that he do it quietly, without inviting in hisfriends to witness his triumph.
3. The chief instrument through which the teachercommunicates the story is oral speech, and this heneeds to wield with discriminating skill and power.Preachers and lecturers, when called upon to talk tochildren, nearly always talk over their heads, usinglanguage not appropriate and comprehensible to[Pg 23]children. Those accustomed to deal with little folksare quickly sensitive to this amateur awkwardness.Young teachers just out of the higher schools makethe same blunder. They are also inclined to thinkthat fluency and verbosity are a sign of power. Butsuch false tinsel makes no impression upon childrenexcept confusion of thought. Children requiresimple, direct words, clearly defined in thought andgrounded upon common experience and conviction.Facts and realities should stand behind the words ofa teacher. What he seeks to marshal before childrenis people and things. Words should serve asphotographs of objects; instantaneous views of experiences.In some social and diplomatic circles wordsare said to conceal thought, but this kind of verbaldiplomacy has no place in schools.
Perhaps the fundamental need is simplicity andclearness of thought and language combined with apleasing and attractive manner. Vague and incomprehensiblethoughts and ideas are all out of place.The teacher should be strict with himself in thismatter, and while reading and mastering the story,should use compulsion upon himself to arrive at an[Pg 25]unmistakable clearness of thought. The objects,buildings, palaces, woods, caves, animals, persons,and places should be sharply imaged by the imagination;the feelings and passions of the actors shouldbe keenly realized. Often a vague and uncertainconception needs to be scanned, the passage reread,and the notion framed into clearness. In describingthe palace of the sleeping beauty, begirt with woods,the sentinels standing statuelike at the portal, thelords and ladies at their employments, the teachershould think out the entrance way, hall, rooms, andpersons of the palace so clearly that his thought andlanguage will not stumble over uncertainties. Transparentclearness and directness of thought are theresult of effort and circumspection. They are wellworth the pains required to gain them. A teacherwho thinks clearly will generate clear habits ofthought in children.
5. A clear outline of leading points in a story is asource of strength to the teacher and the basis laterof good reproductive work by the children. Theshort stories in the first grade hardly need a formaloutline, and even in second grade the sequence of[Pg 29]ideas in a story is often so simple and easy that outlinesof leading topics may not be needed. But inthird and fourth grade it is well in the preliminarystudy and mastery of a story to divide it up intoclearly marked segments, with a distinctive title foreach division. It is difficult to get teachers to do thiskind of close logical work, and still more difficult tohave them remember it in the midst of oral presentationand discussion. If the main points of the storyas thus outlined are placed upon the blackboard asthe narrative advances, it keeps in mind a clear surveyof the whole and serves as the best basis for thechildren's reproduction of the story. It compelsboth teacher and pupils to keep to a close logicalconnection of ideas and a sifting out of the story toget at the main points. Without these well-constructedoutlines the memory of the story is apt tofall into uncertainty and confusion, and the children'sreproduction becomes fragmentary and disorderly.Experience shows that teachers are prone to be looseand careless in bringing their stories into such a well-orderedseries of distinct topics. It is really a signof a thoughtful, logical, and judicious mastery of asubject to have thrown it thus into its prominentpoints of narration. Oral work often fails of effectivenessand thoroughness, because of these carelesshabits of teachers. Such an outline, when put intothe children's regular note-books, serves as the bestbasis for later surveys and reviews.[Pg 30] 2ff7e9595c
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