. a , -f a Charles EcLwarcf Hugh 1867-1938 1 Professor of Education University of California SPECIAL METHOD IN READING IN THE GRADES THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO MACMILLAN & CO., Limited LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. TORONTO SPECIAL METHOD IN READING IN THE GRADES INCLUDING THE ORAL TREATMENT OF STORIES AND THE READING OF CLASSICS BY CHARLES A. McMURRY, Ph.D. OF STATE NORMAL SCHOOL DE KALB, ILLINOIS Nefo ffotft THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1908 Ail rights reserved Copyright, 19035" 1908, By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. Set up and electrotyped. New edition, November, 1908. Norhjootj tresis J. S. Cushing Co. —Berwick & Smith Co. Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. PREFACE This book is a combination of two earlier volumes, namely, "The Special Method in Primary Reading and Oral Work with Stories ,, and "The Special Method in the Reading of English Classics. ,, Several of the chapters have been shortened, while the chapter of Illustrative Lessons in the latter part has been enlarged. The purpose has been to discuss, in a practical and comprehensive way, the problem of introducing chil- dren to our best reading material and to the art of reading. The entire course of study for reading in the eight grades is included in this plan. t*J«} IVKoY* N CONTENTS CHAPTER I PAGE The Reason for Oral Work in Stories i CHAPTER II The Basis of Skill in Oral Work . . • .16 CHAPTER III First Grade Stories 47 CHAPTER IV Second Grade Stories 75 CHAPTER V Third Grade Stories 98 CHAPTER VI Method in Primary Reading 112 CHAPTER VII Exercises and Lessons . 129 CHAPTER VIII List of Books for Primary Grades . . . .143 vii Vlll CONTENTS CHAPTER IX FAGE Educational Value of Literature . . . .152 CHAPTER X The Use of Masterpieces as Wholes . . .184 CHAPTER XI Literary Materials for the Five Upper Grades . 210 CHAPTER XII Class-room Method in Reading 245 CHAPTER XIII Illustrative Lessons in Reading .... 282 CHAPTER XIV The Value of Classics to a Teacher . . . 302 CHAPTER XV List of Books 331 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING IN THE GRADES >N FOR ORAL WORK IN STORIES 3 ' elders. They will take what we "t at its full worth or worthless- e things as the tender plant COMBINED SPECIAL METHOD IN READING, INCLUDING THE ORAL TREATMENT OF STORIES CHAPTER I The Reason for Oral Work in Stories The telling and reading of stories to children in early years, before they have mastered the art of reading, is of such importance as to awaken the serious thought of parents and teachers. To older people it is a source of constant surprise — the at- tentive interest which children bestow upon stories. Almost any kind of a story will command their wide- awake thought. But the tale which they can fully understand and enjoy has a unique power to concen- trate their mental energy. There is an undivided, unalloyed absorption of mind in good stories which augurs well for all phases of later effort. To get children into this habit of undivided mental energy, of singleness of purpose in study, is most promising. In primary grades, the fluttering, scatter-brained tru- ancy of thought is the chronic obstacle to success in study. The telling or reading of stories to children natu- >ING . little ones are old *r and father, the aunts ... *»j uiit, c*ny older person who delights in children, find true comfort and entertainment in re- hearsing the famous stories to children. The Mother Goose, the fables, the fairy tales, the "Arabian Nights," Eugene Field's and Stevenson's poems of child life, the Bible stories, the myths, and some of the old ballads have untold treasures for children. If one has a voice for singing the old melodies, the charm of music intensifies the effect. Little ones quickly memorize what delights them, and not sel- dom, after two or three readings, children of three and four years will be heard repeating whole poems or large parts of them. The repetition of the songs and stories till they become thoroughly familiar gives them their full educative effect. They become a part of the permanent furniture of the mind. If the things which the children learn in early years have been well selected from the real treasures of the past (of which there is a goodly store), the seeds of true culture have been deeply sown in their affections. The opportunities of the home for good story- telling are almost boundless. Parents who perceive its worth and are willing to take time for it, find in this early period greater opportunity to mould the lives of children and put them into sympathetic touch with things of beauty and value than at any other time. At this age children are well-nigh wholly at THE REASON FOR ORAL WORK IN STORIES 3 the mercy of their elders. They will take what we give them and take it at its full worth or worthless- ness. They absorb these things as the tender plant absorbs rain and sunshine. The kindergarten has naturally found in the story one of its chief means of effectiveness. Stories, songs, and occupations are its staples. Dealing with this same period of early childhood, before the more taxing work of the school begins, it finds that the children's minds move with that same freedom and spontaneity in these stories with which their bodies and physical energies disport themselves in games and occupations. It is fortunate for childhood that we have such wholesome and healthful material, which is fitted to give a child's mental action a well-rounded com- pleteness. His will, his sensibility, and his knowing faculty, all in one harmonious whole, are brought into full action. In short, not a fragment but the whole child is focus sed and concentrated upon one absorbing object of thought The value of the oral treatment of stories is found in the greater clearness and interest with which they can be presented orally. There is a keener realism, a closer approximation to experimental facts, to the situations, the hardships, to the sorrows and triumphs of persons. The feelings and impulses of the actors in the story are felt more sharply. The reality of the surrounding conditions and difficulties is presented so 4 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING that a child transports himself by the power of sym- pathy and imagination into the scenes described. There is no way by which this result can be accom- plished in early years except by the oral presentation of stories. Until the children have learned to read and have acquired sufficient mastery of the art of reading so that it is easy and fluent, there is no way by which they can get at good stories for themselves. Average children require about three years to acquire this mastery of the reading art. Not many children read stories from books, with enjoyment and appre- ciation, till they are nine or ten years old ; but from the age of four to ten they are capable of receiving an infinite amount of instruction and mental stimulus from hearing good stories. In fact, many of the best stories ever produced in the history of the world can be thoroughly enjoyed by children before they have learned to read. This is true of Grimm's and Ander- sen's stories, of the myths of Hiawatha and Norse- land, and of the early Greeks, of the Bible stories, the "Arabian Nights/' "Robin Hood," besides many other stories, poems, ballads, and biographies which are among the best things in our literature. In these early years the minds of children may be enriched with a f urnishment of ideas of much value for all their future use, a sort of capital well invested, which will bring rich returns. Minds early fertilized with this variety of thought material become more flexible, productive, and acquisitive. THE REASON FOR ORAL WORK IN STORIES 5 For many years, and even centuries, it was sup- posed that early education could furnish children with little except the forms and instruments of knowledge, the tools of acquisition, such as ability to read, spell, and write, and to use simple numbers. But the sus- ceptibility of younger children to the powerful cul- ture influence of story, poem, and nature study, was overlooked. We now have good reason to believe that there is no period when the educative and refining influ- ences of good literature in the form of poems and story can be made so effective as in this early period from four to ten years. That period which has been long almost wholly devoted to the dry formalities and mechanics of knowledge, to the dull and oftentimes benumbing drills of alphabets, spelling, and arithmeti- cal tables, is found to be capable of a fruitful study of stories, fables, and myths, and an indefinite exten- sion of ideas and experiences in nature observation. But the approach to these sunny fields of varied and vivid experience is not through books, except as the teacher's mind has assimilated their materials and prepared them for lively presentation. The oral speech through which the stories are given to children is completely familiar to them, so that they, unencumbered by the forms of language, can give their undivided thought to the story. Oral speech is, therefore, the natural channel through which stories should come in early years. The book 6 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING is at first wholly foreign to them, and it takes them three years or more of greater or less painful effort to get such easy mastery of printed forms as to gain ready access to thought in books. A book, when first put into the hands of a child, is a complete obstruction to thought. The oral story, on the con- trary, is a perfectly transparent medium of thought. A child can see the meaning of a story through oral speech as one sees a landscape through a clear win- dow-pane. If a child, therefore, up to the age of ten, is to get many and delightsome views into the fruitful fields of story-land, this miniature world of all realities, this repository of race ideas, it must be through oral speech which he has already acquired in the years of babyhood. It is an interesting blunder of teachers, and one that shows their unreflecting acceptance of tradi- tional customs, to assume that the all-absorbing prob- lem of primary instruction is the acquisition of a new book language (the learning to read), and to ignore that rich mother tongue, already abundantly famil- iar, as an avenue of acquisition and culture. But we are now well convinced that the ability to read is an instrument of culture, not culture itself, and prima- rily the great object of education is to inoculate the children with the ideas of our civilization. The forms of expression are also of great value, but they are secondary and incidental as compared with the world of ideas. THE REASON FOR ORAL WORK IN STORIES 7 There is an intimate connection between learning to read and the oral treatment of stories in primary schools which is very interesting and suggestive to the teacher. Routine teachers may think it a waste of time to stop for the oral presentation of stories. But the more thoughtful and sympathetic teacher will think it better to stimulate the child's mind than to cram his memory. The young mind fertilized by ideas is quicker to learn the printed forms than a mind barren of thought. Yet this proposition needs to be seen and illustrated in many forms. Children should doubtless make much progress in learning to read in the first year of school. But coincident with these exercises in primary reading, and, as a general thing, preliminary to them, is a lively and interested acquaintance with the best stories. It is a fine piece of educative work to cul- tivate in children, at the beginning of school life, a real appreciation and enjoyment of a few good stories. These stories, thus rendered familiar, and others of similar tone and quality, may serve well as a part of the reading lessons. It is hardly possible to cultivate this literary taste in the reading books alone, un- relieved by oral work. The primers and first readers, when examined, will give ample proof of this state- ment. In spite of the utmost effort of skilled primary teachers to make attractive books for pri- mary children, our primers and first readers show unmistakable signs of their formal and mechanical character. They are essentially drill books. 8 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING It seems well, therefore, to have in primary schools two kinds of work in connection with story and reading, the oral work in story-telling, reproduc- tion, expression, etc., and the drill exercises in learn- ing to read. The former will keep up a wide-awake interest in the best thought materials suitable for children, the latter will gradually acquaint them with the necessary forms of written and printed language. Moreover, the interest aroused in the stories is con- stantly transferring itself to the reading lessons and giving greater spirit and vitality even to the primary efforts at learning to read. In discussing the method of primary reading we shall have occasion to men- tion the varied devices of games, activities, drawings, dramatic action, blackboard exercises, and picture work, by which an alert primary teacher puts life and motive into early reading work, but fully as important as all these things put together is the growing insight and appreciation for good stories. When a child makes the discovery, as Hugh Miller said, "that learning to read is learning to get stories out of books " he has struck the chord that should vibrate through all his future life. The real motive for reading is to get something worth the effort of reading. Even if it takes longer to accomplish the result in this way, the result when accomplished is in all respects more valuable. But it is probable that children will learn to read fully as soon who spend a good share of their time in oral story work. THE REASON FOR ORAL WORK IN STORIES 9 In discussing the literary materials used in the first four grades, we suggest the following grading of certain large groups of literary matter, and the rela- tion of oral work to the reading in each subsequent grade is clearly marked. Oral Work. Reading. j st Grade. Games, Mother Goose. Lessons based on Games, etc. Fables, Fairy Tales. Board Exercises. Nature Myths, Child Poems. Primers, First Readers. Simple Myths, Stories, etc. 2d Grade, Robinson Crusoe. Fables, Fairy Tales. Hiawatha. Myths and Poems. Seven Little Sisters. Second Readers. Hiawatha Primer. 3d Grade. Greek and Norse Myths. Robinson Crusoe. Ballads and Legendary Stories. Andersen's & Grimm's Tales. Ulysses, Jason, Siegfried. Child's Garden of Verses. Old Testament Stories. Third Readers. 4th Grade. American Pioneer History Greek and Norse Myths. Stories. Historical Ballads. Early Biographical Stories of Ulysses, Arabian Nights. Europe, as Alfred, Solon, Hiawatha, Wonder Book. Arminius, etc. This close dependence of reading proper, in earlier years, upon the oral treatment of stories as a pre- liminary, is based fundamentally upon the idea that suitable and interesting thought matter is the true basis of progress in reading, and that the strengthen- ing of the taste for good books is a much greater thing than the mere acquisition of the art of reading. The motive with which children read or try to learn to read is, after all, of the greatest consequence. IO SPECIAL METHOD IN READING The old notion that children must first learn to read and then find, through the mastery of this art, the entrance to literature is exactly reversed. First awaken a desire for things worth reading, and then incorporate these and similar stories into the regular reading exercises as far as possible. In accordance with this plan, children, by the time they are nine or ten years old, will become heartily acquainted with three or four of the great classes of literature, the fables, fairy tales, myths, and such world stories as Crusoe, Aladdin, Hiawatha, and Ulysses. Moreover, the oral treatment will bring these persons and actions closer to their thought and experience than the later reading alone could do. In fact, if children have reached their tenth year without enjoying those great forms of literature that are appropriate to childhood, there is small prospect that they will ever acquire a taste for them. They have passed beyond the age where a liking for such literature is most easily and naturally cultivated. They move on to other things. They have passed through one great stage of education and have emerged with a meagre and barren outfit. The importance of oral work as a lively means of entrance to studies is seen also in other branches besides literature. In geography and history the first year or two of introductory study is planned for the best schools in the form of oral narrative and discussion. Home THE REASON FOR ORAL WORK IN STORIES II geography in the third or fourth year, and history stories in the fourth and fifth years of school, are best presented without a text book by the teacher. Although the children have already overcome, to some extent, the difficulty of reading, so great is the power of oral presentation and discussion to vivify and realize geographical and historical scenes that the book is discarded at first for the oral treat- ment. In natural science also, from the first year on the teacher must employ an oral method of treatment. The use of books is not only impossible, but even after the children have learned to read, it would defeat the main purpose of instruction to make books the chief means of study. The ability to observe and discern things, to use their own senses in dis- criminating and comparing objects, in experiments and investigations, is the fundamental purpose. In language lessons, again, it is much better to use a book only as a guide and to handle the lessons orally, collecting examples and stories from other studies as the basis for language discussions. It is apparent from this brief survey that an oral method is appropriate to the early treatment of all the common school studies, that it gives greater vivacity, intensity, simplicity, and clearness to all such introductory studies. The importance of story-telling and the initiatior of children into the delightful fields of lite^ " 12 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING through the teacher rather than through the book are found to harmonize with a mode of treatment common to all the studies in early years. In this connection it is interesting to observe that the early literature of the European nations was developed and communicated to the people by word of mouth. The Homeric songs were chanted or sung at the courts of princes. At Athens, in her palmy days, the great dramatists and poets either recited their productions to the people or had them presented to thousands of citizens in the open-air theatres. Even historians like Thucidides read or recited their great histories before the assembled people. In the early history of England, Scotland, and other countries, the minstrels sang their ballads and epic poems in the baronial halls and thus de- veloped the early forms of music and poetry. Shakespeare wrote his dramas for the theatre, and he seems to have paid no attention at all to their appearance in book form, never revising them or putting them into shape for the press. This practice of all the early races of putting their great literature before the people by song, dramatic action, and word of mouth is very suggestive to the teacher. The power and effectiveness of this mode of presentation, not only in early times but even in the highly civilized cities of London and Athens, is unmistakable proof of the educative value of such the^s of teaching. This is only another indication THE REASON FOR ORAL WORK IN STORIES 1 3 of the kinship of child life with race life, which has been emphasized by many great thinkers. The oral method offers a better avenue for all vig- orous modes of expression than the reading book. It can be observed that the general tendency of the book is toward a formal, expressionless style in young readers. Go into a class where the teacher is handling a story orally and you will see her falling naturally into all forms of vivid narrative and pres- entation, gesture, facial expression, versatile intona- tion, blackboard sketching and picture work, the impersonation of characters in dialogue, dramatic action, and general liveliness of manner. The chil- dren naturally take up these same activities and modes of uttering themselves. Even without the suggestion of teachers, little children express themselves in such actions, attitudes, and impersonations. This may be often observed in little boys and girls of kindergarten age, when telling their experiences to older persons, or when playing among themselves. The freedom, activity, and vivacity of children is, indeed, in strong contrast to the apathetic, expressionless, monotonous style of many grown people, including teachers. But the oral treatment of stories has a tendency to work out into modes of activity even more effective than those just described. In recent years, since so much oral work has been done in elementary schools, children have been en- couraged also to express themselves freely in black- 14 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING board drawings and in pencil work at their desks by way of illustrating the stories told. Moreover, in paper cutting, to represent persons and scenes, in clay modelling, to mould objects presented, and in constructive and building efforts, in making forts, tents, houses, tools, dress, and in showing up modes of life, the children have found free scope for their physical and mental activities. These have not only led to greater clearness and vividness in their men- tal conceptions, but have opened out new fields of self- activity and inventiveness. So long as work in reading and literature was con- fined to the book exercises, nearly all these modes of expression were little employed and even tabooed. Finally, the free use of oral narrative in the litera- ture of early years, in story-telling and its attendant modes of expression, opens up to primary teachers a rare opportunity of becoming genuine educators. There was a time, and it still continues with many primary teachers, when teaching children to read was a matter of pure routine, of formal verbal drills and repetitions, as tiresome to the teacher, if possible, as to the little ones. But now that literature, with its treasures of thought and feeling, of culture and re- finement, has become the staple of the primary school, teachers have a wide and rich field of inspir- ing study. The mastery and use of much of the preferred literature which has dropped down to us out of the past is the peculiar function of the pri- THE REASON FOR ORAL WORK IN STORIES 1 5 mary teacher. Contact with great minds, like those of Kingsley, Ruskin, Andersen, the Grimm brothers, Stevenson, Dickens, Hawthorne, De Foe, Browning, ^Esop, Homer, and the unknown authors of many of the best ballads, epics, and stories, is enough to give the primary teacher a sense of the dignity of her work. On the other hand, the opportunity to give to children the free and versatile development of their active powers is an equal encouragement. Teachers who have taken up with zeal this great problem of introducing children to their full birth- right, the choice literature of the world suited to their years, and of linking this story work with primary reading so as to give it vitality, — such teachers have found school life assuming new and unwonted charms; the great problems of the educator have become theirs; the broadened opportunity for the acquisition of varied skill and professional efficiency has given a strong ambitious tone to their work. CHAPTER II The Basis of Skill in Oral Work Accepting the statement that skill in oral presen- tation of a story is a prime demand in early educa- tion, the important question for teachers is how to cultivate their resources in this phase of teaching, how to become good story-tellers. It may be remarked that, for the great majority of people, story-telling is not a gift but an acquisition. There are, of course, occasional geniuses, but they may be left out of consideration. They are not often found in the schoolroom any more than in other walks of life. What we need is a practical, sensible development of a power which we all possess in varying degrees. Nor is it the fluent, volatile, verbose talker who makes a good oral teacher, but rather one who can see and think clearly : one who knows how to combine his ideas and experiences into clear and connected series of thought. We may proceed, therefore, to a discussion of the needs and resources of a good story-teller. i. Without much precaution it may be stated that he should have a rich experience in all the essential realities of human life. This covers a large field of 16 THE BASIS OF SKILL IN ORAL WORK 1 7 common things and refers rather to contact with life than to mere book knowledge. Yet it is the depth, heartiness, and variety of knowledge rather than the source from which it springs that concerns us. Books often give us just this deep penetrating ex- perience, as soon as we learn how to select and use them. We need to know human life directly and in all sorts of acts, habits, feelings, motives, and conditions, — something as Shakespeare knew it, only within the compass of our narrower possibili- ties. Likewise the physical world with its visible and invisible forces and objects besetting us on every side. These things must impress themselves upon us vividly in detail as well as in the bulk. The hand that has been calloused by skill-producing labor, the back that aches with burdens bravely borne, the brain that has sweat with strong effort, are expres- sions of this kind of knowledge of the world. Clear- grained perceptions are acquired from many sources : from travel, labor, books, reflection, sickness, observa- tion. I go to-day into a small shop where heavy oak beer-kegs are made, and watch the man working this refractory material into water-tight kegs that will stand hard usage at the hands of hard drinkers for twenty years. If my mind has been at work as I watch this man for an hour, with his heavy rough staves made by hand, his tools and machines, his skill and strong muscular action, the amount and profit of his labor, that man's work has gone deep 1 8 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING into my whole being. I can almost live his life in an hour's time, and feel its contact with the acute problems of our modern industrial life. That is a kind of knowledge and experience worth fully as much as a sermon in Trinity Church or a University lecture. The teacher needs a great store of these concrete facts and illustrations. Without them he is a car- penter without tools or boards. He needs to know industries, occupations, good novels, typical life scenes, sunsets, sorrows, joys, inventions, poets, farmers — all such common, tangible things. Even from fools and blackguards he can get experiences that will last him a lifetime if they only strike in and do not flare off into nothingness. Social experience in all sorts of human natures, disposition, and environing circumstance is immedi- ately valuable to the teacher. Close acquaintance with children, with their early feelings and experiences, with their timidity or bold- ness, with their whims or conceits, their dislikes and preferences, their enthusiasms and interests, with their peculiar home and neighborhood experiences and surroundings, with their games and entertainments, with the books and papers they read, with their dolls and playthings, their vacations and outings, with their pets and playhouses, with their tools and mechanical contrivances — all these and other like realities of child life put the teacher on a footing THE BASIS OF SKILL IN ORAL WORK 1 9 of possible appreciation and sympathy with children. These are the materials and facts which a good teacher knows how to work up in oral recitations. Of course the kindly, sympathetic social mood which is not fretted by others* frailties and perversi- ties, but, like Irving or Addison, exhibits a liberal charity or humorous affection for all things human, is a fortunate possession or acquisition for the teacher. 2. It may be said also, without fear of violent con- tradiction, that a teacher needs to be a master of the story he is about to tell. It may be well to spread out to view the important things necessary to such a mastery. The reading over of the story till its facts and episodes have become familiar and can be repro- duced in easy narrative is at least a minimum re- quirement. Even this moderate demand is much more serious than the old text-book routine in history or reading, where the teacher, with one eye on the book, the other on the class, and his finger at the place, managed to get the questions before the class in a fixed order. Let us look a little beneath the surface of the story. What is its central idea, the author's aim or motive in producing it ? Not a little effort and reflec- tion may be necessary to get at the bottom of this question. Some of the most famous stories, like " Alad- din," "Gulliver's Travels," and the "City Musicians," may be so wild and wayward as to elude or blunt the point of this question. The story may have a hard 20 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING shell, but the sharp teeth of reflection will get at the sweet kernel within, else the story is not worth while. In some of the stories, like " Baucis and Philemon,'* "The Great Stone Face," "The Pied Piper of Hame- lin," " The Discontented Pine Tree," and " Hiawa- tha's Fasting," the main truth is easily reflected from the story and caught up even by the children. This need for getting at the heart of the story is clearly seen in all the subsequent work. It is the exercise of such a critical judgment which qualifies the teacher to discriminate between good and poor stories. In the treatment of the story the essential topics are laid out upon the basis of this controlling idea or motive. The leading aims and carefully worded questions point toward this central truth. The side lights and attendant episodes are arranged with reference to it like the scenes in a drama. The effort to get at the central truth and the related ideas is a sifting-out process, a mode of assimilating and mastering the story more thorough-going than the mere memorizing of the facts and words for the pur- pose of narration. The thought-getting self -activity and common-sense logic which are involved in this mode of assimilating a story are good for both pupils and teacher. The mastery of a story needed by an oral teacher implies abundance of resource in illustrative device and explanation. When children fail to grasp an idea, it is necessary to fall back upon some familiar THE BASIS OF SKILL IN ORAL WORK 21 object or experience not mentioned in the book. Emergencies arise which tax the teacher's ingenuity to the utmost. Even the children will raise queries that baffle his wit. In preparing a story for the classroom it is necessary to see it from many sides, to foresee these problems and difficulties. Often- times the collateral knowledge derived from history or geography or from similar episodes in other stories will suggest the solution. It is a favorite maxim of college teachers and of those 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 those who are well posted in their subjects, but cannot teach, it is well to note the scope, variety, and thor- oughness of knowledge necessary to a good teacher to handle it skilfully with younger children. Besides the thorough knowledge of the subject which scholars have demanded, it requires an equally clear knowl- edge of the mental resources of children, the lan- guage which they can understand, the things which attract their interest and attention, and the ways of holding the attention of a group of children of differ- ent capacities, temper, and disposition. Any dog- matic professor 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 the story, should make trial of his skill upon a class of twenty children in the first grade. We suggest, how- 22 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING ever, that he do it quietly, without inviting in his friends to witness his triumph. No, the mastery of the subject needed for an effec- tive handling of it in oral work is different and is greater than they have yet dreamed of who think that mere objective knowledge is all that is needed by a teacher. The application of knowledge to life is generally difficult, more taxing by far than the mere acquisition of facts and principles. But the use of one's knowledge in the work of instructing young children, in getting them to acquire and assim- ilate it, is perhaps the most difficult of all forms of the application of knowledge. It is difficult because it is so complex. To think clearly and accurately on some topic for one's single self is not easy, but to get twenty children of varying capacities and weaknesses, with their stumbling, acquisitive, flaring minds, to keep step along one clear line of thought is a piece of daring enterprise. The mastery of the story, therefore, for successful oral work, must be detailed, comprehensive, many- sided, and adapted to the fluttering thoughts of child- hood. 3. The chief instrument through which the teacher communicates the story is oral speech, and this he needs to wield with discriminating skill and power. Preachers and lecturers, when called upon to talk to children, nearly always talk over their heads, using language not appropriate and comprehensible to THE BASIS OF SKILL IN ORAL WORK 23 children. Those accustomed to deal with little folks are quickly sensitive to this amateur awkwardness. Young teachers just out of the higher schools make the same blunder. They are also inclined to think that fluency and verbosity are a sign of power. But such false tinsel makes no impression upon children except confusion of thought. Children require simple, direct words, clearly defined in thought and grounded upon common experience and conviction. Facts and realities should stand behind the words of a teacher. What he seeks to marshal before chil- dren is people and things. Words should serve as photographs of objects ; instantaneous views of expe- riences. In some social and diplomatic circles words are said to conceal thought, but this kind of verbal diplomacy has no place in schools. It is an interesting question how far the language and style of the authors should be preserved by the narrator. It would be an error to forbid the exact use of the author's words and an equal error to require it. It seems reasonable to say that the teacher should become absorbed in the author's style and mode of presenting the story. This will lead to a close approximation to the author's words, without any slavish imitation. In the midst of oral presenta- tion and discussion it would be impossible to hold strictly to the original. The teacher's own language and conception of the story will press in to simplify and clarify the meaning. No one holds strictly to a 24 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING literary style in telling a story. Conversational ideas and original momentary impulses of thought demand their own forms of utterance. And yet it is well to appropriate the style and expression of the writer so as to accustom the children to the best forms. A few very apt and forcible sentences will be found in any good author which the teacher will naturally employ. But the teacher must have freedom. When he has once thoroughly appropriated the story he must give vent to his own spontaneity and power. Later, when the children come to read these stories, they will enjoy them in their full literary form. 4. The power of clear and interesting presentation of a story is one of the chief professional acquisitions of a good primary teacher. It involves many things besides language, including liveliness of manner, gesture, facial expression, action, dramatic imperso- nation, skill in blackboard illustration, good humor and tact in working with children, a strong imagina- tion, and a real appreciation for the literature adapted to children. Perhaps the fundamental need is simplicity and clearness of thought and language combined with a pleasing and attractive manner. Vague and incom- prehensible thoughts and ideas are all out of place. The teacher should be strict with himself in this matter, and while reading and mastering the story, should use compulsion upon himself to arrive at an THE BASIS OF SKILL IN ORAL WORK 25 unmistakable clearness of thought. The objects, buildings, palaces, woods, caves, animals, persons, and places should be sharply imaged by the imagina- tion ; the feelings and passions of the actors should be keenly realized. Often a vague and uncertain conception needs to be scanned, the passage reread, and the notion framed into clearness. In describing the palace of the sleeping beauty, begirt with woods, the sentinels standing statuelike at the portal, the lords and ladies at their employments, the teacher should think out the entrance way, hall, rooms, and persons of the palace so clearly that his thought and language will not stumble over uncertainties. Trans- parent clearness and directness of thought are the result of effort and circumspection. They are well worth the pains required to gain them. A teacher who thinks clearly will generate clear habits of thought in children. The power of interesting narrative and description is not easily explained. It is a thing not readily analyzed into its elements. Perhaps the best way to find out what it is may be discovered by reading the great story-tellers, such as Macaulay, Irving, Kings- ley, De Foe, Hawthorne, Homer, Plutarch, Scott, and Dickens. Novelists like George Eliot, Vic- tor Hugo, Cooper, Scott, and Dickens, possess this secret also, and even some of the historians, as Herodotus, Fiske, Green, Parkman, Motley, and others. It is not so important that a teacher should 26 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING give a cold analysis of their qualities as that he should fall insensibly into the vivid and realistic style of the best story-tellers. One who has read Pyle's Robin Hood stories until they are familiar will, to a considerable extent, appropriate his fertile and happy Old-English style, the sturdy English spirit of bold Robin, his playful humor, and his apt utterance of homely truths. There are certain qualities that stand out prom- inently in the good story-tellers. They are simple and concrete in their descriptions, they deal very little in general, vague statements or abstractions, they hold closely to the persons of the story in the midst of interesting surroundings, they are profuse in the use of distinct figures of speech, appealing to the fancy or imagination. They often have a humor- ous vein which gives infinite enjoyment and spreads a happy charity throughout the world. The art of graphic illustration on the blackboard is in almost constant demand in oral work. Even rude and untechnical sketches by teachers who have no acquired skill in artistic drawing are of the great- est value in giving a quick and accurate perception of places, buildings, persons, and surrounding condi- tions of a story or action. The map of Crusoe's island, the drawings to represent his tent, cave, boat, country residence, fortifications, dress, utensils, and battles are natural and simple modes of realizing clearly his labors and adventures. They save much THE BASIS OF SKILL IN ORAL WORK 2J verbal description and circumlocution. The teacher needs to acquire absolute boldness and freedom in using such illustrative devices. The children will, of course, catch this spirit, as they are by nature inclined to use drawing as a mode of expression. A similar freedom in the teacher is necessary in the use of bodily action, gesture, and facial expression in story-telling. The teacher needs to become nat- ural, childlike, and mobile in these things; for chil- dren are naturally much given to such demonstrations in the expression of their thought. Little girls of three and four years in the home, when free from self-consciousness, are marvellously and delightfully expressive by means of eyes, gestures, hands, and arms and whole bodily attitudes. Why should not this naive expressiveness be gently fostered in the school ? Indeed it is, and in many schools the little ones are as happy and whole-souled and spontaneous in their modes of expression as we have suggested. Dramatization, if cultivated, extends a teacher's gamut of expressiveness. Our inability or slowness to respond to this suggestion is a sign of a certain nar- rowness or cramp in our culture and training. In Nor- mal schools where young teachers are trained in the art of reading, the dramatic instinct should be strongly developed. The power to other one's self in dra- matic action, to assume and impersonate a variety of characters, is a real expression and enlargement of the personality. It demands sympathy and feeling as 28 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING well as intellectual insight. The study and reading of the great dramatists, the seeing of good plays, amateur efforts in this direction, the frequent oral reading of Shakespeare, Dickens, and other dram- atists and novelists will cultivate and enlarge the teacher's power in this worthy and wholesome art. The use of good pictures is also an important means of adding to the beauty and clearness of stories. The pictures of Indian life in " Hiawatha," the illustrated editions of " Robinson Crusoe," the copies of ancient works of art in some editions of the Greek myths, Howard Pyle's illustrated " Robin Hood," and other books of this character add greatly to the vivid- ness of ideas. Such pictures should be handled with care, not distributed promiscuously among the chil- dren while the lesson is going on. The teacher needs to study a picture, and discuss it intelligently with the children, asking questions which bring out its repre- sentative qualities. It is evident the skilful oral presentation of a story calls out no small degree of clear knowledge, force of language, illustrative device, dramatic instinct, and a freedom and versatility of action both mental and physical. 5. A clear outline of leading points in a story is a source of strength to the teacher and the basis later of good reproductive work by the children. The short stories in the first grade hardly need a formal outline, and even in second grade the sequence of THE BASIS OF SKILL IN ORAL WORK 29 ideas in a story is often so simple and easy that out- lines of leading topics may not be needed. But in third and fourth grade it is well in the preliminary study and mastery of a story to divide it up into clearly marked segments, with a distinctive title for each division. It is difficult to get teachers to do this kind of close logical work, and still more difficult to have them remember it in the midst of oral presenta- tion and discussion. If the main points of the story as thus outlined are placed upon the blackboard as the narrative advances, it keeps in mind a clear sur- vey of the whole and serves as the best basis for the children's reproduction of the story. It compels both teacher and pupils to keep to a close logical connection of ideas and a sifting out of the story to get at the main points. Without these well-con- structed outlines the memory of the story is apt to fall into uncertainty and confusion, and the children's reproduction becomes fragmentary and disorderly. Experience shows that teachers are prone to be loose and careless in bringing their stories into such a well- ordered series of distinct topics. It is really a sign of a thoughtful, logical, and judicious mastery of a subject to have thrown it thus into its prominent points of narration. Oral work often fails of effec- tiveness and thoroughness, because of these careless habits of teachers. Such an outline, when put into the children's regular note-books, serves as the best basis for later surveys and reviews. 30 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING 6. The oral narration and presentation of stories has a curious way of being turned into development lessons, in which the teacher deals in questions and problematic situations and the children work out many of the facts and incidents of the story by a series of guesses and inferences. These are well known as development lessons, and they are capable of exhibiting the highest forms of excellence in teach- ing or the most drivelling waste of time. The subject is a hard one to handle, but it needs a clear and simple elucidation as much as any problem in the teaching profession. Generally speaking it is better for young teachers not to launch out recklessly upon the full tide of development instruction. It is better to learn the handling of the craft on quieter waters. Development work needs to be well charted. The varying winds and currents, storms and calms, need to be studied and experienced before one may become a good ship's master. Let young teachers first acquire power in clear, simple, direct narration and description, using apt and forcible language and holding to a clear-cut line of thought. This is no slight task, and when once mastered and fixed in habit becomes the foundation of a wider freedom and skill in development exercises. The works of the great story-tellers furnish excellent models of this sort of skill, and teachers may follow closely in the lines struck out by Scott or Hawthorne in narrating a story. THE BASIS OF SKILL IN ORAL WORK 3 1 A book story cannot do otherwise than simply narrate; it cannot develop, set problems and ques- tions and have children to find solutions and answers. It must tell the facts and answer the questions. But in oral narration there is room not only for all the skill of the story-writer, but also the added force of voice, personality, lively manner, gesture, action, and close adaptation to the immediate needs of children and subject. This is enough to command the undi- vided effort of the young teacher at first, without entering the stormy waters and shifting currents of pure development work. Yet the spirited teacher will not go far in narrating a story without a tendency to ask questions to inten- sify the children's thought, or to quicken the discus- sion of interesting points. Even if the teachers or parents are but reading a good story from a book, it is most natural, at times, to ask questions about the meaning of certain new words, or geographical locations, or probabilities in the working out of the story. These are the simple beginnings of develop- ment work, and produce greater thoughtfulness, keener perceptions of the facts, and a better absorp- tion of the story into a child's previous knowledge. A sharp limitation of development work is also found in the circumstance that a large share of the facts in a story cannot by any sort of ingenuity be developed. They form the necessary basis for later development questions. Even many of the facts 32 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING which might be developed by a skilful teacher arc better told directly, because of the difficulty and time-devouring nature of the process. There may be a few central problems in every story, which, after the necessary facts and conditions have been plainly told, can be thoroughly sifted out by questions, an- swers, and discussions. But to work out all the little details of a story by question and surmise, to get the crude, unbaked opinions of all the members of a class upon every episode and fact in a story, is a pitiful caricature of good instruction. The purpose of good development work is to get children to go deeper into the meaning of a story, to realize its situations more keenly, and to acquire habits of thoughtfulness, self-reliant judgment, and inventiveness in solving difficulties. These results, and they are among the chiefest set for the educator, cannot be accomplished by mere narration and de- scription. Their superior excellence and worth are the prize of that superior skill which first-class devel- opment work demands. With these preliminary remarks, criticisms, and limitations in mind, we may inquire what are the es- sentials of good development work in oral lessons. (i) Determine what parts of a story are capable of development ; what facts must be clearly present to the mind before questions can be put and inferences derived. In a problem in arithmetic we first state the known facts, the conditions upon which a solu- THE BASIS OF SKILL IN ORAL WORK 33 tion can be based, and then put a question whose answer is to be gained by a proper conjunction and inference from these facts. The same thing is true in reasoning upon the facts in a story. (2) In placing a topic before children it is always advisable to touch up the knowledge already pos- sessed by the children, or any parts of their previous experience which have strong interpretative ideas for the new lesson. At this point apt questions which probe quickly into their previous knowledge and experience are at a premium. The teacher needs to have considered beforehand in what particulars the children's home surroundings and peculiar cir- cumstances may furnish the desired knowledge. The form of the questions may also receive close atten- tion. For these words must provoke definite thought. They should have hooks on them which quickly drag experience into light. (3) In order to give direction to the children's thoughts on the story's line of progress, interesting aims should be set up. These aims, without antici- pating precise results, must guide the children towards the desired ends and turning-points in the story. The mind should be kept in suspense as to the outcome, and the thoughts should centre and play about these clearly projected aims. Such aims, floating constantly in the van, are the objective points, towards which the energy of thought is directed. Every good story-teller keeps such aims 34 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING expressly or tacitly in view. Novelists and drama- tists hinge the interest of readers or spectators upon this curiosity which is kept acutely sensitive about results. Such an aim should be simple and concrete, not vague or abstract, or general. It may be put in the form of a question or statement or suggestion. It will be a good share of the teacher's work in the preparation of the lesson to pick out and word these aims which centre upon the leading topics of the lesson. For it is not enough to have an aim at the beginning of a story, every chapter or separate part of the story should have its aim. For aims are what stimulate effort and keep up an attentive interest. (4) Self-activity and thoughtfulness in working out problems find their best opportunity in develop- ment work. The book, in narrating a story, cannot set problems, or, if it does, it forthwith assumes the task of solving them. But in the oral development of a story the essential facts and conditions may be clearly presented and the solution of the difficulties, as in arithmetic, left largely to the ingenuity and reasoning power of the children. In the story of Hiawatha's boat-building the problem may be set to the children as to what materials he will use in the construction of the canoe, how the parts were put together, and how he might decorate it. Not that the children will give the whole solution, but they can contribute much to it. In " Robinson Crusoe " THE BASIS OF SKILL IN ORAL WORK 35 many such problems arise. How shall he conceal his cave and house from possible enemies ? Where can he store his powder to keep it from the lightning and from dampness ? In fact, nearly every step in Crusoe's interesting career is such a problem or diffi- culty to battle with. In Kingsley's " Greek Heroes " and other renderings of the Greek myths, the heroes are young men who have shrewdness, courage, and strength to overcome difficulties. To put these diffi- culties before children in such a way that they by their own thinking may anticipate, in part at least, the proper solutions, is one of the chief merits of development work. The story of Ulysses is a series of shrewd contrivances to master difficulties or to avoid misfortunes, so that his name has become a synonym for shrewdness. The story itself, therefore, furnishes prime opportunities to develop resourceful- ness. How shall he escape from the enraged Poly- phemos in the cave ? His invention of the wooden horse before Troy ; his escape from the sirens ; his battle with the suitors and others. The story of Aladdin has such interesting inventions, and even the fairy tales and fables have many turns of shrewd- ness and device where the children's wits may be stimulated. The turning-points and centres of interest in all such stories are the true wrestling- grounds of thought. To put them point-blank before children in continuous narrative, without question or discussion, is not the way to produce thoughtful- 36 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING ness and inventive power. Merely reading or telling stories to children without comment is entertaining, but not educative in the better sense. Children will have plenty of chances at home and in the school library to read and hear stories, but it is the business of the school to teach them how to think as they read, to produce a habit of foreseeing, reviewing, comparing, and judging. The serious defect of much of young people's reading, from ten years on, is its superficial, transitory character. It lacks depth, strength, and permanency. It is not many stories that can be orally treated in this thorough-going way, but enough to give the right idea, and to cultivate habit and taste for more thoughtful study. For skilled teachers, therefore, development lessons, within certain limits, constitute a most important phase of oral instruction. It has been sometimes assumed that a child acquires greater self-reliance and a stronger exercise in self-activity by learning his lesson by himself from a book. This is probably true in much of the arithmetic, where he works out the solution of problems unaided ; but in history and literature the book work is chiefly memory work, and oftentimes becomes of such parrot-like character as to be almost destitute of higher educative quali- ties. It is advisable, therefore, to strengthen the educative value of story work by giving it, through oral instruction, this problem-solving character, this thought-stimulating, self-reliant attitude of mind. THE BASIS OF SKILL IN ORAL WORK 37 7. When the teacher has shown his best skill in presenting and discussing a section of a story, it then devolves upon the children to show their knowledge and grasp of the subject by reproducing it. The task of getting this well done requires, perhaps, as much skill and force of character as all previous work of oral instruction. Obstacles are met with at once. It is dull work to go back over the same thing again, and the children soon get tired of it. They want something new and more exciting, and press for the rest of the story. Many children are at first deficient in power of attention and in language, so that their efforts at reproduction are clumsy and poor. The interest is weak, the attention of the children scattering, and the class is apt to go to pieces under the strain of such dull work. This is an emergency where a teacher needs both skill and force of char- acter. (What a comfort it is to a writer to have such a platitude as this to fall back upon, when he gets a teacher into a place where nothing but his own devices can save him.) There are, however, some hopeful considerations which may encourage a teacher whose feet are not already too deep in the bog of discouragement. Children enjoy the retelling of good stories with which they are familiar. They will do it at home, even if they are not very proficient at it in school. In every class there are some talkative children who are always willing to make an effort. Again, it is 38 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING not always difficult to interest boys and girls in doing a thing that requires skill and power, such as memory, attentiveness, and mastery of correct language. The force of the teacher's influence and authority is worth something in setting up high standards of proficiency. Indeed, children respect a teacher who makes rigor- ous demands upon them. The retelling of stories is, after all, no harder nor duller than the reciting of a lesson learned out of a book. On the other hand, the whole effectiveness of oral work depends upon the success of these oral repro- ductions. If children know that the teacher is in earnest they will be more attentive, so as to be able to fulfil the requirement. Such a reproduction reveals at once a child's correct or incorrect grasp of the subject, and in either case the teacher knows what to do next. Errors and misconceptions can be corrected and such explanations or additional facts given as will clarify the subject. In such reproductions it is praiseworthy to help the children as little as possible, to throw them back upon their own power as much as possible. If the teacher constantly relieves them with suggestive ques- tions, they lean more and more upon her direction and lose all self-reliant power of continuous narra- tive. No, let the teacher keep a prudent silence, let her seal her lips, if necessary, in order to teach boys and girls to stand on their own power of thought. Under this sort of discipline, kindly but rigorous, THE BASIS OF SKILL IN ORAL WORK 39 children will gradually acquire confidence in manner, variety and choice of language, in short, the ability to grasp clearly, hold firmly, and express accurately the ideas which are presented to them. The whole purpose of this sort of instruction is not so much to see how skilfully a teacher can present a lesson (though that is a fine art) as to determine how well a boy or girl can master or express knowledge, can learn to think and speak for himself. 8. Some teachers despair of treating stories orally in large classes of primary children. The task of holding together such wriggling varieties of mental force and mental inertia is great. Some children are quick and excitable, others are unresponsive and dull. Some are timid and sensitive, others bold and demon- strative. Some are talkative and irrepressible, others silent or listless. It is interesting to consider the function and value of a good child's story to fit in to such varying needs and personalities. If the purpose of the primary school is simply to keep children busy at some kind of orderly work, there are other tamer employments than stories. But if the idea is to put children's minds and bodies into healthy, vigorous action, it would be difficult to find a more suitable instrument than a fitting story. But a good primary teacher knows better than to establish brusque and fixed standards of uniform success for all children. It will take much time and 40 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING patience to get anything like good oral responses from some children. Like budding flowers some unfold their leaves and petals much quicker at the touch of sunshine than others. But the sun does not stop shining because all do not come out at once. The crudest efforts of little children must be received with kindness and encouragement. The power of reproducing thought and language is very slowly acquired by many children. They are timidly self- conscious, distrustful of their own powers, and have not learned to throw themselves with confidence upon the good-will of their teachers. It may take months with some children to overcome these obstacles, and to bring them to a confident use of their powers, but it is the highest delight of a teacher to reach this result. Some children, on the other hand, are so talkative and impulsive that they will monopolize the time of the class to no good purpose. Their enthusiasm requires tempering and their soberer thought strength- ening. Another difficulty lies in the necessary effort to get correct English, to gradually mould the language of children into correct forms. The perverse habits of children, the influence of home and playground, the inveterate preference for slang and crude, crass expressions, and their sensitive pride against unusual refinements of speech, make the cultivation of good English an uphill task. But roads must be laid out THE BASIS OF SKILL IN ORAL WORK 4 1 through this wilderness of hills and valleys, stumps and brush. And these roads must be gradually- worked down into smooth highways of travel. It is pioneer toil, requiring the steady use of axe and mattock and spade. There is no kind of school training where good Eng- lish can be cultivated to better advantage, where the power of correct, independent, well-articulated speech can be so well strengthened as in oral story. It is in the close contact of this work that the teacher is dealing directly with the original stock of experiences, ideas, and words of every child, and with these as instruments of acquisition, helping him to get a spirited introduction to the world of ideas in books and literature. It is here that we can get a glimpse of that vast work which the elementary schools of the country are doing in the way of Americanizing the children of various nationalities and in giving them not only a common language, but a common body of ideas rooted in the earliest experiences of childhood and already laying hold of many of the richest treasures of American history and of the world's literature. 9. As children advance from the first year into the second and third years the character of the oral story- telling gradually changes. Children should acquire more power of attention, greater command of lan- guage and ability to grasp and hold at one telling a larger section of a story. The stories themselves 42 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING become more complex, the questions and problems set by the teacher more difficult. The necessity for sharp, logical outlines of leading topics increases as one advances in the grades. Older children can be held more rigidly to common standards of excel- lence in thought and language. In this, however, the teacher should always remember that children differ greatly in their natural powers of expression, and that a forcing process will not be so successful as a stimulating and encouraging attitude in the teacher. 10. The good oral treatment of most stories leads the children to much activity in material construc- tions. Where the minds of children are brought to a healthy activity their bodies and physical energies are pretty sure to be called into play to work out the suggested lines of thought. " Robinson Crusoe" in- variably leads the children to a multitude of building and making enterprises, such as moulding vessels in clay, constructing the barricade around his tent and cave, the making of chairs and tables, etc. We have already noticed the readiness of children to make blackboard or other drawings of interesting objects in a story, or to cut them out with scissors from paper. This effort to experience the realities of life more directly by making objects of common utility and necessity is a characteristic and powerful tendency of childhood. It is commonly seen in children about the house, when, for example, they THE BASIS OF SKILL IN ORAL WORK 43 must have wagons, wheelbarrows, tools, or a set of garden implements with which to imitate the employ- ments of their elders. Parkman and others often speak of the constant practice of little Indian boys with bow and arrows. Our purpose here is not to discuss this matter at length, but simply to notice its prominent place in connection with the oral lesson in story. The intense interest awakened in stories leads quickly to these efforts at construction. What shall the teacher do with this powerful tendency of children to carry over these ideas into the field of practical constructive labor? To the thinker this tendency is perhaps the surest proof of the value of the story. It does not stop with words nor ideas. It pushes far into the region of voluntary, physical, and mental labor and application of knowledge. The teacher who will make good use of this enter- prising constructive desire of children must know defi- nitely about tools, boards, shops, various industries and technical trades, the special materials, inventions and devices of artisans in the common occupations such as farming, gardening, blacksmithing, the car- penter shop, the baker, the quarry, the brick kiln, etc It will not be strange if many teachers recoil, at first glance, from this leap into industrial life. It suggests that the schoolhouse must become a big machine shop, agricultural station, etc. The trouble is, of course, that teachers do not feel themselves 44 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING qualified in these things. They know almost as little as the children about such matters, and have much less inclination to know more. But our modern education is taking a decided turn in this direction, and with good reason. The close acquaintance of our teachers with the common occu- pations of life, with their materials, tools, machines, constructions, and skill would supply them with a rich collection of practical, concrete, illustrative knowl- edge of the greatest use in instructing children. It is impossible to mention anything which would be of more service to them in the details of instruction. The advantages to the children of such teaching, re- enforced by this concrete detail of common life, are so numerous and important as to deserve a special effort. The benefit to teachers would quickly more than recompense them for the labor involved. By occasional visits of observation in shops, fields, stores, and factories, by assisting children in their construc- tive efforts, the teacher will acquire knowledge, strength, and confidence for such work. The unfa- miliarity of teachers with these everyday industrial matters, and their feeling of helplessness as regards things not in the usual routine of school, are the real hindrances to be overcome. There are other subjects in the school course, like home geography and the early lessons in nature study, which deal more directly than stories with these practical forms of industrial life and construe- THE BASIS OF SKILL IN ORAL WORK 45 tive activity. They will also demand and cultivate an increasing knowledge of this practical phase of life and education. The lessons in oral story-telling stand thus closely linked with progressive experi- mental knowledge in other studies. A brief retrospect and summary of the require- ments necessary as a basis of good oral treatment of stories will impress us with the skill and resourceful- ness needed by the teacher. i. First-hand experience with the realities of life. 2. Intimate knowledge and sympathy with child life. 3. The many-sided mastery of the story for teach- ing purposes. 4. Skill in the use of simple, apt, and forcible language. 5. Power of narrative and description, together with various forms of graphic illustration, dramatic action, etc. 6. Clear and simple outline of leading topics. 7. Acquired power in the use of development methods, including question, problem, discussion, aims, and the training of children to self -activity and thoughtfulness. 8. The successful oral reproduction of stories by the children. 9. Tact in the handling of large classes, with children of differing temperament and capacity, and the encouragement of timid children. 46 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING 10. Changing character of oral work in advancing grades. ii. The need of insight and ability to supervise constructive activities. These things include a wide range of clear knowl- edge and confident skill and resource. Teachers need first of all to cultivate resourcefulness in the use of their own knowledge and experience, and to add to both of these as rapidly as circumstances permit. The mere reading of stories to children by the teacher, at odd times, on Friday afternoons or on special occasions, is also of much value as a means of interesting children in a wide range of good books. It is a source of entertainment and culture, which, when judiciously and skilfully employed, adds much to the educative power of the school. CHAPTER III First Grade Stories fairy tales Young children, as we all know, are delighted with stories, and in the first grade they are still in this story-loving period. A good story is the best medium through which to convey ideas and also to approach the difficulties of learning to read. Such a story, Wilmann says, is a pedagogical treasure. By many thinkers and primary teachers the fairy stories have been adopted as best suited to the wants of the little folk just emerging from the home. A series of fairy tales was selected by Ziller, one of the leading Her- bartians, as a centre for the school work of the first year. These stories have long held a large place in the home culture of children, especially of the more cultivated class. Now it is claimed that what is good for the few whose parents may be cultured and sym- pathetic, may be good enough for the children of the common people and of the poor. Moreover, stories that have made the fireside more joyous and blessed may perchance bring vivacity and happiness into schoolrooms. The home and the school are coming closer together. It is even said that well-trained, 47 48 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING sympathetic primary teachers may better tell and impress these stories than overworked mothers and busy fathers. If these literary treasures are left for the homes to discover and use, the majority of chil- dren will know little or nothing of them. Many schools in this country have been using them in the first grade in recent years with a pleasing effect. But what virtue lies concealed in these fairy myths for the children of our practical and sensible age? Why should we draw from fountains whose sources are back in the prehistoric and even barbarous past ? To many people it appears as a curious anachronism to nourish little children in the first decade of this new century upon food that was prepared in the tents of wandering tribes in early European history. What are the merits of these stories for children just entering upon scholastic pursuits ? They are known to be generally attractive to children of this age, but many sober-minded people distrust them. Are they really meat and drink for the little ones ? And not only so, but the choicest meat and drink, the best food upon which to nourish their unfolding minds ? Fairy tales are charged with misleading children by falsifying the truth of things. And, indeed, they pay little heed to certain natural laws that practical people of good sense always respect. A child, how- ever, is not so humdrum practical as these serious truth-lovers. A little girl talks to her doll as if it had real ears. She and her little brother make tea- FIRST GRADE STORIES 49 cups and saucers out of acorns with no apparent compunctions of conscience. They follow Cinderella to the ball in a pumpkin chariot, transformed by magic wand, with even greater interest than we read of a presidential ball. A child may turn the com- mon laws of physical nature inside out and not be a whit the worse for it. Its imagination can people a pea-pod with little heroes aching for a chance in the big world, or it can put tender personality into the trunk and branches of the little pine tree in the forest. There are no space limits that a child's fancy will not spring over in a twinkling. It can ride from star to star on a broomstick, or glide over peaceful waters in a fairy boat drawn by graceful swans. Without suggestion from mother or teacher, children put life and personality into their playthings. Their spontaneous delights are in this playful exercise of the fancy, in masquerading under the guise of a soldier, bear, horse, or bird. The fairy tale is the poetry of children's inner impulse and feeling ; their sparkling eyes and absorbed interest show how fitting is the contact between these childlike creations of the poet and their own budding thoughts. In discussing the qualities requisite in a fairy story to make it a pedagogical treasure, Wilmann says : 1 "When it is laid down as a first and indispensable requirement that a story be genuinely childlike, the demand sounds less rigorous than it really is. It is 1 Wilmann, Paedagogische Vortrage. SO SPECIAL METHOD IN READING easier to feel than to describe the qualities which lend to a story the true childlike spirit. It is not sim- plicity alone. A simple story that can be understood by a child is not on that account childlike. The simplicity must be the ingenuousness of the child. Close to this lies the abyss of silliness into which so many children's stories tumble. A simple story may be manufactured, but the quality of true sim- plicity will not be breathed into it unless one can draw from the deeper springs of poetic invention. It is not enough that the externals of the story, such as situation and action, have this character, but the sensibilities and motives of the actors must be in- genuous and childlike ; they should reflect the child's own feeling, wish, and effort. But it is not neces- sary on this account that the persons of the story be children. Indeed the king, prince, and princess, if they only speak and act like children, are much nearer the child's comprehension than any of the children paraded in a manufactured story, designed for the 'industrious youth.' For just as real poetry so the real child's story lies beyond reality in the field of fancy. With all its plainness of thought and action, the genuine child's story knows how to take hold of the child's fancy and set its wings in motion. And what a meaning has fancy for the soul of the child as compared with that of the adult. For us the activity of fancy only sketches arabesques, as it were, around the sharply defined pictures of reality. FIRST GRADE STORIES 5 1 The child thinks and lives in such arabesques, and it is only gradually that increasing experience writes among these arabesques the firmer outlines of things. The child's thoughts float about playfully and un- steadily, but the fairy tale is even lighter winged than they. It overtakes these fleeting summer birds and wafts them together without brushing the dust from their wings. " But fostering the activity of fancy in children is a means, not an end. It is necessary to enter the field of fancy because the way to the child's heart leads through the fancy. The effect upon the heart of the child is the second mark and proof of the genu- ine child's story. We are not advocates of the so- called moral stories which are so short-winded as to stop frequently and rest upon some moral common- place. Platitudes and moral maxims are not de- signed to develop a moral taste in the minds of young children, for they appeal to the understand- ing and will of the pupil and presuppose what must be first built up and established. True moral train- ing is rather calculated to awaken in the child judg- ments of right and wrong, of good and evil (on simple illustrative examples). Not the impression left by a moralizing discourse is the germ of a love of the good and right, but rather the child's judg- ment springing from its own conviction. ' That was good/ 'What a mean thing !' 11 Those narratives have a moral force which intro- 52 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING duce persons and acts that are simple and trans« parent enough to let the moral light shine through, that possess sufficient life to lend warmth and vigor to moral judgments. No attempt to cover up or pass over what is bad, nor to paint it in extravagant colors. For the bad develops the judgment no less than the good. It remains only to have a care that a child's interest inclines toward the good, the just, and the right.' ' Wilmann summarizes the essentials of a good story, and then discusses the fairy tales as follows : — " There are then five requirements to be made of a real child's story : Let it be truly childlike, that is, both simple and full of fancy; let it form morals in the sense that it introduces persons and matters which, while simple and lively, call out a moral judg- ment of approval or disapproval ; let it be instructive and lead to thoughtful discussions of society and nature ; let it be of permanent value, inviting per- petually to a reperusal ; let it be a connected whole, so as to work a deeper influence and become the source of a many-sided interest. " The child's story which, on the basis of the afore- named principles, can be made the starting-point for all others, is Grimm's fairy tale of folk lore. We are now called upon to show that the folk-lore fairy tale answers to the foregoing requirements, and in this we shall see many a ray of light cast back upon these requirements themselves. FIRST GRADE STORIES S3 Is the German fairy tale childlike ? full of sim- plicity as well as of fancy ? A deeply poetic saying of Jacob Grimm may teach us the answer. ' There runs through these poetic fairy tales the same deep vein of purity by reason of which children seem to us so wonderful and blessed. They have, as it were, the same pale-blue, clear, and lustrous eyes which can grow no more although the other members are still delicate and weak and unserviceable to the uses of earth.' Klaiber quotes this passage in his ' Das Marchen und die Kindliche Phantasie,' and says with truth and beauty, ' Yes ; when we look into the trusting eyes of a child, in which none of the world's deceit is to be read as yet, when we see how these eyes brighten and gleam at a beautiful fairy tale, as if they were looking out into a great, wide, beautiful wonder-world, then we feel something of the deep connection of the fairy story with the childish soul.' We will bring forward one more passage from a little treatise, showing depth and warmth of feeling, which stealthily takes away from the doubters their scruples about the justification of the fairy tale. ' It is strange how well the fairy tale and the child's soul mutually understand each other. It is as if they had been together from the very beginning and had grown up together. As a rule the child only deals with that part of real life which concerns itself and children of its age. Whatever lies beyond this is distant, strange, unintelligible. Under the leading of the fairy tale, 54 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING however, it permits itself to be borne over hill and valley, over land and sea, through sun and moon and stars, even to the end of the world, and every- thing is so near, so familiar, so close to its reach, as if they had been everywhere before, just as if obscure pictures within had all at once become wonderfully distinct. And the fairies all, and the king's sons, and the other distinguished personages, whom it learns to know through the fairy tale, — they are as natural and intelligible as if the child had moved its life long in the highest circles, and had had princes and princesses for its daily playmates. In a word, the world of the fairy tale is the child's world, for it is the world of fancy/ " For this reason children live and move in fairy- land, whether the story be told by the mother or by the teacher in the primary school. What attention as the story proceeds ! What anxiousness when any danger threatens the hero, be he king's son or a wheat-straw ! What grief, even to tears, when a wrong is practised upon some innocent creature ! And far from it that the joy in the fairy tale decrease when it is told or discussed over again. Then comes the pleasure of representation — bringing the story upon the stage. Though a child has but to represent a flower in the meadow, the little face is transfigured with the highest joy. "But the childish joy of fairytales passes away; not so the inner experiences which it has brought FIRST GRADE STORIES 55 with it. I am not affirming too much when I say- that he who, as a child, has never listened with joy to the murmuring and rustling of the fresh fountain of fairyland, will have no ear and no understanding for many a deep stream of German poetry. It is, after all, the modest fountain of fairy song which, flowing and uniting with the now noisy, now soft and gently flowing, current of folk song, and with the deep and earnest stream of tradition, which has poured such a refreshing current over German poetry, out of which our most excellent Uhland has drawn so many a heart-strengthening draught. " The spirit of the people finds expression in fairy tale as in tradition and song, and if we were only working to lift and strengthen the national impulse, a moral-educative instruction would have to turn again and again to these creations of the people. What was asserted as a general truth in regard to classical products, that they are a bond between large and small, old and young, is true of national stories and songs more than of anything else. They are at once a bond between the different classes, a national treasure, which belongs alike to rich and poor, high and low. The common school then has the least right of all to put the fairy tale aside, now that few women versed in fairy lore, such as those to whom Grimm listened, are left. " But does the fairy tale come of noble blood ? Does it possess what we called in the case of classics 5^ SPECIAL METHOD IN READING an old title of nobility ? If we keep to this figure of speech, we shall find that the fairy tale is not only noble, but a very royal child among stories. It has ruled from olden times, far and wide, over many a land. Hundreds of years gone, Grimm's fairy stories lived in the people's heart, and not in Germany alone. If our little ones listen intently to Aschenputtel, French children delighted in Cindrillon, the Italian in Cenerentola, the Polish in Kopcinszic. The fact that mediaeval story-books contain Grimm's tales is not remarkable, when we reflect that traits and char- acteristics of the fairy tale reach back beyond the Christian period ; that Frau Holle is Hulda, or Frigg, the heathen goddess ; that ' Wishing-cap,' ' Little Lame-leg,' and * Table, Cover Thyself,' etc., are made up out of the attributes of German gods. Finally, such things as 'The Sleeping Beauty,' which is the earth in winter sleep, that the prince of summer wakes with kisses in springtime, point back to the period of primitive Indo-German myth. "But in addition to the requirement of classical nobility, has the fairy story also the moral tone which we required of the genuine child's story ? Does the fairy story make for morals ? To be sure it intro- duces to an ideal realm of simple moral relations. The good and bad are sharply separated. The wrong holds for a time its supremacy, but the final victory is with the good. And with what vigor the judgment of good and evil, of right and wrong, is produced. FIRST GRADE STORIES 57 le meet touching pictures, especially of good-will, :)f faithfulness, characteristic and full of life. Think Dnly of the typical interchange of words between ^enchen and Fundevogel. Said Lenchen, * Leave le not and I will never leave thee.' Said Funde- vogel, ' Now and nevermore/ We are reminded of the Bible words of the faithful Ruth, ' Whither thou goest I will go; where thou lodgest I will lodge; where thou diest I will die and there will I be buried/ " Important for the life of children is the rigor with which the fairy tale punishes disobedience and false- hood. Think of the suggestive legendary story of the child which was visited again and again with mis- fortune because of its obstinacy, till its final confession of guilt brings full pardon. It is everywhere a Chris- tian thread which runs through so many fairy stories. It is love for the rejected, oppressed, and abandoned. Whatever is loaded with burdens and troubles receives the palm, and the first becomes the last. " The fairy story fulfils the first three require- ments for a true child's story. It is childlike, of lasting value, and fosters moral ideas. As to unity it will suffice for children of six years (for this is, in our opinion, the age at which it exerts its moral force) that the stories be told in the same spirit, although they do not form one connected narrative. If a good selection of fairy tales according to their inner connection is made, so that frequent references 58 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING and connections can be found, the requirement of unity will be satisfied. "The fairy tale seems to satisfy least of all the demand that the true child's story must be instruc- tive, and serve as a starting-point for interesting practical discussion. The fairy story seems too airy and dreamy for this, and it might appear pedantry to load it with instruction. But one will not be guilty of this mistake if one simply follows up the ideas which the story suggests. When the story of a chicken, a fox, or a swan is told it is fully in har- mony with the childish thought to inquire into the habits of these animals. When the king is mentioned it is natural to say that we have a king, to ask where he lives, etc. Just because the fairy tale sinks deep and holds a firm and undivided attention, it is pos- sible to direct the suggested thoughts hither or thither without losing the pleasure they create. If one keeps this aim in mind, instructive material is abundant. The fairy tale introduces various em- ployments and callings, from the king to the farmer, tailor, and shoemaker. Many passages in life, such as betrothal, marriage, and burial, are presented. Labors in the house, yard, and field, and numerous animals, plants, and inanimate things are touched upon. For the observation of animals and for the relation between them and children, it is fortunate that the fairy tale presents them as talking and feel- ing. Thereby the interest in real animals is in- FIRST GRADE STORIES 59 creased and heartlessness banished. How could a child put to the torture an animal which is an old friend in fairy story ? 11 1 need only suggest in this place how the fairy story furnishes material for exercises in oral language, for the division of words into syllables and letters, and how the beginnings of writing, drawing, number, and manual exercises may be drawn from the same source. "From the suggestions just made the following conclusions at least may be reasonably drawn. A sufficient counterpoise to the fantastical nature of the fairy tale can be given in a manner simple and childlike, if the objects and relations involved in the narratives are brought clearly before the senses and discussed so that instruction about common objects and home surroundings is begun.* ' In speaking of Shakespeare's early training in literature, Charles Kingsley says : — "I said there was a literary art before Shake- speare — an art more simple, more childlike, more girlish, as it were, and therefore all the more adapted for young minds, but also an art most vigorous and pure in point of style : thoroughly fitted to give its readers the first elements of taste, which must lie at the root of even the most complex aesthetics. "The old fairy superstition, the old legends and ballads, the old chronicles of feudal war and chiv- alry, the earlier moralities and mysteries and tragi- 60 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING comic attempts — these were the roots of his poetic tree — they must be the roots of any literary educa- tion which can teach us to appreciate him. These fed Shakespeare's youth ; why should they not feed our children's ? Why indeed ? That inborn delight of the young in all that is marvellous and fantastic — has that a merely evil root ? No surely ! It is a most pure part of their spiritual nature; a part of 1 the heaven which lies about us in our infancy ' ; angel-wings with which the free child leaps the prison-walls of sense and custom, and the drudgery of earthly life." Felix Adler says : 2 " But how shall we handle these Mdrchen and what method shall we employ in putting them to account for our special purpose ? I have a few thoughts on this subject, which I shall venture to submit in the form of counsels. " My first counsel is : Tell the story ; do not give it to the child to read. There is an obvious practical reason for this. Children are able to benefit by hearing fairy tales before they can read. But that is not the only reason. It is the childhood of the race, as we have seen, that speaks in the fairy story of the child of to-day. It is the voice of an ancient far-off past that echoes from the lips of the story- teller. The words * once upon a time ' open up a vague retrospect into the past, and the child gets its first indistinct notions of history in this way. The 1 Moral Instruction of Children. D. Appleton & Co. FIRST GRADE STORIES 6 1 stories embody the tradition of the childhood of man- kind. They have on this account an authority all their own, not, indeed, that of literal truth, but one derived from their being types of certain feelings and longings which belong to childhood as such. The child, as it listens to the Marchen> looks up with wide-opened eyes to the face of the person who tells the story, and thrills responsive as the touch of the earlier life of the race thus falls upon its own. Such an effect, of course, cannot be produced by cold type. Tradition is a living thing and should use the living voice for its vehicle. " My second counsel is also of a practical nature, and I make bold to say quite essential to the suc- cessful use of the stories. Do not take the moral plum out of the fairy-tale pudding, but let the child enjoy it as a whole. Do not make the story taper toward a single point, the . moral point. You will squeeze all the juice out of it if you try. Do not subordinate the purely fanciful and naturalistic ele- ments of the story, such as the love of mystery, the passion for roving, the sense of fellowship with the animal world, in order to fix attention solely on the moral element. On the contrary, you will gain the best moral effect by proceeding in exactly the opposite way. Treat the moral element as an in- cident, emphasize it indeed, but incidentally. Pluck it as a wayside flower. How often does it happen that, having set out on a journey with a distinct 62 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING object in mind, something occurs on the way which we had not foreseen, but which in the end leaves the deepest impression on the mind. . . . "The value of the fairy tales is that they stimu- late the imagination; that they reflect the unbroken communion of human life with the life universal, as in beasts, fishes, trees, flowers, and stars; and that incidentally, but all the more powerfully on that ac- count, they quicken the moral sentiments. " Let us avail ourselves freely of the treasures which are thus placed at our disposal. Let us wel- come das Mdrchen into our primary course of moral training, that with its gentle bands, woven of ' morn- ing mist and morning glory/ it may help to lead our children into bright realms of the ideal." A selection of fairy stories suited to our first grade will differ from a similar selection for foreign schools. There has been a disposition among American teachers for several years to appropriate the best of these stories for use in the primary schools. In different parts of the country skilful primary teachers have been experimenting successfully with these materials. There are many schools in which both teachers and pupils have taken great delight in them. The effort has been made more particularly with first grade children, the aim of teachers being to lead cap- tive the spontaneous interest of children from their first entrance upon school tasks. Some of the stories used at the first may seem light and farcical, but experi- FIRST GRADE STORIES 63 merits with children are a better test than the precon- ceived notions of adults who may have forgotten their early childhood. The story of the " Four Musicians," for example, is a favorite with the children. At the risk of repetition, and to emphasize some points of special importance, we will review briefly the method of oral treatment and the use of the stories in early primary reading. The children have no knowledge of reading or per- haps of letters. The story is told with spirit by the teacher, no book being used in the class. Question and interchange of thought between pupil and teacher will become more frequent and suggestive as the teacher becomes more skilled and sympathetic in her treatment of the story. In the early months of school life the aim is to gain the attention and cooperation of children by furnishing abundant food for thought. Children are required or at least encouraged to narrate the story or a part of it in the class. They tell it at school and probably at home, till they become more and more absorbed in it. Even the backward or timid child gradually acquires courage and enjoys narrating the adventures of the peas in the pod or those of the animals in the "Four Musicians." The teacher should acquire a vivid and picturesque style of narrating, persistently weaving into the story, by query and suggestion, the previous home experi- ences of the children. They are only too ready to bring out these treasures at the call of the teacher. 64 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING Often it is necessary to check their enthusiasm. There is a need not simply for narrative power, but for quick insight and judgment, so as to bring their thoughts into close relation to the incidents. No- where in all the schools is there such a call for close and motherly sympathy. The gentle compulsion of kindness is required to inspire the timid ones with confidence. For some of them are slow to open their delicate thought and sensibility, even to the sunny atmosphere of a pleasant school. A certain amount of drill in reproduction is neces- sary, but fortunately the stories have something that bears repetition with a growing interest. Added to this is the desire for perfect mastery, and thus the stories become more dear with familiarity. Incidentally, there should be emphasis of the in- structive information gathered concerning animals and plants that are actors in the scenes. The com- monest things of the house, field, and garden acquire a new and lasting interest. Sometimes the teacher makes provision in advance of the story for a deeper interest in the plants and animals that are to appear. In natural science lessons she may take occasion to examine the pea blossom, or the animals of the barn- yard, or the squirrel or birds in their cages. When, a few days later, the story touches one of these ani- mals, there is a quick response from the children. This relation between history and natural science strengthens both. FIRST GRADE STORIES 6$ Many an opportunity should be given for the pupils to express a warm sympathy for gentle acts of kind- ness or unselfishness. The happiness that even a simple flower may bring to a home is a contagious example. Kindly, treatment of the old and feeble, and sympathy for the innocent and helpless, spring into the child's own thought. The fancy, sympathy, and interest awakened by a good fairy tale make it a vehicle by which, consciously and unconsciously, many advantages are borne home to pupils. Among other things, it opens the door to the read- ing lesson ; that is, to the beginning efforts in master- ing and using the symbols of written language. The same story which all have learned to tell, they are now about to learn to read from the board. One or two sentences are taken directly from the lips of the pupils as they recall the story, and the work of mas- tering symbols is begun at once with zest. First is the clear statement of some vivid thought by a child, then a quick association of this thought with its writ- ten symbols on the board. There is no readier way of bringing thought and form into firm connection, that is, of learning to read. Keep the child's fresh mental judgment and the written form clearly before his mind till the two are wedded. Let the thought run back and forth between them till they are one. After fixing two or three sentences on the board, attention is directed more closely to the single words, and a rapid drill upon those in the sentence is fol- 66 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING lowed by a discovery and naming of them in miscel- laneous order. Afterward new sentences are formed by the teacher out of the same words, written on the board, and read by the children. They express dif- ferent, and perhaps opposite forms of thought, and should exercise the child's sense and judgment as well as his memory of words. An energetic, lively, and successful drill of this kind upon sentences drawn from stories has been so often witnessed, that its excellence is no longer a matter of question. These exercises are a form of mental activity in which chil- dren delight if the teacher's manner is vigorous and pleasant. When the mastery of new word-forms as wholes is fairly complete, the analysis may go a step farther. Some new word in the lesson may be taken and sepa- rated into its phonic elements, as the word kill, and new words formed by dropping a letter and prefixing letters or syllables, as ill, till, until, mill, rill, etc. The power to construct new words out of old materials should be cultivated all along the process of learning to read. Still other school activities of children stand in close relation to the fairy tales. They are encour- aged to draw the objects and incidents in which the story abounds. Though rude and uncouth, the drawings still often surprise us with their truth and suggestiveness. The sketches reveal the content of a child's mind as almost nothing else — his miscon- FIRST GRADE STORIES 67 ceptions, his vague or clearly defined notions. They also furnish his mental and physical activities an employment exactly suited to his needs and wishes. The power to use good English and to express himself clearly and fittingly is cultivated from the very first. While this merit is purely incidental, it is none the less valuable. The persistence with which bad and uncouth words and phrases are employed by children in our common school, both in oral work and in composition, admonishes us to begin early to eradicate these faults. It seems often as if intermediate and grammar grades were more faulty and wretched in their use of English than primary grades. But there can be no doubt that early and persistent practice in the best forms of expression, especially in connection with interesting and appro- priate thought matter, will greatly aid correctness, fluency, and confidence in speech. There is also a convincing pedagogical reason why children in the first primary should be held to the best models of spoken language. They enter the school better fur- nished with oral speech than with a knowledge of any school study. Their home experiences have wrought into close association and unity, word and thing. So intimate and living is the relation between word and thought or object, that a child really does not distinguish between them. This is the treasure with which he enters school, and it should not be wrapped up in a napkin. It should be unrolled at 68 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING once and put to service. Oral speech is the capital with which a child enters the business of education ; let him employ it. A retrospect upon the various forms of school activ- ity which spring, in practical work, from the use of a good fairy story, reveals how many-sided and inspiriting are its influences. Starting out with a rich content of thought peculiarly germane to child- ish interests, it calls for a full employment of the lan- guage resources already possessed by the children. In the effort to picture out, with pencil or chalk, his conceptions of the story, a child exercises his fanciful and creative wit, as well as the muscles of arms and eyes. A good story always finds its setting in the midst of nature or society, and touches up with a simple, homely, but poetic charm the commonest verities of human experience. The appeal to the sensibility and moral judgment of pupils is direct and spontaneous, because of the interests and sympathies that are inherent in persons, and touch directly the childish fancy. And, lastly, the irrepressible tradi- tional demand that children shall learn to read, is fairly and honestly met and satisfied. It is not claimed that fairy tales involve the sum total of primary instruction, but they are an illustra- tion of how rich will be the fruitage of our educa- tional effort if we consider first the highest needs and interests of children, and allow the formal arts to drop into their proper subordination. " The best is FIRST GRADE STORIES 69 good enough for children,' ' and when we select the best, the wide-reaching connections which are estab- lished between studies carry us a long step toward the now much-bruited correlation and concentration of studies. BOOKS OF MATERIALS FOR TEACHERS Classic Stories for the Little Ones. Public School Publishing Co., Bloomington, 111. Grimm's Fairy Tales (Wiltse). Ginn & Co. German Fairy Tales (Grimm). Maynard, Merrill, & Co. Grimm's German Household Tales. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. Stories from Hans Andersen. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. Andersen's Fairy Tales, two volumes, Part I and Part II. Ginn & Co. Fairy Stories and Fables. American Book Co. Fables and Folk Stories (Scudder). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. Rhymes and Jingles (Dodge). Scribner's Sons. Fairy Stories for Children (Baldwin). American Book Co. Songs and Stories. University Publishing Co. Fairy Life. University Publishing Co. Six Nursery Classics (O'Shea). D. C. Heath & Co. Grimm's Fairy Tales. Educational Publishing Co. A Book of Nursery Rhymes (Welch). D. C. Heath & Co. Verse and Prose for Beginners in Reading. Houghton, Mifflin, &Co. Heart of Oak, No. I. D. C. Heath & Co. Heart of Oak, No. II. D. C. Heath & Co. The Eugene Field Book. Scribner's Sons. Moral Education of Children (Adler). D. Appleton & Co. Chapter VI. on Fairy Tales. Literature in Schools (Scudder). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. Chapter on Nursery Classics. 70 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING THE FABLES No group of stories has a more assured place in the literature for children than the iEsop's " Fables." Some of the commonest have been expanded into little stories which are presented orally to children in the first school year, as " The Lion and the Mouse," " The Ants and the Grasshoppers," " The Dog and his Shadow," and others. They are so simple and direct that they are used alongside the fairy tales for the earliest instruction of children. As soon as children have acquired the rudiments of reading the ^Esop's " Fables " are commonly used in the second and third school year as a reading book, and all the early reading books are partly made up from this material. If we inquire into the qualities of these stories which have given them such a universal acceptance, we shall find that they contain in a simple, transparent form a good share of the world's wisdom. More recent researches indicate that they originated in India, and reached Europe through Persia and Arabia, being ascribed to ^Esop. This indicates that like most early literature of lasting worth, they are prod- ucts of the folk-mind rather than of a single writer, and it is the opinion of Adler that they express the ripened wisdom of the people under the forms of Oriental despotism. The sad and hopeless submis- sion to a stronger power expressed by some of the FIRST GRADE STORIES 7 1 fables, it is claimed, unfits them for use in our freer life to-day. There are certain points in which their attractive- ness to children is clearly manifest. The actors in the stories are usually animals, and the ready inter- est and sympathy of children for talking animals are at once appealed to. In all the early myths and fairy tales, human life seems to merge into that of the animals, as in " Hiawatha," and the fables likewise are a marked expression of this childlike tendency. Adler says : " The question may be asked why fables are so popular with boys. I should say be- cause schoolboy society reproduces in miniature, to a certain extent, the social conditions which are re- flected in the fables. Among unregenerate school- boys there often exists a kind of despotism, not the . less degrading because petty. The strong are pitted against the weak — witness the fagging system in English schools — and their mutual antagonism pro- duces in both the characteristic vices which we have noted above." A literature which clearly pictures these relations so that they can be seen objectively by the children may be of the greatest social service in education. Adler says further: "The psychological study of schoolboy society has been only begun, but even what lies on the surface will, I think, bear out this remark. Now it has become one of the commonplaces of 72 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING educational literature that the individual of to-day must pass through the same stages of evolution as the human race as a whole. But it should not be forgotten that the advance of civilization depends on two conditions : first, that the course of evolution be accelerated, that the time allowed to the successive stages be shortened ; and, secondly, that the unworthy and degrading elements which entered into the pro- cess of evolution in the past, and at the time were inseparable from it, be now eliminated. Thus the fairy tales which correspond to the myth-making epoch in human history must be purged of the dross of superstition which still adheres to them, and the fables which correspond to the age of primitive despotisms must be cleansed of the immoral elements they still embody/ * 1 The peculiar form of moral teaching in the " Fables " suits them especially to children. A single trait of conduct, like greediness or selfishness, is sharply outlined in the story and its results made plain. " We have seen nothing finer in teaching than the building up of these little stories in conversational lessons — first to illustrate some mental or moral trait ; then to detach the idea from its story picture, and find illus- trations for it in some other act or incident. And nothing can be more gratifying as a result, than, through the transparency of childish hearts, to watch the growth of right conduct from the impulses derived 1 Adler, Moral Instruction of Children, pp. 88-89. FIRST GRADE STORIES 73 from the teaching ; and so laying the foundations of future Tightness of character." * The moral ideas inculcated by the fables are usually of a practical, worldly-wisdom sort, not high ideals of moral quality, not virtue for its own sake, but varied examples of the results of rashness and folly. This is, perhaps, one reason why they are so well suited to the immature moral judgments of children. Adler says : " Often when a child has committed some fault, it is useful to refer by name to the fable that fits it. As, when a boy has made room in his seat for another, and the other crowds him out, the mere mention of the fable of the porcupine is a telling rebuke; or the fable of the hawk and the pigeons may be called to mind when a boy has been guilty of mean excuses. On the same principle that angry children are sometimes taken before a mirror to show them how ugly they look, the fable is a kind of mirror for the vices of the young." Again : " The peculiar value of the fables is that they are instantaneous photographs which repro- duce, as it were, in a single flash of light, some one aspect of human nature, and which, excluding every- thing else, permit the attention to be entirely fixed on that one." But the value of the fable reaches far beyond childhood. The frequency with which it is cited in nearly all the forms of literature, and its aptness 1 Introduction to Stickney's ALsops Fables, Ginn & Co. 74 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING to express the real meaning of many episodes in real life, in politics and social events, in peace and war, show the universality of the truth it embodies. A story which engraves a truth, as it were with a diamond point, upon a child's mind, a truth which will swiftly interpret many events in his later life, deserves to take a high place among educative in- fluences. FABLES AND NATURE MYTHS Scudder's Fables and Folk Stories. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. ^Esop's Fables (Stickney). Ginn & Co. Book of Legends (Scudder). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. Stories for Children (Lane). The American Book Co. A Child's Garden of Verses (Stevenson). Scribner's Sons, ^sop's Fables. Educational Publishing Co. The Book of Nature Myths (Holbrook). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. The Moral Instruction of Children (Adler), Chapters VII and VIII. D. Appleton & Co. CHAPTER IV Second Grade Stories " robinson crusoe " In selecting suitable literature for children of the second grade, we follow in the steps of a number of distinguished writers and teachers and choose an English classic — " Robinson Crusoe." Rousseau gave this book his unqualified approval, and said that it would be the first, and, for a time, the only book that Emile should read. The Herbartians have been using it a number of years, while many American teachers have employed it for oral work in second grade, in a short school edition. In one sense, the book needs no introduction, as it has found its way into every nook and corner of the world. Originally a story for adults, it has reached all, and illustrated Christmas editions, designed even for children from three years and upward, are abundant. To the youth of all lands, it has been, to say the least, a source of delight, but it has been regarded as a book for the family and home. What would hap- pen should the schoolmaster lay his hand on this treasure and desecrate it to school purposes ! We 75 76 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING desire to test this classic work on the side of its pedagogical value and its adaptation to the uses of regular instruction. If it is really unrivalled as a piece of children's literature, perhaps it has also no equal for school purposes. In making the transition from the fairy tale to " Robinson Crusoe," an interesting difference or con- trast may be noticed. Wilmann says : 1 " ' Crusoe ' is at once simple, and plain, and fanciful; to be sure, in the latter case, entirely different from the fairy tale. In the fairy story the fancy seldom pushes rudely against the boundaries of the real world. But otherwise in ' Crusoe/ Here it is the practical fancy that is aroused, if this expression appear not contradictory. What is Crusoe to do now ? How can he help himself ? What means can he invent ? Many of the proposals of the children will have to be re- jected. The inexorable 'not possible* shoves a bolt before the door. The imagination is compelled to limit itself to the task of combining and adjusting real things. The compulsion of things conditions the progress of the story. ' Thoughts dwell together easily, but things jostle each other roughly in space.'" There are other striking differences between " Cru- soe " and the folk-lore stories, but in this contrast we are now chiefly concerned. After reaching the island, he is checked and limited at every step by the physi- cal laws imposed by nature. Struggle and fret as 1 Wilmann, Paedagogische Vortrage. SECOND GRADE STORIES J? he may against these limits, he becomes at last a philosopher, and quietly takes up the struggle for existence under those inexorable conditions. The child of seven or eight is vaguely acquainted with many of the simple employments of the household and of the neighborhood. Crusoe also had a vague memory of how people in society in different trades and occupations supply the necessaries and com- forts of life. Even the fairy stories give many hints of this kind of knowledge, but Robinson Crusoe is face to face with the sour facts. He is cut off from help and left to his own resources. The interest in the story is in seeing how he will shift for himself and exercise his wits to insure plenty and comfort. With few tools and on a barbarous coast, he under- takes what men in society, by mutual exchange and by division of labor, have much difficulty in perform- ing. Crusoe becomes a carpenter, a baker and cook, a hunter, a potter, a fisher, a farmer, a tailor, a boat- man, a stock-raiser, a basket-maker, a shoemaker, a tanner, a fruit-grower, a mason, a physician. And not only so, but he grapples with the difficulties of each trade or occupation in a bungling manner be- cause of inexperience and lack of skill and exact knowledge. He is an experimenter and tester along many lines. The entire absence of helpers centres the whole interest of this varied struggle in one person. It is to be remembered that Crusoe is no genius, but the ordinary boy or man. He has 78 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING abundant variety of needs such as a child reared under civilized conditions has learned to feel. The whole range of activities, usually distributed to various classes and persons in society, rests now upon his single shoulders. If he were an expert in all direc- tions, the task would be easier, but he has only vague knowledge and scarcely any skill. The child, there- fore, who reads this story, by reason of the slow, toilsome, and bungling processes of Crusoe in meet- ing his needs, becomes aware how difficult and labo- rious are the efforts by which the simple, common needs of all children are supplied. A reference to the different trades and callings that Crusoe assumes will show us that he is not deal- ing with rare and unusual events, but with the com- mon, simple employments that lie at the basis of society in all parts of the world. The carpenter, the baker, the farmer, the shoemaker, etc., are at work in every village in every land. Doubtless this is one reason why the story acquires such a hold in the most diverse countries. The Arab or the Chinese boy, the German or American child, finds the story touching the ordinary facts of his own surroundings. Though the story finds its setting in a far-away, lonely island in tropical seas, Crusoe is daily trying to create the objects and conditions of his old home in England. But these are the same objects that surround every child ; and therefore, in reading " Rob- inson Crusoe," the pupil is making an exhaustive and SECOND GRADE STORIES 79 interesting study of his own home. The presence of a tropical vegetation and of a strange climate does not seriously impair this fact. The skill of a great literary artist appears in his power to create a situa- tion almost devoid of common comforts and bless- ings and then in setting his hero to work to create them by single-handed effort. It will hardly be questioned that the study of the home and home neighborhood by children is one of the large and prominent problems in education. Out of their social, economic, and physical environment children get the most important lessons of life. Not only does the home furnish a varied fund of informa- tion that enables them to interpret books, and people, and institutions, as they sooner or later go out into the world, but all the facts gathered by experience and reading in distant fields must flow back again to give deeper meaning to the labors and duties which surround each citizen in his own home. But society with its commerce, education, and industries, is an exceedingly complex affair. The child knows not where to begin to unravel this endless machinery of forms and institutions. In a sense he must get away from or disentangle himself from his surroundings in order to understand them. There are no complex conditions surrounding Crusoe, and he takes up the labors of the common trades in a simple and primi- tive manner. Physical and mental effort are de- manded at every step, from Crusoe and from the 80 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING children. Many of his efforts involve repeated fail- ure, as in making pottery, in building a boat, while some things that he undertakes with painful toil never attain success. The lesson of toil and hard- ship connected with the simple industries is one of great moment to children. Our whole social fabric is based on these toils, and it is one of the best results of a sound education to realize the place and importance of hard work. It scarcely needs to be pointed out that Crusoe typifies a long period of man's early history, the age when men were learning the rudiments of civilization by taking up the toils of the blacksmith, the agri- culturist, the builder, the domesticator of animals and plants. Men emerged from barbarism as they slowly and painfully gained the mastery over the resources of nature. Crusoe is a sort of universal man, em- bodying in his single effort that upward movement of men which has steadily carried them to the higher levels of progress. It has been said with some truth that Robinson Crusoe is a philosophy of history. But we scarcely need such a high-sounding name. To the child he is a very concrete, individual man, with very simple and interesting duties. In a second point the author of " Robinson Crusoe " shows himself a literary master. There is an intense and naive realism in his story. Even if one were so disposed, it would require a strong effort to break loose from the feeling that we are in the presence of SECOND GRADE STORIES 8 1 real experiences. There is a quiet but irresistible assumption of unvarnished and even disagreeable fact in the narrative. But it is useless to describe the style of a book so familiar. Its power over youthful fancy and feeling has been too often experi- enced to be doubted. The vivid interest which the book awakens is certain to carry home whatever les- sons it may teach with added force. So great is this influence that boys sometimes imitate the efforts of Crusoe by making caves, building ovens, and assum- ing a style of dress and living that approximates Crusoe's state. This supplies to teachers a hint of some value. The story of Crusoe should lead to excursions into the home neighborhood for the pur- pose of a closer examination of the trades and occu- pations there represented. An imitation of his labors may also be encouraged. The effort to mould and bake vessels from potter's clay, the platting of bas- kets from willow withes, the use of tools in making boxes or tables may be attempted far enough to dis- cover how lacking in practical ability the children are. This will certainly teach them greater respect for manual skill. From the previous discussion it might appear that we regard the story of Crusoe as technological and industrial rather than moral. But it would be a mis- take to suppose that a book is not moral because it is not perpetually dispensing moral platitudes. Most men's lives are mainly industrial. The display of 82 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING moral qualities is only occasional and incidental. The development of moral character is coincident with the labors and experiences of life and springs out of them, being manifested by the spirit with which one acts toward his fellow-men. But Crusoe was alone on his island, and there might seem to be no opportunity to be moral in relation to others. So- ciety, to be sure, was conspicuous by its absence. But the intense longing with which he thought of the home and companionships lost is perhaps the strongest sentiment in the book. His loneliness brings out most vividly his true relation to home and friends. His early life, till the shipwreck, was that of a way- ward and reckless youth, disobedient to parents and seemingly without moral scruples. Even during the first months upon the island there appears little moral change or betterment. But slowly the bitter experi- ences of his lonely life sober him. He finds a Bible, and a fit of sickness reveals the distresses that may lie before him. When once the change has set in, it is rapid and thorough. He becomes devout, he longs to return to his parents and atone for his faults. A complete reformation of his moral disposition is effected. If one will take the pains to read the original " Robinson Crusoe " he will find it surpris- ingly serious and moral in its tone. He devotes much time to soliloquizing on the distresses of his condition and upon the causes which have brought ; SECOND GRADE STORIES 83 him to misery. He diagnoses his case with an amount of detail that must be tedious to children. The fact that these parts of the book often leave little direct impression upon children is proof that they are chiefly engaged with the adventure and physical embarrassments of Crusoe. For the present it is sufficient to observe that the story is deeply and intensely moral both in its spirit and in the changes described in " Crusoe." We are next led to inquire whether the industrial and moral lessons contained in this story are likely to be extracted from it by a boy or girl who reads it alone, without the aid of a teacher. Most young readers of " Crusoe" are carried along by the inter- esting adventure. It is a very surprising and enter- taining story. But children even less than adults are inclined to go deeper than the surface and draw up hidden treasures. De Foe's work is a piece of classic literature. But few people are inclined to get at the deeper meaning and spirit of a classical masterpiece unless they go through it in companionship with a teacher who is gifted to disclose its better meaning. This is true of any classical product we might men- tion. It should be the peculiar function of the school to cultivate a taste, and an appreciative taste, for the best literature ; not by leaving it to the hap- hazard home reading of pupils, but by selecting the best things adapted to the minds of children and then employing true teaching skill to bring these treas- 84 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING ures close to the hearts and sympathies of children. Many young people do not read " Robinson Crusoe M at all ; many others do not appreciate its better phases. The school will much improve its work by taking for its own this best of children's stories, and by extending and deepening the children's appreciation of a classic. The story of Robinson Crusoe is made by the Herbartians the nucleus for the concentration of studies in the second year. This importance is given to it on account of its strong moral tone and because of its universal typical character in man's development. Without attempting a solution of the problem of concentration at this juncture, we should at least observe the relations of this story to the other studies. Wilmann says : " The everywhere and nowhere of the fairy tale gives place to the first geographical limitations. The continents, the chief countries of Europe, come up, besides a series of geographical concepts such as island, coast, bay, river, hill, mountain, sea, etc. The difference in climate is surprising. Crusoe fears the winter and prepares for it, but his fear is needless, for no winter reaches his island." We have already observed its instructive treatment of the common occupations which prepare for later geographical study, as well as for natural science. Many plants and animals are brought to notice which would furnish a good beginning for natural SECOND GRADE STORIES 85 science lessons. It is advisable, however, to study- rather those home animals and plants which corre- spond best to the tropical products or animals in the lessons. Tropical fruits, the parrot, and the goat we often meet at home, but in addition, the sheep, the ox, the mocking-bird, the woodpecker, our native fruits and grains, and the fish, turtles, and minerals of the home, may well be suggested and studied in science lessons parallel with the life of Crusoe. Following upon the oral treatment and discussion of " Robinson Crusoe " the children are easily led to like efforts at construction, as, for instance, the mak- ing of a raft, the building of the cave and stockade, the making of chairs and tables, the moulding of jars and kettles out of clay, the weaving of baskets, the preparation and cooking of foods, the planting of grains, the construction of an oven or house, boat building, and other labors of Crusoe in providing for his wants. It is quite customary now in second grade to set the children to work in these efforts to solve Crusoe's problems, so that they, by working with actual materials, may realize more fully the difficulties and trials to which he was subjected. In close connec- tion with these constructive efforts are the drawings of the scenes of the story, such as the shipwreck, the stockade, the boat, the map of the island, and some of the later events of the story. A still further means of giving reality to the events is to dramatize 86 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING some of the scenes between Friday and Crusoe, and to dress and equip these and other persons in the story in fitting manner. The children gladly enter into such dramatic action. These various forms of drawing, action, and constructive work are in close connection with the home studies of industries and occupations, — farming, gardening, carpenter and blacksmith shops, weaving, cooking, bakeries, and ex- cursions to shops — which follow the Crusoe story in the study of home geography' in the third grade. Although the story should be given and discussed orally, the children should also read it later as a part of the regular reading exercise of the course. Instead of suffering from this repetition, their inter- est will only be increased. Classical products usu- ally gain by repetition. The facts are brought out more clearly and the deeper meaning is perceived. To have the oral treatment of a story precede its reading by some weeks or months produces an excel- lent effect upon the style of the reading. The thought being familiar, and the interest strong, the expression will be vigorous and natural. Children take a pride in reading a story which they at first must receive orally for lack of reading power. The same advantageous drill in the use of good English accrues to the Crusoe story that was ob- served in the fairy tales. There is abundant oppor- tunity for oral narrative and description. The use of the pencil and chalk in graphic repre- SECOND GRADE STORIES 8? sentation should be encouraged both in teacher and in pupils. Thus the eye becomes more accurate in observation and the hand more free and facile in tracing the outlines of the interesting forms studied. The use of tools and materials in construction gives ideas an anchorage, not only in the brain, but even in the nerves and muscles. In thus glancing over the field we discover the same many-sided and intimate relation with other school studies, as in the previous grade. In fact, * Crusoe " is the first extended classical masterpiece which is presented to the children as a whole. Such parts of the story as are of most pedagogical value should be simplified and woven together into a con- tinuous narrative. That part of the story which pre- cedes the shipwreck may be reduced to a few paragraphs which bring out clearly his early home surroundings, his disobedience and the desertion of his parents, and the voyage which led to his lonely life upon the island. The period embraced in his companionless labors and experiences constitutes the important part for school uses. A few of the more important episodes following the capture of Friday and his return home may be briefly told. We deem it a long step forward to get some of our great classical masterpieces firmly embedded in the early years of our school course. It will contribute almost as much to the culture and stimulation of teachers as of pupils. The method of handling this narrative before the 88 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING class will be similar to that of the fairy tales. A simple and vivid recital of the facts, with frequent questions and discussions, so as to draw the story- closer to the child's own thought and experience, should be made by the teacher. Much skill in illus- trative device, in graphic description, in diagram or drawing, in the appeal to the sense experiences of the pupils, is in demand. The excursion to places of interest in the neighborhood suggested by the story begins to be an important factor of the school exer- cises. As children grow older they acquire skill and confidence in oral narrative, and should be held to greater independence in oral reproductions. One of the best school editions of " Robinson Crusoe " is published by Ginn & Co. A simple edition for second grade is published by the Public School Publishing Co. The teacher should be supplied with one of the larger, fuller editions of " Robinson Crusoe," like that of Houghton, Mifflin, & Co., in the Riverside Litera- ture Series. It furnishes a much fuller detail of knowledge for the teacher's use. It will also be of great advantage for classroom use to possess an illus- trated edition like that of George Routledge & Sons. The full treatment of this story, first in simple, oral narrative, later by its use as a reading book, and later still by the child reading the complete edition for himself in private, illustrates the intensive concentration of thought and constructive activity SECOND GRADE STORIES 89 upon a great piece of literature as opposed to a loose and superficial treatment. Such a piece of work should remain for life a source of deeper thought, feeling, and experience. " HIAWATHA The story of Hiawatha has been much employed for oral treatment in primary grades and later for regular treatment in reading lessons. The story of Hiawatha has been used sufficiently in primary grades to show how many are its sugges- tions for drawing and constructive work. Little children take delight in drawing the Indian tents, bows and arrows, pine forests, Indian warriors and dress, the canoe, the tomahawk, the birds and ani- mals. The cutting of these forms in paper they have fully enjoyed. Pictures of Indian life, collections of arrow-heads, the peace-pipes, articles of dress, cooking utensils, wampum, stone hatchets, red pipe-stone ornaments, or a visit to any collection of Indian relics are desir- able as a part of this instruction. The museums in cities and expositions are rich in these materials, and in many private collections are just the desired objects of study. It is well known that children love to construct tents, dress in Indian style, and imitate the mode of 90 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING life, the hunting, dancing, and sports of Indians. Teachers have taken advantage of this instinct to allow them to construct an Indian village on a small scale, and assume the dress and action of Hiawatha and his friends, and even to dramatize parts of the story. It is only certain selected parts of the " Hiawatha " that lend themselves best to the oral treatment with children, and that, at first, not in the poetic form. In fact, the oral treatment of a story in beautiful poetic form demands a peculiar method. For example, in treating the childhood of Hiawatha as he dwelt with old Nokomis in the tent beside the sea, the main facts of this episode, or a part of it, may be talked over by means of description, partly also by development, question, and answer, and when these things are clear, let this passage of the poem be read to the children. The preliminary treatment and discussion will put the children in possession of the ideas and pictures by which they can better appreciate and assimilate the poem. This mode of introducing children to a poem or literary master- piece is not uncommon with children in later years, at least in the middle grades. It has been customary to use nearly the whole poem in fourth or fifth school year for regular read- ing, and it is well suited to this purpose. Its use in primary grades for such oral treatment as we have described will not interfere with its employment as SECOND GRADE STORIES 91 reading matter later on, but rather increase its value for that purpose. A number of books have been written by prac- tical teachers on the use of "Hiawatha" in primary- grades : — "The Hiawatha Primer." Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. " Hints on the Study of Hiawatha" (Alice M. Krackowizer). A. Flanagan, publisher. The best edition of the " Hiawatha " is " Longfel- low's Song of Hiawatha," which is well illustrated. Published by Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. Other editions are " The Song of Hiawatha." The Educational Publishing Co. "Longfellow's Hiawatha." The Macmillan Co. " Song of Hiawatha." University Publishing Co. CHAPTER V Third Grade Stories the mythical stories In the third grade we wish to bring a number of the mythical stories vividly before the children. The classical myths which belong to the literature of Europe are the fund from which to select the best. Not all, but only a few of the simple and appropriate stories can be chosen. Only two recitation periods a week are usually set apart for the oral treatment of these old myths. But later in the progress of the reading lessons other similar stories should be treated. The few recitation periods used for oral work are rather designed to introduce children to the spirit of this literature, to get them into the appreciative mind. This body of ancient myths comes down to us, sifted out of the early literature of the active-minded Greeks. They have found their way as a simple and charming poetry into the national literature of all the European countries. Is this the material suited to nine- and ten-year-old children ? It will not be ques- tioned that these myths belong to the best literary products of Europe, but are they suited to children ? It is evident that some of our best literary judges have deemed them appropriate. Hawthorne has put 92 THIRD GRADE STORIES 93 them into a form designed especially for the young folk. Charles Kingsley wrote of the Greek myths for his children : " Now I love these old Hellens heartily, and they seem to me like brothers, though they have all been dead and gone many a hundred years. They are come to tell you some of their old fairy tales, which they loved when they were young like you. For nations begin at first by being children like you, though they are made up of grown men. They are children at first like you — men and women with children's hearts ; frank, and affectionate, and full of trust, and teachable, loving to see and learn all the wonders around them; and greedy also, too often, and passionate and silly, as children are." Not a few other authors of less note have tried to turn the classical myths of the old Greek poets into simple English for the entertainment and instruction of children. Scarcely any of these stories that have not appeared in various children's books in recent years. Taken as a whole, they are a storehouse of children's literature. The philosopher, Herbart, looked upon poems of Homer as giving ideal expres- sion to the boyhood of the race, and the story of Ulysses was regarded by him as the boy's book, — the Greek Robinson Crusoe. For the child of nine years he thought it the most suitable story. Kingsley says in his Introduction : " Now you must not think of the Greeks in this book as learned men, living in great cities, such as they were afterwards, 94 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING when they wrought all their beautiful works, but as country people, living on farms and in walled villages, in a simple, hard-working way ; so that the greatest kings and heroes cooked their own meals and thought it no shame, and made their own ships and weapons, and fed and harnessed their own horses. So that a man was honored among them, not because he hap- pened to be rich, but according to his skill and his strength and courage and the number of things he could do. For they were but grown-up children, though they were right noble children too, and it was with them as it is now at school, the strongest and cleverest boy, though he be poor, leads all the rest." In the introduction to the " Wonder Book " we find the following : " Hawthorne took a vital interest in child life. He was accustomed to observe his own children very closely. There are private manuscripts extant which present exact records of what his young son and elder daughter said or did from hour to hour, the father seating himself in their playroom and patiently noting all that passed. To this habit of watchful and sympathetic scrutiny we may attribute in part the remarkable felicity, the fortunate ease of adaptation to the immature understanding, and the skilful appeal to the fresh imaginations which char- acterize his stories for the young." Hawthorne him- self says : " The author has long been of the opinion that many of the classical myths were capable of being rendered into very capital reading for chil- THIRD GRADE STORIES 95 dren. . . . No epoch of time can claim a copyright on these immortal fables. They seem never to have been made, and so long as man exists they can never perish ; but by their indestructibility itself they are legitimate subjects, for every age to clothe with its own garniture of manners and sentiment, and to imbue with its own morality. . . . The author has not always thought it necessary to write downward in order to meet the comprehension of children. He has generally suffered the theme to soar, whenever such was its tendency. Children possess an unestimated sensibility to whatever is deep or high in imagination or feeling so long as it is simple likewise. It is only the artificial and the complex that bewilder them." A brief analysis of the qualities which render these myths so attractive will help us to see their value in the education of children. The astonishing brightness of fanciful episode and of pure and clear-cut imagery has an indestructible charm for children. They can soar into and above the clouds on the shining wings of Pegasus. With Eolus they shut up the contrary winds in an ox-hide, and later let them out to plague the much-suffering Ulysses. They watch with astonishment as Jason yokes the fire-breathing oxen and strews the field with uprooted stumps and stones as he prepares the soil for the seed of dragon's teeth. Each child becomes a poet as he recreates the sparkling bright- ness of these simple pictures. And when a child g6 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING has once suffered his fancy to soar to these mountain heights and ocean depths, it will no longer be possi- ble to make his life entirely dull and prosaic. He has caught glimpses of a bright world that will linger unfading in the uplands of his memory. And while they are so deep and lofty they are still, as Haw- thorne says, very simple. Some of the most classic of the old stories are indeed too long for third grade children ; too many persons and too much complexity, as in the " Tales of Troy." But on the other hand, many of the most beautiful of the old myths are as plain and simple to a child as a floating summer cloud. High in the sky they may be or deep in the reflection of some lake or spring, but clear and plain to the thought of a little child. These stories in their naive simplicity reflect the wonder and surprise with which a person first beholds grand and touching scenery, whether it be the oppressive grandeur of some beetling mountain crag, or the placid quiet of a moonlit stream. The stories selected for this grade should be the simplest and best : "The Golden Touch," " Perseus," " The Chimaera," of Hawthorne, the epi- sodes of the " Golden Fleece," with others similar. In one form or another they introduce us to the company of heroes, or, at least, of great and simple characters. Deeds of enterprise and manliness or of unselfishness and generosity are the climax of the story. To meet danger and hardship or ridicule for the sake of a high purpose is their underlying THIRD GRADE STORIES 97 thought. Perseus and Jason and Ulysses are all ambitious to prove their title to superior shrewdness and courage and self-control. When we get fairly into the mythical age, we find ourselves among the heroes, among those striving for mastery and leader- ship in great undertakings. Physical prowess and manly spirit are its chief virtues. And can there be any question that there is a time in the lives of children when these ideas fill the horizon of their thought ? Samson and David and Hercules, Bel- lerophon and Jason, are a child's natural thoughts ■ or, at least, they fit the frame of his mind so exactly that one may say the picture and the frame were made for each other. The history of most countries contains such an age of heroes. Tell in Switzerland, Siegfried in Germany, Bruce in Scotland, Romulus and Horatius at Rome, Alfred in England, are all national heroes of the mythical age, whose deeds are heroic and of public good. The Greek stories are only a more classic edition of this historical epoch, and should lead up to a study of these later products of European literature. Several forms of moral excellence are objectively realized or personified in these stories. As the wise Centaur, after teaching Jason to be skilful and brave, sent him out into the world, he said : " Well, go, my son ; the throne belongs to thy father and the gods love justice. But remember, wher- ever thou dost wander, to observe these three things : 98 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING " Relieve the distressed. " Respect the aged. "Be true to thy word." 1 And many events in Jason's life illustrate the wisdom of these words. The miraculous pitcher is one whose fountain of refreshing milk bubbled always because of a gentle deed of hospitality to strangers. King Midas, on the other hand, experi- ences in most graphic form the punishment which ought to follow miserly greed, while his humble penitence brought back his daughter and the homely comforts of life. Bellerophon is filled with a desire to perform a noble deed that will relieve the distress of a whole people. After the exercise of much patience and self-control he succeeds in his gener- ous enterprise. Many a lesson of worldly wisdom and homely virtue is brought out in the story of Ulysses* varied and adventuresome career. These myths bring children into lively contact with European history and geography, as well as with its modes of life and thought. The early his- tory of Europe is in all cases shrouded in mist and legend. But even from this historically impenetra- ble past has sprung a literature that has exercised a profound influence upon the life and growth of the people. Not that children are conscious of the sig- nificance of these ideas, but being placed in an 1 Jason's Quest (Lowell), p. 55. THIRD GRADE STORIES 99 atmosphere which is full of them, their deeper mean- ing gradually unfolds itself. The early myths afford an interesting approach for children to the history and geography of important countries. Those coun- tries they must, sooner or later, make the acquaint- ance of both geographically and historically, and could anything be designed to take stronger hold upon their imagination and memory than these charming myths, which were the poetry and religion of the people once living there ? It is a very simple and primitive state of culture, whose ships, arms, agriculture, and domestic life are given us in clear and pleasing pictures. Our own country is largely lacking in a mythical age. Our culture sprang, more than half-grown, from the midst of Europe's choicest nations, and out of insti- tutions that had been centuries in forming. The myths of Europe are therefore as truly ours as they are the treasure of Englishmen, of Germans, or of Greeks. Again, our own literature, as well as that of European states, is full of the spirit and sugges- tion of the mythical age. Our poets and writers have drawn much of their imagery from this old storehouse of thought, and a child will better under- stand the works of the present through this contact with mythical ages. In method of treatment with school classes, these stories will admit of a variation from the plan used with " Robinson Crusoe." One unaccustomed to the reading IOO SPECIAL METHOD IN READING of such stories would be at a loss for a method of treatment with children. There is a charm and liter- ary art in the presentation that may make the teacher feel unqualified to present them. The chil- dren are not yet sufficiently masters of the printed symbols of speech to read for themselves. Shall the teacher simply read the stories to children ? We would suggest first of all, that the teacher, who would expect to make use of these materials, steep himself fully in literature of this class, and bring his mind into familiar acquaintance and sympathy with its char- acters. In interpreting classical authors to pupils, we are justified in requiring of the teacher intimate knowledge and appreciative sympathy with his author. Certainly no one will teach these stories well whose fancy was never touched into airy flights — who can- not become a child again and partake of his pleas- ures. No condescension is needed, but ascension to a free and ready flight of fancy. By learning to drink at these ancient fountains of song and poetry, the teacher might learn to tell a fairy story for him- self. But doubtless it will be well to mingle oral narra- tive and description on the part of the teacher with the fit reading of choice parts so as to better preserve the classic beauty and suggestion of the author. Children are quite old enough now to appreciate beauty of lan- guage and expressive, happy turns of speech. In the midst of question, suggestion, and discussion be- tween pupil and teacher, the story should be carried THIRD GRADE -TORIES ID'' forward, never forgetting to stop at suitable intervals and get such a reproduction of the story as the little children are capable of. And indeed they are capa- ble of much in this direction, for their thoughts are more nimble, and their power of expression more apt, oftentimes, than the teacher's own. We would not favor a simple reading of these stories for the entertainment of pupils. It should take more the form of a school exercise, requiring not only interest and attention, but vigorous effort to grasp and reproduce the thought. The result should be a much livelier and deeper insight into the story than would be secured by a simple reading for amuse- ment or variety. They should prepare also for an appreciative reading of other myths in the following grades. After all, in two or three recitation periods a week, extending through a year, it cannot be expected that children will make the acquaintance of all the litera- ire that could be properly called the myth of the leroic age in different countries. All that we may expect is to enter this paradise of children, to pluck few of its choicest flowers, and get such a breath of their fragrance that there will be a child's desire to return again and again. The school also should pro- ride in the succeeding year for an abundance of read- ig of myths. The same old stories which they first learned to enjoy in oral recitations should be read in books, and still others should be utilized in the regu- I02 .SPECIAL METHOD IN READING lar reading classes of the fourth and fifth grades. In this way the myths of other countries may be brought in, the story of Tell, of Siegfried, of Alfred, and of others. In summarizing the advantages of a systematic attempt to get this simple classic lore into our schools, we recall the interest and mental activity which it arouses, its power to please and satisfy the creative fancy in children, its fundamental feeling and instincts, the virtues of bravery, manliness, and unselfishness, and all this in a form that still further increases its culture effect upon teacher and pupil. It should never be forgotten that teacher and pupil alike are here imbibing lessons and inspirations that draw them into closer sympathy because the subject is worthy of both old and young. In addition to the earlier Greek myths we may men- tion the following subjects as suitable for oral treatment : The story of Ulysses has been much used in schools with oral presentation, and is one of the best tales for this purpose in all literature. A somewhat full dis- cussion of the value of this story for schools, is found in the Special Method in Reading of Complete English Classics. The Norse mythology has also received much attention from teachers who have used the oral mode of treatment. Several of the best books of Norse mythology are mentioned in the appended list. Also the great story of Siegfried. THIRD GRADE STORIES 103 Some of the old traditional stories in the early his- tory of Rome, of France, Germany, and England, have been used for oral narration and reading to children. The " Seven Little Sisters " and its companion book " Each and All," and the " Ten Boys on the Road from Long Ago to Now," by Jane Andrews, published by Ginn & Co., have been employed extensively for oral and reading work in the third and fourth years of school. The " Seven Little Sisters " is valuable in connection with the beginnings of geography. BOOKS OF THIRD YEAR STORIES The Wonder Book of Nathaniel Hawthorne. The following stories are especially recommended: The Gorgon's Head, The Golden Touch, The Miraculous Pitcher, and The Chimaera. » One should preserve as much as possible of the spirit and language of the author. Perhaps in classes with children the other stories will be found equally attractive : The Paradise of Children and the Three Golden Apples. Published by Houghton, Mifflin, & Co., Boston. Kingsley's Greek Heroes. The stories of Perseus, the Argonauts, and Theseus, es- pecially adapted to children. It may be advisable for the teacher to abbreviate the stories, leaving out unimportant parts, but giving the best portions in the fullest detail. Pub- lished by Ginn & Co. ; The Macmillan Co. Story of the Iliad and Story of the Odyssey (Church). Simple and interesting narrative of the Homeric stories. The Macmillan Co. Jason's Quest (Lowell). The story of the Argonauts with many other Greek myths woven into the narrative. This book is a store of excellent material. The teacher should select from it those parts I 104 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING specially suited to the grade. Published by Sibley & Ducker, Chicago. Adventures of Ulysses (Lamb) . A small book from which the chief episodes of Ulysses' career can be obtained. Published by Ginn & Co., Boston. The Story of Siegfried (Baldwin) . Published by Scribner's Sons. Peabody's Old Greek Folk Stories. Simple and well written. A supplement to the Wonder Book. Published by Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. Tales of Troy (De Garmo). The story of the siege of Troy and of the great events of Homer's Iliad. This story, on account of its complexity, we deem better adapted to the fourth grade. Published by the Public School Publishing Co., Bloomington, 111. Stories of the Old World (Church). Stories of the Argo, of Thebes, of Troy, of Ulysses, and of yEneas. Stories are simply and well told. It is a book of 350 pages, and would serve well as a supplementary reader in fourth grade. Published by Ginn & Co. Gods and Heroes (Francillon) . A successful effort to cover the whole field of Greek my- thology in the story form. Ginn & Co. The Tanglewood Tales (Nathaniel Hawthorne). A continuation of the Wonder Book. Heroes of Asgard. Stories of Norse mythology ; simple and attractive. Mac- millan & Co. The Story of Ulysses (Agnes S. Cook). An account of the adventures of Ulysses, told in connected narrative, in language easily comprehended by children in the third and fourth grades. Public School Publishing Co., Bloomington, 111. Old Norse Stories (Bradish). Stories for reference and sight reading. American Book Co. Norse Stories (Mabie). An excellent rendering of the old stories. Dodd, Mead^ &Co. THIRD GRADE STORIES 105 Myths of Northern Lands (Guerber). American Book Co. The Age of Fable (Bulfinch). Lee and Shepard. Readings in Folk Lore (Skinner) . American Book Co. National Epics (Rabb). A. C. McClurg & Co. Classic Myths (Gayley). Ginn & Co. Bryant's Odyssey. Complete poetic translation. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. Bryant's Iliad. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. Butcher and Lang's prose translation of the Odyssey. The Mac- millan Co. The Odyssey of Homer (Palmer). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. A prose translation. Myths and Myth Makers (Fiske) . Moral Instruction of Children (Felix Adler). Chapter X. D. Appleton & Co. THE BIBLE STORIES The stories of early Bible history have been much used in all European lands, and in America, for the instruction of children. Among Jews and Christians everywhere, and even among Mohammedans, these stories have been extensively used. They include the simple accounts of the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph and his brethren, Moses, Joshua, Samson, Samuel, and David. It may be seen at a glance that no more famous stories than these could be selected from the history of any country in the world. They stand preeminent as graphic descrip- tions of the modes of life which prevailed in the early period of civilized races. The old patriarchs lived in what is usually called the pastoral age, when men dwelt in tents and moved about from place to place 106 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING with their flocks in search of pasture. The patriarch at the head of the family, and even of a whole tribe, is the father, ruler, priest, and judge for the little community over which he presides. In his person there is a simple union of all the important powers of the later Hebrew state. The dignity and authority which centre in the person of Abraham, together with a marked gravity and strength of character, lend a distinct grandeur to his personality, so that he has been recognized in all ages as one of the great figures in the history of the world ; the foremost of the old patriarchs, — the father of the faithful. A similar respect and dignity attaches to all these old Bible characters, and in the case of Moses, rises to a supreme height, while in David the warrior, states- man, and poet are united in one of the most pro- nounced and pleasing characters in the world's history. These old stories are also unparalleled in the simplicity and transparent clearness with which the life of the pastoral age is depicted. Human nature comes out in a series of pictures most striking and individual, and yet unmistakably true to life and reality. And yet while this life was so small in its compass, it is almost wholly free from narrowness and provincialism. The universal qualities of human nature, common to men in all ages and countries, stand out with a clearness which even little children can grasp. The story of Joseph and his brethren is probably the finest story that was ever written for THIRD GRADE STORIES 107 children from eight to ten years of age. The char- acters involved in this family history are striking and impressive, and the strength of the family virtues and affections has never been set forth with greater simplicity and power. The heroic qualities which appear in the old Bible stories, especially in Moses, Samson, and David, would bear a favorable comparison with the men of the heroic age in all countries. Strength of character combined with faith in high ideals, pursued with unwavering resolution, is a peculiar merit of these narratives. The heroes of the Hebrew race should be compared, later on, with the most renowned heroes of England, Scotland, Germany, and Greece, and even of America, for they have common qualities which have like merit as educative materials for the young. This early literature of the Bible stories will be found to contain a large part of the universal thought of the world, that is, of the masterly ideas which, because of their superior truth and excellence, have gradually worked their way as controlling principles into the life of all modern nations. It need hardly be said that these stories have a peculiar charm and attractiveness for children. The simplicity of a patriarchal age, the strong interest in persons of heroic quality, the descriptions of early childhood, the heroic deeds of bold and high-spirited youth, — these things command the unfaltering interest of 108 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING children, and at the same time give their lives a touch of moral strength and idealism which is of the highest promise. The oral treatment of these stories in the third or fourth year of school is the only mode of bringing them before the children in their full power, and they are well adapted to easy oral narrative and discussion. The language is the genuine, simple, powerful old English, and the teacher should become thoroughly saturated with these simple words and modes of thought. The dramatic element is also not lacking in many parts, and can be well executed in the class- room. Many opportunities will be furnished to the children for drawing pictures illustrating the stories. Many of the most famous masterpieces of painting and sculpture represent the persons and scenes of these tales. The great heroes of Christian art have exhausted their skill in these representations, which are now being furnished to the schools by the large publishing houses. Even the costumes and modes of life are thus brought home to the children in the most realistic yet artistic way. An acquaintance with such early stories of Hebrew history is an introduction to some of the finest litera- ture of the English language. First, that dealing with the Hebrew scriptures themselves, as the books of Moses, the psalms of David, and second, a number of the great poems of English masters, as the " Burial of Moses " and Milton's "Samson Agonistes." In THIRD GRADE STORIES IO9 short, we may say that these stories are the key to a large part of our best English thought. Adler, in his " Moral Instruction of Children," says : " The narrative of the Bible is fairly saturated with the moral spirit ; the moral issues are everywhere in the forefront. Duty, guilt, and its punishment, the conflict of conscience with inclination, are the lead- ing themes. The Hebrew people seem to have been endowed with what may be called * a moral genius/ and especially did they emphasize the filial and fra- ternal duties to an extent hardly equalled elsewhere. Now it is precisely these duties that must be im- pressed upon young children, and hence the biblical stories present us with the very material we require. They cannot, in this respect, be replaced; there is no other literature in the world that offers what is equal to them in value for the particular object we now have in view." If we could only contemplate the patriarchal stories as a part of the great literature of the world, on account of its typical yet realistic portraiture of men and women, we might use this material as we use the very best derived from other sources. Mr. Adler remarks that "this typical quality in Homer's por- traiture has been one secret of its universal impres- siveness. The Homeric outlines are in each case brilliantly distinct, while they leave to the reader a certain liberty of private conception, and he can fill them in to satisfy his own ideal. We may add that IIO SPECIAL METHOD IN READING this is just as true of the Bible as of Homer. The biblical narrative, too, depicts a few essential traits of human nature, and refrains from multiplying minor traits which might interfere with the main effect. The Bible, too, draws its figures in outline, and leaves every age free to fill them in so as to satisfy its own ideal. ,, Moreover, their use is not a matter of experiment. For hundreds of years they have held the first place in the best homes and schools of Germany, England, and America, and their educative influence has been profoundly felt in all Christian nations. We have several editions of the stories adapted from the Bible for school use. In the Bible itself they are not found in the simple, connected form that makes them available for school use. One of the best editions for school is that published by Houghton, Mifflin, & Co., called, "Old Testament Stories in Scriptural Language." A free and somewhat origi- nal rendering of the stories is given by Baldwin in his " Old Stories of the East," published by the American Book Co. Both of these books have been extensively used in the schools of this country. The oral treatment of the Bible stories in the schools has not been common in this country, but it has all the merits described by us in the chapter on oral instruc- tion. In fourth and fifth grades these books may serve well for exercises in reading. In a great many schools of this country they can THIRD GRADE STORIES III be used and are used without giving offence to any- body, and where this is true, they well deserve recog- nition in our school course because of their superior presentation of some of the great universal ideas of our civilization. BOOKS FOR TEACHERS OF BIBLE LITERATURE The Modern Reader's Bible, twenty-one volumes (Richard Moul- ton). The Macmillan Co. Children's Series. Old Testament and New Testament Stories. In two volumes. The Macmillan Co. Stories from the Bible (Church). The Macmillan Co. Story of the Chosen People (Guerber). The American Book Co. The Literary Study of the Bible (Moulton). D. C. Heath & Co. CHAPTER VI Method in Primary Reading The problem of primary reading is one of the most complex and difficult in the whole range of school instruction. A large proportion of the finest skill and sympathy of teachers has been expended in efforts to find the appropriate and natural method of teaching children to read. All sorts of methods and devices have been employed, from the most formal and mechanical to the most spirited and realistic. The first requisite to good reading is something worth reading, something valuable and interesting to the children, and adapted to their minds. We must take it for granted in this discussion that the best literature and the best stories have been selected, and what the teacher has to do is, first, to appreciate these masterpieces for herself, and second, to bring the children in the reading lessons to appreciate and enjoy them. In the primary grades we are not so richly supplied with available materials from good literature as in intermediate and grammar grades. This is due not to difficulty in thought, but to the unfamiliar written and printed forms. The great problem in primary reading is to master these strange forms as quickly as possible, and find entrance to the METHOD IN PRIMARY READING II3 story-land of books. For several years, however, pri- mary teachers have been selecting and adapting the best stories, and some of the leading publishers have brought out in choice school-book form books which are well adapted to the reading of primary grades. We should like to assume one other advantage. If the children have been treated orally to " Robinson Crusoe " in the second grade, they will appreciate and read the story much better in the third grade. If some of Grimm's stories are told in first grade, they can be read with ease in the second grade. The teacher's oral presentation of the stories is the right way to bring them close to the life and interest of children. In the first grade, as shown in the chapter on oral lessons, it is the only way, because the chil- dren cannot yet read. But even if they could read, the oral treatment is much better. The oral presentation is more lively, natural, and realistic. The teacher can adapt the story and the language to the im- mediate needs of the class as no author can. She can question, or suggest lines of thought, or call up ideas from the children's experience. The oral man- ner is the true way to let the children delve into the rich culture-content of stories and to awaken a taste for their beauty and truth. We could well wish that before children read mythical stories in fourth grade, they had been stirred up to enjoy them by oral narra- tion and discussion in the preceding year. In the 114 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING same way, if the reading bears on interesting science topics previously studied, it will be a distinct advan- tage to the reading lesson. Children like to read about things that have previously excited their inter- est, whether in story or science. The difficulties of formal reading will also be partly overcome by famili- arity with the harder names and words. Our con- clusion is that reading lessons, alone, cannot provide all the conditions favorable to good reading. Some of these can be well supplied by other studies or by preliminary lessons which pave the way for the read- ing proper. This matter has been so fully discussed in the earlier chapters on oral work that it requires no further treatment here. FOLK-LORE STORIES AS READING EXERCISES FOR FIRST GRADE Let it be supposed that a class of first-grade chil- dren has learned to tell a certain story orally. It has interested them and stirred up their thought. Let them next learn to read the same story in a very simple form. This will lead to a series of elementary reading lessons in connection with the story, and the aim should be strictly that of master- ing the early difficulties of reading. The teacher recalls the story, and asks for a statement from its beginning. If the sentence furnished by the child is simple and suitable, the teacher writes it on the black- board in plain large script. Each child reads it METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 115 through and points out the words. Let there be a lively drill upon the sentence till the picture of each word becomes clear and distinct During the first lesson, two or three short sentences can be handled with success. As new words are learned, they should be mixed up on the board with those learned before, and a quick and varied drill on the words in sentences or in columns be employed to establish the forms in memory. 1 Speed, variety in device, and watchfulness to keep all busy and attentive are necessary to secure good results. After a few lessons one or two of the simpler words may be taken for phonetic analysis. The simple sounds are associated with the letters that represent them. These familiar letters are later met and identified in new words, and, as soon as a number of sounds with their symbols have been learned, new words can be constructed and pro- nounced from these known elements. The self-activity of the children in recognizing the elementary sounds, already met, in new words as fast as they come up, is one of the chief merits of this early study of words. They thus early learn the power of self-help and of confident reliance upon themselves in acquiring and using knowledge. The chief difficulty is in telling which sound to use, as a letter often has several sounds (as a, e, s, c, etc.). But 1 First-class primary teachers claim that drills are unnecessary if the teacher is skilful in recombining the old words in new sentences. Il6 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING the children are capable of testing the known sounds of a letter upon a new word, and in most cases, of deciding which to use. The thoughtless habit of pronouncing every new word for a child, without effort on his part, checks and spoils his interest and self-activity. It does not seem necessary to use an extensive system of diacritical markings to guide him in these efforts to discriminate sounds. It is better to use the marks as little as possible and learn to interpret words as they usually appear in print. Experience has shown decisively that a lively and vigorous self-activity is manifested by such early efforts in learning to read. It is one of the most encouraging signs in education to see little children in their first efforts to master the formal art of read- ing, showing this spirited self-reliant energy. In the same way, they recognize old words in sentences and new or changed combinations of old forms, and begin to read new sentences which com- bine old words in new relations. In short, the sentence, word, and phonic methods are all used in fitting alternation, while originality and variety of device are necessary in the best exercise of teaching power. The processes of learning to read by such board- script work are partly analytic and partly synthetic. Children begin with sentences, analyze them into words, and some of the words into their simple sounds. But when these sounds begin to grow METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 117 familiar, they are identified again in other words, thus combining them into new forms. In the same way, words once learned by the analytic study of sentences are recognized again in new sentences, and thus interpreted in new relations. The short sentences, derived from a familiar story, when ranged together supply a brief, simple outline of the story. If now this series of sentences be written on the board or printed on slips of paper, the whole story may be reviewed by the class from day to day till the word and sentence forms are well mastered. For making these printed slips, some teachers use a small printing-press, or a typewriter. Eventually several stories may be collected and sewed together, so as to form a little reading-book which is the result of the constructive work of teacher and pupils. The reading lessons just described are entirely separate from the oral treatment and reproduction of the stories ; yet the thought and interest awakened in the oral work are helpful in keeping up a lively effort in the reading class. The thought material in a good story is itself a mental stimulus, and produces a wakefulness which is favorable to imprinting the forms as well as the content of thought. Expression, also, that is, natural and vivid rendering of the thought, is always aimed at in reading, and springs spontaneously from interesting thought studies. Many teachers use the materials furnished by oral Il8 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING lessons in natural science as a similar introduction to reading in first grade. The science lessons furnish good thought matter for simple sentences, and there is good reason why, in learning to read, children should use sentences drawn both from literature and from natural science. READING IN THE SECOND GRADE The oral lessons in good stories, and the later board-use of these materials in learning the elements of formal reading, are an excellent preparation for the fuller and more extended reading of similar matter in the second and third grades. When the oral work of the first grade has thus kindled the fancy of a child upon these charming pictures, and the later board-work has acquainted him with letter and word symbols which express such thought, the reading of the same and other stories of like character (a year later) will follow as an easy and natural sequence. As a preliminary to all good reading exercises, there should be rich and fruitful thought adapted to the age of children. The realm of classic folk-lore contains abundant thought mate- rial peculiar in its fitness to awaken the interest and fancy of children in the first two grades. To bring these choice stories close to the hearts of children should be the aim of much of the work in both these grades. Such an aim, skilfully carried out, not only conduces to the joy of children in first grade, but METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 1 1 9 infuses the reading lessons of second grade with thought and culture of the best quality. Interest and vigor of thought are certain to help right expression and reading. Reading, like every other study, should be based upon realities. When there is real thought and feeling in the children, a correct expression of them is more easily secured than by formal demands or by intimidation. The stories to be read in second or third grade may be fuller and longer than the brief outline sen- tences used for board-work in the first grade. Besides, these tales, being classic and of permanent value, do not lose their charm by repetition. METHOD By oral reading, we mean the giving of the thought obtained from a printed page to others through the medium of the voice. There is first the training of the eye in taking in a number of words at a glance — a mechanical process; then the interpretation of these groups of words — a mental process; next the making known of the ideas thus obtained to others, by means of the voice — also a mechanical process. The children need special help in each step. We are apt to overdo one at the expense of the others. 1. Eye-training is the foundation of all good read- ing. Various devices are resorted to in obtaining it. We will suggest a few, not new at all, but useful. 120 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING (a) A strip of cardboard, on which is a clause or sentence, is held before the class, for a moment only, and then removed. The length of the task is in- creased as the eye becomes trained to this kind of work. (b) The children open their books at a signal from the teacher, glance through a line, or part of one, indicated by the teacher, close book at once and give the line. (c) The teacher places on the board clauses or sentences bearing on the lesson, and covers with a map. The map is rolled up to show one of these, which is almost immediately erased. The children are then asked to give it. The map is then rolled up higher, exposing another, which also is speedily erased — and so on until all have been given to the children and erased. 2. The child needs not only to be able to recognize groups of words, but he must be able to get thought from them. The following are some devices to that end: — (a) Suggestive pictures can be made use of to advantage all through the primary grades. If the child reads part of the story in the picture, and finds it interesting, he will want to read from the printed page the part not given in the picture. (b) Where there is no picture — or even where there is one — an aim may be useful to arouse interest in the thought, i.e. a thoughtful question may be put METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 121 by the teacher, which the children can answer only by reading the story; e.g. in the supplementary reader, " Easy Steps for Little Feet," is found the story of " The Pin and Needle." There is no picture. The teacher says, as the class are seated : " Now we have a story about a big quarrel between a pin and a needle over the question, 'Which one is the better fellow ? ' Of what could the needle boast ? Of what the pin ? Let us see which won." (c) Let all the pupils look through one or more paragraphs, reading silently, to get the thought, before any one is called upon to read aloud. If a child comes to a word that he does not know, during the silent reading, the teacher helps him to get it — from the context if possible — if not, by the sounds of the letters which compose it. As each child finishes the task assigned, he raises his eyes from the book, showing by this act that he is ready to tell what he has just read. The thought may be given by the child in his own language to assure the teacher that he has it. Usually, however, in the lower grades, this is unnecessary, the language of the book being nearly as simple as his own. The advantage of having all the pupils kept busy, instead of one alone who might be called upon to read the paragraph, is evident. Every child reads silently all of the lesson. Time would not permit that this be done orally, were it advisable to do so. When the child gets up to read, he is not likely to 122 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING stumble, for he has both the thought and the expres- sion for it, at the start. While aiming to have the children comprehend the thought, the teacher should not forget, on the other hand, that this is the reading hour, and not the time for much oral instruction and reproduction. There are other recitations in which the phild is trained to free oral expression of thought, as in science and literature. Such offhand oral expression of his own ideas is not the primary aim of the reading lesson. Its purpose is to lend life to the recitation. 3. Steps 1 and 2 deal with preparation for the read- ing. Up to this time, no oral reading has been done. Now we are ready to begin. Children will generally express the thought with the proper emphasis if they not only see its meaning but also feel it. Suppose the children are interested in the thought of the piece, they still fail, sometimes, to give the proper emphasis. How can the teacher, by questioning, get them to realize the more important part of the thought ? {a) The teacher has gone deeper into the mean- ing than have the children. Her questions should be such as to make real to the children the more emphatic part of the thought; e.g. in the Riverside Primer we have, " Poor Bun, good dog, did you think I meant to hit you ? " John reads, " Do you think I meant to hit you?" The teacher says, "I will be Bun, John. What is it that you do not want Bun to METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 123 think ? " (" That I meant to hit him.") " But you did mean to hit something. What was it you did not mean to hit ? Tell Bun." (" I did not mean to hit you."\ Now ask him if he thought that you did. (" Did you think I meant to hit you ?") (b) When the story is in the form of a dialogue, the children may personate the characters in the story. Thus, getting into the real spirit of the piece, their emphasis will naturally fall where it properly belongs. (e) Sometimes the teacher will find it necessary to show the child how to read a passage properly, by reading it himself. It is seldom best to do this — certainly not if the correct expression can be reached through questioning. Many a teacher makes a practice of giving the proper emphasis to the child, he copying it from her voice. Frequently, children taught in this way can read one piece after another in their readers with excellent expression, but, when questioned, show that their minds are a blank as to the meaning of what they are reading. In working for expression, a great many teachers waste the time and energy of the pupils by indefinite directions. The emphasis is not correctly placed, so the teacher says, " I do not like that ; try it again, May." Now, May has no idea in what particular she has failed, so she gives it again, very likely as she gave it before, or she may put the emphasis on some 124 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING other word, hoping by so doing to please the teacher. " Why, no, May, you surely can do better than that," says the teacher. So May makes another fruitless attempt, when the teacher, disgusted, calls on another pupil to show her how to read. May has gained no clearer insight into the thought than she started out with, no power to grapple more successfully with a similar difficulty another time, and has lost, partly at least, her interest in the piece. She has been bothered and discouraged, and the class wearied. Sometimes when the expression is otherwise good, the children pitch their voices too high or too low. Natural tones must be insisted upon. A good aid to the children in this respect is the habitual example of quiet, clear tones in the teacher. Another fault of otherwise good reading is a fail- ure to enunciate distinctly. Children are inclined to slight many sounds, especially at the end of the words, and the teacher is apt to think : " That doesn't make so very much difference, since they are only children. When they are older they will see that their pronunciation is babyish, and adopt a correct form." This is unsound reasoning. Every time the child says las for last he is establishing more firmly a habit, to overcome which will give him much difficulty. In the pronunciation of words as well as in the reading of a sentence, much time is wasted through failure to point out the exact word, and the syllable Ill METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 125 in the word, in which the mistake has been made, he child cannot improve unless he knows in what articular there is room for improvement. Children in primary grades should be supplied with a good variety of primers, readers, and simple story books. In the course of their work they should read through a number of first, second, and third readers. Much of this reading should be simple and easy, so that they can move rapidly through a book, and gain confidence and satisfaction from it. In each grade there should be several sets of readers, which can be turned to as the occasion may demand. It is much better to read a new reader, involving in the main the same vocabulary, than to reread an old book. This use of several books in each grade adds to the interest and reduces to a minimum the mere drills, which are to be avoided as much as possible. SUMMARY I. Let children read under the impulse of strong and interesting thought. (a) The previous oral treatment of the stories now used as reading lessons will help this thought impulse. (6) An aim concretely stated, and touching an inter- esting thought in the lesson, will give impetus to the work. (c) Let children pass judgment on the truth, worth, or beauty of what they read. i 126 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING (d) Clear mental pictures of people, actions, places, etc., conduce to vigor of thought. To this end the teacher should use good pictures, make sketches, and give descriptions or explanations. Children should also be allowed to sketch freely at the board. 2. Children should be encouraged constantly to help themselves in interpreting new words and sen- tences in reading. (a) By looking through the new sentence and mak- ing it out, if possible, for themselves before any one reads it aloud. (b) By analyzing a new word into its sounds, and then combining them to get its pronunciation. (c) By interpreting a new word from its context, or by the first sound or syllable. (d) By using the new powers of the letters as fast as they are learned in interpreting new words. (e) By trying the different sounds of a letter to a new word to see which seems to fit best. (/) By recognizing familiar words in new sentences with a different context. (g) See that every child reads the sentences in the new lesson for himself. 3. There should be a gradual introduction to the elementary sounds (powers of the letters). The first words analyzed should be simple and phonetic in spelling, as dog, hen, cat, etc. New sounds of letters are taught as the children need them in studying out new words. METHOD IN PRIMARY READING 1 27 Very little attention needs to be given to learning the names of the letters. There need be little use of diacritical markings in early reading. 4. Many of the new words will occur in connection with the picture at the head of the lesson. Place these on the board as they come up. If the teacher will weave these words into her conver- sation, they will give the children little future trouble. 5. All the different phases of the phonic, word, and sentence method should be woven together by a skil- ful teacher. 6. The close attention of all the members of the class, so that each reads through the whole lesson, should be an ever-present aim of the teacher. 7. Children should be trained to grasp several words at a glance : — (a) By quick writing and erasure of words and sentences at the board. 1 {b) By exposing for an instant sentences covered by a screen. (c) By the use of phrases or short sentences on cardboard. (d) By questions for group thought. These tests should increase in difficulty with grow- ing skill. 8. Spend but little time in the oral reproduction of stories. Practice in good reading and interpretation is the main thing. 128 SPEdAL METHOD IN READING 9. Children, from the first, should be encouraged to articulate distinctly in oral reading. Let the teacher begin at home. 10. Let the teacher cultivate a pleasing tone of voice, not loud or harsh. This will help the children to the same. n. Vigorous and forcible expression is secured : — (a) By having interesting stories. {b) By apt questions to bring out the emphatic thought. (c) By dramatizing the scenes of the story. (d) By occasional examples of lively reading by the teacher. (e) By definiteness in questioning. CHAPTER VII Exercises and Lessons Based on School Movements ', Studies, and Games In order to bring reading exercises into close con- nection with child interests and activities, the board work should make use of the opportunities offered by the ordinary movements and games of the school. The following lessons illustrate this plan. It is assumed that the more closely the written or printed words and sentences are related to the chil- dren's activities, or the more dependent these activi- ties are made upon a knowledge of the word-forms, the quicker and more natural will be their mastery. To put it briefly, the teacher abstains from the use of oral speech to a considerable extent and substitutes the written forms of the words on the blackboard in giving directions, in games, and in treating topics in literature and science. The following chapter is taken wholly from the lessons given by Mrs. Lida B. McMurry in the first grade. Many other similar lessons were worked out, but these are probably sufficient fully to illustrate the plan. k 129 130 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING The teacher's aim in the beginning reading is to lead the child to look to the lesson, either word or sentence or paragraph, to find what it has to say to him — to present the lesson in such a way that the child shall quicken into life in its presence — shall reach forward to grasp this much-desired thing. The attention of the child is centred on the thought ; he grasps the symbols because he must reach, through them, the thought. Much of the early reading can be taught in a purely incidental way — in the general exercises of the school and in the literature and nature-study recitations. READING TAUGHT INCIDENTALLY (a) In the General Management of the School. The directions which are at first given to children orally, e.g., rise, turn, pass, sit, skip, fly, march, run, walk, pass to the front, pass to the back, are later written upon the board. When the children seem to have become familiar with the written direction, the order in which the directions are given is some- times changed, as a test, e.g., the following direc- tions are usually given in this order — turn, rise, pass. Instead of writing turn first, the teacher writes pass. If the children understand, they will rise at once and pass without waiting to turn. The names of the children, instead of being spoken, are often written; in this way the children become EXERCISES AND LESSONS I3I familiar with the names of all the children in the school. The teacher, writing Clarence upon the board, says, " I would like this boy to erase the boards to-night." The first time it is written the teacher speaks the name as she writes it. It may be neces- sary to do this several times. The teacher does not look at Clarence as she writes his name. If he does not recognize his name after it has appeared repeat- edly, his eyesight may well be tested. If heedless- ness is the cause of the failure, another name is written at the board, and Clarence loses the opportu- nity to do the service. No drill should be given on these names. The repetition incident to the frequent calling upon the child is all that is necessary to fix the name. The names of the songs and of the poems which the children are memorizing are written upon the board as needed. The teacher says, " We will sing this song this morning." If the children do not recognize its title as the teacher points to it, she gives it. After a while the children will recognize the names of all the songs and the poems which are in use in the room. The children become familiar with the written form of the smaller numbers in this way — the number of absent children is reported at each session and written on the board. On Friday the teacher records upon the board some facts of the week, or of the month, which the children learned 132 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING from their weather charts — viz., the number of sunny and the number of cloudy days. The number of children in each row is ascertained and written at the board that the monitors may know how many pairs of scissors, pieces of clay, or pencils to select. The poems, after being partially committed to memory, are written upon the board ; when the pupils falter, reference is made to the line in ques- tion as it appears upon the board. The teacher sometimes writes her morning greet- ing or evening farewell at the board — thus : " Good morning, children," or, "Good-by for to-day." The children read silently and respond with, " Good morn- ing, Miss Eades," or, " Good night, Miss Farr." Often she communicates facts of interest at the board. If the pupils are unable to interpret what she has written, she reads for them, e.g., the teacher writes, " We have vacation to-morrow." Quite likely some child, unable to read at all, will say, " We have something, but I can't tell what it is." (These same words will occur again, when needed to express a thought, and it is a waste of energy to drill upon them.) When the children have interpreted the above sentence at the board, the teacher writes, " Do you know why ? " The children read the question silently and give the answer audibly, and say, " It is Decoration Day." We too often allow children to treat a question in their reading as if its end were reached in the asking. To lead the children to form EXERCISES AND LESSONS 1 33 a habit of answering questions asked in writing or in print, such questions as the following are, from time to time, written at the board : " Did you see the rain- bow last night ? " " What color was it ? " " Did you see any birds on Saturday ?" "What ones ?" "Have you been to the woods ?" " What did you find there ? " (b) In Connection with the Literature. The name of the story which the teacher is about to tell is placed upon the board. At the first writing the teacher tells the pupils what it is, if necessary, e.g., the teacher says, "We shall have a story about 'The Three Bears,' " pointing to the title upon the board. The next day she says, " I would like you to tell me all you can about this story " — writing its name upon the board. In the final reproduction of the story the teacher assigns topics, e.g.: Chauncey may tell me about this (writing at the board): Silver-Hair going to the woods. Eva may tell about this: Silver-Hair going into the kitchen. Jennie may tell about this : Silver-Hair going into the sitting room. Willie may tell about this : Silver-Hair going upstairs. Should the child go beyond the limited topic, the teacher points to the board and asks about what he was to tell. At the close of each story that can be dramatized, the teacher assigns at the board the part which each is to take, thus : After the story of " The Old Woman and the Pig" is learned, the teacher writes in a col- 134 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING umn each child's name opposite the animal or thing which he is to represent, in this way. Agnes — the old woman. Glenn — the pig. Sadie — the dog, etc. (c) In Connection with the Nature Study. In the spring the children are looking for the return of the birds, the first spring blossoms, and the opening of the tree buds. The teacher often makes her own dis- coveries known through writing, upon the board, e.g., " I saw a robin this morning," or " I found a blue violet yesterday," or "I saw some elm blossoms last night." The class, by the aid of the teacher, makes a bird, a flower, and a tree-bud calendar, on which are re- corded the name and date of the first seen of each. These names are put on the calendars in the presence of the children, and they frequently "name their treasures o'er." The mode of travelling is written beside the name of each familiar bird as the children make the dis- coveries, thus : — Robin \ runs. Crow \ n . (flies. ^ flleS - Questions arise during the recitation which the children will answer later from observation. That the children may not forget them they are placed high up on the board where they can be preserved. EXERCISES AND LESSONS 1 35 Frequent reference is made to them to see if the pupils are prepared to answer them. When a ques- tion is answered it is erased, making room for another. THE READING RECITATION For the early reading, Games, Literature, and Nature Study may form the basis. (I) Games as a Basis for the Reading. The child enters school from a life of play. It is our purpose, so far as possible, to make use of this natural bent of the child to insure interest in his reading, as well as to give him the free exercise, which he needs, of his muscles. It may be urged as an argument against the use of the games, that they are too noisy and attract the attention of the children who are busy at their seats. Often it would be a good thing for these chil- dren to watch the younger ones at their games. It would rest them and put them into closer sympathy with the little ones. In a short time they will not care so much to watch them. The little children should be thoughtful of the older ones and move about as quietly as is possible. The following are some of the games which we have used in our primary school. They are given in the way of suggestion only. They are played at first by following spoken directions. When the children are perfectly familiar with the oral direction, the written direction is gradually substituted. The children do not stay long enough on one game to become tired of I36 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING it. Two or three or even more are played at a single recitation. It is not the plan to drill the pupils upon the written directions, but by frequent repetitions to familiarize them with them. The games are most suitable for the very earliest reading lessons. The plan for teaching one of them, the first one given here, will be written out quite fully. The others will be given with less detail. THE RING GAME Material. — Six celluloid rings, red, white, blue, yel- low, green, and black. Surcingle rings can be painted the colors desired. Directions. — Take the red ring, Jennie. Take the blue ring, Eva. Take the yellow ring, Wallace. Take the green ring, Chauncey. Take the black ring, Gregory. Take the white ring, Lloyd. When the children are ready to hide the rings this direction is given to the remainder of the class : — Close your eyes. This to the pupils who hold the rings : — Hide the rings. When the children have all the rings hid they an- nounce it by lightly clapping their hands, upon which EXERCISES AND LESSONS 137 the children open their eyes. Directions are then given to those who did not hide rings, for finding the rings, e.g.: — Find the red ring. Find the blue ring, etc. No notice is taken of any ring but the one called for. A limited time is given for the finding of each. At the close of that time, if the ring is not discovered, the one who hid it gets it. When the written direc- tions are first used the whole sentence need not be put upon the board, e.g., the teacher need write only — the red ring. She says to the child, " find this" — pointing to the board ; or red, alone, may be written, in which case the teacher points to the word, saying, "You may find this ring." There is considerable rivalry to see who will find the most rings. When the children seem to know the written di- rections perfectly, a test is made of their ability, actually, to read them; thus, instead of writing, " Take the red ring/* the teacher writes, "Find the red ring." She writes " Hide the rings," before she writes, " Close your eyes." If the children recog- nize what is written they will set the teacher right. BALL AND CORD Material. — Small, soft rubber balls with short rub- ber cords attached. The cords have a loop for the finger. I38 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING Ball in right hand. Toss up. Hold. Toss down. Hold. Toss to the right. Hold. Toss to the left. Hold. Ball in left hand. Toss up, etc. In this and succeeding games it is left to the dis- cretion of the teacher as to when the written direc- tions shall be introduced. BALL GAME Material, — A soft rubber ball. Form a circle. Take the ball, Roy. Toss the ball. Roll the ball. Bounce the ball. Throw the ball. Give the ball to Sadie. In this game one of the children takes the ball to the circle. Each, as the ball is tossed to him, tosses it to another. At the direction of the teacher the game of tossing the ball is changed to one of rolling EXERCISES AND LESSONS 1 39 the bally the pupils squatting on the floor ; this in turn is changed later as the directions indicate. Care must be taken that all children are treated alike in this game. The children themselves will look out for this if properly directed at the outset of the game. HUNTING THE VIOLET Material. — Violets scattered about the room. Find a blue violet, Glenn. Find a violet bud, Edith. Find a yellow violet, Lloyd. Find a violet leaf, Sadie. Find a white violet, Jennie. Find a purple violet, Rudolph. Sing to the violets. Children sing softly : — " Oh, violets, pretty violets, I pray you tell to me Why are you the first flowers That bloom upon the lea?" etc. A TREE GAME — (SPRING OR FALL) Material. — Leaves of the different trees with which the children are familiar. Glenn may be a maple tree. Choose your leaf. Wallace may be an elm tree. Choose your leaf. 140 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING Chauncey may be a birch tree. Choose your leaf, etc. Make a little forest. Toss in the wind. (The leaves are pinned upon the children as each chooses his leaf, and they dance lightly about as if tossed by the wind.) CARING FOR THE ANIMALS Material. — Wooden or paper animals. A portion of the table is marked off by a chalk line for the farmyard. Drive in a pig, Willie. Lead in a horse, Gregory. Drive in a sheep, Sadie. Lead in a cow, Roy, etc. They are driven in at night, then driven out in the morning. Sometimes they are hurried in because of the approach of a storm. DOLL PLAY (GENERAL) Material — Penny dolls or larger ones. Take a doll. Rock the baby. Pat the baby. Sing the baby to sleep. Put the baby to bed. EXERCISES AND LESSONS 141 Take up the baby. Wash its face. Comb its hair. Feed it bread and milk. Take it for a walk. At the direction, "Sing the baby to sleep," the children sing very softly : — " Rock-a-bye Baby," — or some other lullaby. The bed is the chair on which the child is sitting. All stand and turn about together to put the babies to bed. They go through the movements only of washing the face and hands and combing the hair, and of feeding bread and milk. They per- form these acts in unison. THE RAINBOW FAIRIES — (SPRING) Material. — Large bows of tissue paper with streamers, of the various colors mentioned. Eva may be a yellow fairy. Roy may be a blue fairy. Edith may be a green fairy. Louise may be a red fairy. Lloyd may be an orange fairy. Sadie may be a violet fairy. The others may be trees. Join hands, fairies. Dance about the trees. 142 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING As the first direction is given Eva steps to the table and takes a yellow bow which is pinned to her left shoulder : the others follow as called upon. THE LEAVES Material. — A leaf of one of several colors pinned on each child. The wind calls : — Come yellow leaf. Come red leaf. Come green leaves, etc. Dance in the wind. At the last direction the children fly over a small area, hither and thither ; some one way, some another, passing and repassing one another, simulat- ing the leaves in a storm. A FLOCK OF BIRDS All the children are little birds. Fly to the fields. Pick up seeds. Take a drink. Bathe in the creek. Preen your feathers. Fly home. Perch on a twig. They sing: — m ^' " We are little birdies, Happy we, happy we. We are little birdies Singing in a tree." CHAPTER VIII List of Books for Primary Grades In selecting reading books for primary grades the purpose is to find those which will give the readiest mastery of the printed forms of speech. For this purpose books need to be well graded and interesting. Primary teachers have expended their utmost skill upon such simple, attractive, and inter- esting books for children. Pictorial illustration has added to the clearness and beauty of the books, so that, with the rivalry of many large publishing houses, we now have a great variety of good primary books to select from. The earliest and simplest of these are the primers, which, followed by the first readers, give the most necessary drills upon the forms of easy words and sentences. Great care has been taken to give an easy regular grading so as to let a child help himself as much as possible. But as soon as children, by blackboard exercises and by means of primers, have gained a mastery of the simpler words and the powers of the letters, the Mother Goose rhymes, the fables and fairy tales (already familiar to the children 143 144 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING in oral work) are introduced into their reading books in the simplest possible forms. The use of interesting rhymes and stories in this early- reading is the only means of giving it a lively content and of thus securing interest and concentration of thought. Good primary teachers have been able in this way to relieve the reading lessons of their tedium, and, what is equally good, have strengthened the inter- est of the children in the best literature of childhood. Besides the choicest fables and fairy tales, many of the simpler nature myths and even such longer poems and stories as " Hiawatha," " Robinson Cru- soe," and " Ulysses " have been used with happy re- sults as reading books in the first three years. There are also certain collections of children's poems, such as Stevenson's "Child's Garden of Verses," Field's " Love-songs of Childhood," Sherman's " Little Folk Lyrics," "Old Ballads in Prose," "The Listening Child," and others, which may suggest the beauty and variety of choice literary materials which are now easily within the reach of teachers and chilcjren in primary schools. There is no longer any doubt that little folk in primary classes may reap the full benefit of a close acquaintance with these favorite songs, stories, and poems, and that in the highest educative sense the effect is admirable. In the following list the books for each grade are arranged into three groups : — LIST OF BOOKS FOR PRIMARY GRADES I45 First. A series of choicest books and those exten- sively used and well adapted for the grade as regular reading exercises. Second. A supplementary list of similar quality and excellence, but somewhat more difficult. They may, in some cases, serve as substitutes for those given in the first group. Third. A collection of books for teachers, partly similar in character to those mentioned in the two previous groups and partly of a much wider, profes- sional range in literature, history, and nature. Some books of child-study, psychology, and pedagogy are also included. The problems of the primary teacher are no longer limited to the small drills and exercises in spelling and reading, but comprehend many of the most interesting and far-reaching questions of educa- tion. It is well, therefore, for the primary teacher to become acquainted not only with the great works of literature but with the best professional books in education. LIST OF CHOICE READING MATTER FOR THE GRADES FIRST GRADE — FIRST SERIES Cyr's Primer. Ginn & Co. Cyr's First Reader. Ginn & Co. I Riverside Primer and First Reader. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. Nature Stories for Young Readers (Plants). D. C. Heath & Co. Hiawatha Primer. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. I46 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING Stepping Stones to Literature, Book I. Silver, Burdett, & Co. Child Life Primer. The Macmillan Co. Taylor's First Reader. Werner School Book Co. Arnold's Primer. Silver, Burdett, & Co. The Thought Reader. Ginn & Co. Sunbonnet Babies. Rand, McNally, & Co. Nature's By-ways. The Morse Co. Graded Classics, No. I. B. F. Johnson Pub. Co. Graded Literature, No. I. Maynard, Merrill, & Co. First Reader (Hodskins). Ginn & Co. Baldwin's Primer (Kirk). American Book Co. FIRST GRADE — SECOND SERIES Six Nursery Classics (O'Shea). D. C. Heath & Co. Verse and Prose for Beginners in Reading. Houghton, Mifflin, &Co. Stories for Children. American Book Co. Rhymes and Fables. University Publishing Co. The Finch First Reader. Ginn & Co. Baldwin's First Reader. American Book Co. Heart of Oak, No. I. D. C. Heath & Co. Choice Literature, Book I (Williams) . Butler, Sheldon, & Co. Child Life, First Book. The Macmillan Co. Fables and Rhymes for Beginners. Ginn & Co. FIRST GRADE — FOR TEACHERS — THIRD SERIES A Book of Nursery Rhymes (Mother Goose). D. C. Heath & Co. The Adventures of a Brownie. Harper & Bros. Kindergarten Stories and Morning Talks (Wiltse). Ginn & Co. Talks for Kindergarten and Primary Schools (Wiltse). Ginn &Co. Hall's How to Teach Reading. D. C. Heath & Co. Place of the Story in Early Education (Wiltse). Ginn & Co. Methods of Teaching Reading (Branson). D. C. Heath & Co. LIST OF BOOKS FOR PRIMARY GRADES I47 Lowell's Books and Libraries. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. Ruskin's Books and Reading. In Sesame and Lilies. Lectures to Kindergartners (Peabody). D. C. Heath & Co. Mother Goose (Denslow). McClure, Phillips, & Co. Boston Collection of Kindergarten Stories. J. L. Hammett &Co. The Study of Children and their School Training (Warner). The Macmillan Co. The Story Hour (Kate Douglas Wiggin). Houghton, Mifflin, &Co. Trumpet and Drum (Eugene Field). Scribner's Sons. A Child's Garden of Verses (Robert Louis Stevenson). Scrib- ner's Sons. Treetops and Meadows. The Public School Publishing Co., Bloomington, 111. Songs from the Nest (Emily Huntington Miller). Kindergarten Literature Co. The Moral Instruction of Children (Felix Adler). D. Appleton &Co. Children's Rights (Kate Douglas Wiggin) . Houghton, Mifflin, &Co. The Story of Patsy (Wiggin). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. First Book of Birds (Miller). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. SECOND GRADE — FIRST SERIES Nature Stories for Young Readers (continued). D. C. Heath &Co. Easy Steps for Little Feet. American Book Co. Classic Stories for Little Ones. Public School Publishing Co., Bloomington, 111. Verse and Prose for Beginners. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. Cyr's Second Reader. Ginn & Co. Stepping Stones to Literature, Book II. Pets and Companions (Stickney). Ginn & Co. Child Life, Second Book. The Macmillan Co. I48 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING Nature Myths and Stories for Little Ones (Cooke). A. Flanagan &Co. The preceding books are for second and third grades. Around the World, Book I. The Morse Co. Graded Classics, No. II. B. F. Johnson Publishing Co. Graded Literature, No. II. Maynard, Merrill, & Co. A Book of Nursery Rhymes (Welsh). D. C. Heath & Co. Book of Nature Myths (Holbrook) . Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. SECOND GRADE — SECOND SERIES Heart of Oak, No. II. D. C. Heath & Co. German Fairy Tales (Grimm). Maynard, Merrill, & Co. Fables and Folk Lore (Scudder). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. Nature Stories for Young Readers — Animals. D. C. Heath & Co. Danish Fairy Tales (Andersen) . Maynard, Merrill, & Co. Baldwin's Second Reader. American Book Co. Choice Literature, Book II (Williams) . Butler, Sheldon, & Co. Fairy Tale and Fable (Thompson). The Morse Co. Fairy Stories and Fables (Baldwin) . American Book Co. Plant Babies and Their Cradles. Educational Publishing Co. /Esop's Fables. Educational Publishing Co. Story Reader. American Book Co. Open Sesame, Part I. Ginn & Co. The above are excellent selections for second, third, and fourth grades. Songs and Stories. University Publishing Co. Love Songs of Childhood (Field). Scribner's Sons. SECOND GRADE — FOR TEACHERS Poetry for Children (Eliot). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. The Story Hour (Wiggin). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. Story of Hiawatha. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. Round the Year in Myth and Song (Holbrook). American Book Co. LIST OF BOOKS FOR PRIMARY GRADES 1 49 Old Ballads in Prose (Tappan). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. St. Nicholas Christmas Book. Century Co., New York. Asgard Stories (Foster-Cummings) . Silver, Burdett, & Co. Fairy Tale Plays and How to Act Them (Mrs. Bell). Long- mans, Green, & Co. Little Folk Lyrics (Sherman). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. Readings in Folk Lore (Skinner). American Book Co. Nature Pictures by American Poets. The Macmillan Co. Squirrels and Other Fur-bearers (Burroughs). Houghton, Mif- flin, & Co. Seven Great American Poets (Hart). Silver, Burdett, & Co. Early Training of Children (Malleson). D. C. Heath & Co. Comenius's The School of Infancy. D. C. Heath & Co. Krlisi's Life of Pestalozzi. American Book Co. Development of the Child (Oppenheim). The Macmillan Co. The Study of Child Nature (Elizabeth Harrison). Published by Chicago Kindergarten College. Listening Child (Thacher). The Macmillan Co. History and Literature (Rice). A. Flanagan & Co. THIRD GRADE — FIRST SERIES Robinson Crusoe. Public School Publishing Co. Golden Book of Choice Reading. American Book Co. iEsop's Fables (Stickney). Ginn & Co. Andersen's Fairy Tales, Part I. Ginn & Co. Seven Little Sisters. Ginn & Co. Heart of Oak, No. II. D. C. Heath & Co. Fairy Stories and Fables. American Book Co. Child Life, Third Reader. The Macmillan Co. Grimm's German Household Tales. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. Fables (published as leaflets). C. M. Parker, Taylorville, 111. Around the World, Book II. The Morse Co. Graded Classics, No. III. B. F. Johnson Publishing Co. Graded Literature, No. III. Maynard, Merrill, & Co. Grimm's Fairy Tales. Educational Publishing Co. ISO SPECIAL METHOD IN READING Grimm's Fairy Tales (Wiltse) . Ginn & Co. Nature Myths and Stories for Little Ones (Cooke). A. Flanagan &Co. Fairy Tales in Verse and Prose (Rolfe). American Book Co. THIRD GRADE — SECOND SERIES Arabian Nights. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. Hans Andersen's Stories. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. Fairy Tales in Verse and Prose (Rolfe). Harper & Bros. Stories Mother Nature Told Her Children. Ginn & Co. Andersen's Fairy Tales, Part II. Ginn & Co. Open Sesame, Part I. Ginn & Co. Judd's Classic Myths. Grimm's Fairy Tales, Part II. Ginn & Co. The Eugene Field Book (Burt). Scribner's Sons. A Child's Garden of Verses. Rand, McNally, & Co. Little Lame Prince (Craik). Maynard, Merrill, & Co. Prose and Verse for Children (Pyle) . American Book Co. Book of Tales. American Book Co. THIRD GRADE — FOR TEACHERS Stories from the History of Rome. The Macmillan Co. Friends and Helpers (Eddy) . Ginn $ Co. Little Lucy's Wonderful Globe (Yonge). The Macmillan Co. Robinson Crusoe. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. Arabian Nights, Aladdin, etc. Maynard, Merrill, & Co. Bird's Christmas Carol (Wiggin). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. Uncle Remus (Harris). D. Appleton & Co. Fifty Famous Stories Retold (Baldwin). American Book Co. Four Great Americans (Baldwin). Werner School Book Co. Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans (Eggleston). American Book Co. The Story of Lincoln (Cavens). Public School Publishing Co. Among the Farmyard People (Pierson). E. P. Dutton & Co. LIST OF BOOKS FOR PRIMARY GRADES 151 The Howells Story Book (Burt). Scribner's Sons. The Jungle Book (Kipling). Century Co., New York. Old Norse Stories (Bradish). American Book Co. Little Brothers of the Air (Miller). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. Hans Brinker (Mary Mapes Dodge). Century Co. Black Beauty. University Publishing Co. Tanglewood Tales (Hawthorne). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. Wonder Book (Hawthorne). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. The Story of the Wagner Opera. Scribner's Sons. Thoughts on Education (Locke). The Macmillan Co. The Education of Man (Froebel). D. Appleton & Co. Childhood in Literature and Art (Scudder) . Houghton, Mifflin, &Co. Waymarks for Teachers (Arnold). Silver, Burdett, & Co. Hailman's History of Pedagogy. American Book Co. SERIES OF SELECT READERS FOR THE GRADES Child Life. The Macmillan Co. Around the World. The Morse Co. Baldwin's Readers. American Book Co. Graded Classics. B. F. Johnson Publishing Co. Graded Literature. Maynard, Merrill, & Co. Stepping Stones to Literature. Silver, Burdett, & Co. Lights to Literature. Rand, McNally, & Co. The Heart of Oak Series. D. C. Heath & Co. Choice Literature. Butler, Sheldon, & Co. I CHAPTER IX Educational Value of Literature The gradual introduction of the choicer products of literature into the grades of the common school has been going on for several years. Bringing the school children face to face with the thoughts of the masters has had often a thrilling effect, and the feel- ing has spread among teachers that a new door has been opened into what Ruskin calls "The King's Gardens/' As we stand at this open portal to the Elysian Fields of literature, there may fall upon us something of the beauty, something even of the solemn stillness, of the arched cathedral with its golden windows. But how inadequate is the Gothic cathedral, or the Greek temple, to symbolize the temple of literature. Within less than a score of years there has been such reading of varied literary masterpieces by chil- dren as to bring us face to face with a problem of prime significance in education, the place and im- portance of literature in the education of American children. 152 EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF LITERATURE 1 53 Millions of children are introduced yearly to book- land, and it is a matter of greater importance than what Congress does, what provision is made for these oncoming millions in the sunlit fields and forest glades of literature, where the boys and girls walk in happy companionship with the "wisest and wittiest " of our race. We have now had enough experience with these treasures of culture to get a real foretaste of the feast prepared for the growing youth. We know that their appetites are keen and their digestive powers strong. It is incumbent upon educators to get a comprehensive survey of this land and to estimate its resources. Other fields of study, like natural science, geography, music, etc., are undergoing the same scrutiny as to their educative value. Literature, certainly a peer in the hierarchy of great studies, if not supreme in value above others, is one of the most difficult to estimate. Tangible proofs of the vital culture-force of good literature upon growing minds can be given in many individual cases. But to what degree it has general or uni- versal fitness to awaken, strengthen, and refine all minds, is in dispute. It seems clear, at least, that only those who show taste and enthusiasm for a choice piece of literature can teach it with success. This requirement of ap- preciation and enjoyment of the study is more im- perative in literature, because its appeal is not merely to the intellect and the reason, as in other studies, 154 SPECIAL METHOD IN .READING but especially to the emotions and higher aesthetic judgments, to moral and religious sentiment in ideal representation. It has been often observed that discussions of the superior educative value of literature before bodies of teachers, while entertaining and delightful, fall far short of lasting results because of the teachers' nar- row experience with literature. In the case of many teachers, the primitive alphabet of literary apprecia- tion is lacking, and the most enthusiastic appeals to the charm and exaltation of such studies fall harmless. Yet literature in the schools is hopeless without teach- ers who have felt at home in this delightsome land, this most real world of ideal strength and beauty. The discussion of the subject for teachers is beset, therefore, with peculiar and seemingly insurmount- able difficulties. The strength, charm, and refine- ment of literature are known only to those who have read the masters with delight, while even people of cultured taste listen doubtfully to the praise of authors they have never read. To one enamoured of the music of Tennyson's songs, the very suggestion of " In Memoriam " awakens en- thusiasm. To one who has not read Tennyson and his like, silence on the subject is golden. To those not much travelled in the fields of literature, there is danger of speaking in an unknown tongue, while they, of all others, need a plain and convincing word. To speak this plain and convincing word to those EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF LITERATURE 1 55 who may have acquired but little relish for literature, and that little only in the fragmentary selections of the school readers, is a high and difficult aim. But teachers are willing to learn, and to discover new sources of enthusiasm in their profession. It is probable, also, that the original capacity to enjoy great literature is much more common than is often supposed, and that the great average of teachers is quite capable of receiving this powerful stimulus. The fact is, our common schools have done so little, till of late, to cultivate this fine taste, that we have faint reason to expect it in our teachers. Overwhelmed as we are with the folly of indulg- ing in the praise of literature before many whose ears have been but poorly attuned to the sweet melody or majestic rhythm of the masters, we still make bold to grapple with this argument. There is surely no subject to which the teachers need more to open their eyes and ears and better nature, so as to take in the enrichment it affords. There is encour- agement in the fact that many teachers fully appre- ciate the worth of these writers, and have succeeded in making their works beautiful and educative to the children. Very many other teachers are capable of the full refreshing enjoyment of classic works, when their attention and labor are properly expended upon them. The colleges, universities, high schools, and normal schools have largely abandoned the dull epitomizing of literature, the talk about authors, for 156 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING the study of the works themselves of the masters. The consequence is, that the study of literature in English is becoming an enthusiasm, and teachers of this type are multiplying. The deeper causes for this widespread lack of literary appreciation among the people, and even among teachers and scholars, is found partly in the practical, scientific, and utilitarian spirit of the age, and partly in the corresponding unliterary courses of study which have prevailed everywhere in our common schools. The absence of literary standards and taste among teachers is due largely to the failure of the schools themselves, hitherto, to cul- tivate this sort of proficiency. Those very qualities which give to literature its supreme excellence, its poetic beauty, its artistic finish and idealism, are among the highest fruits of culture, and are far more difficult of attainment than mere knowledge. It is no small thing to introduce the rarest and finest culture of the world into the common school, and thus propagate, in the broadest democratic fashion, that which is the peculiar, superior refinement of the choicest spirits of the world. If progress in this direction is slow, we may remember that the best ideals are slow of attainment. There is also an intangible quality in all first-class literature, which is not capable of exact description or demonstration. George Willis Cooke, in " Poets and Problems" (pp. 31-32), says: — EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF LITERATURE 1 57 " Poetry enters into those higher regions of human experience concerning which no definite account can be given ; where all words fail ; about which all we know is to be obtained by hints, symbols, poetic figures, and imagings. Poetry is truer and more helpful than prose, because it penetrates those regions of feeling, beauty, and spiritual reality, where definitions have no place or justification. There would be no poetry if life were limited to what we can understand; nor would there be any religion. Indeed, the joy, the beauty, and the promise of life would all be gone if there were nothing which reaches beyond our powers of defini- tion. The mystery of existence makes the grandeur and worth of man's nature, as it makes for him his poetry and his religion. Poetry suggests, hints, images forth, what is too wonderful, too transcen- dent, too near primal reality, too full of life, beauty, and joy, for explanation or comprehension. It embodies man's longing after the Eternal One, expresses his sense of the deep mystery of Being, voices his soul sorrow, illumines his path with hope and objects of beauty. Man's aspiration, his sense of imperfection, his yearning for a sustaining truth and reality, as the life within and over all things, find expression in poetry ; because it offers the fittest medium of interpretation for these higher I movements of soul. Whenever the soul feels deeply, or is stirred by a great thought, the poetic form of 1 58 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING utterance at once becomes the most natural and desirable for its loving and faithful interpretation. ,, This intangible excellence of superior literature, which defies all exact measurement by the yard- stick, puzzles the practical man and the scientist. There is no way of getting at it with their tools and measurements. They are very apt to give it up in disgust and dismiss it with some uncompli- mentary name. But Shakespeare's mild reign con- tinues, and old Homer sings his deathless song to those who wish to hear. Teachers need both the exact methods of science and the spiritual life of the poets, and we may well spend some pains in finding out the life-giving prop- erties of good literature. Lowell, in his " Books and Libraries," says : — "To wash down the drier morsels that every library must necessarily offer at its board, let there be plenty of imaginative literature, and let its range be not too narrow to stretch from Dante to the elder Dumas. The world of the imagination is not the world of abstraction and nonentity, as some conceive, but a world formed out of chaos by a sense of the beauty that is in man and the earth on which he dwells. It is the realm of Might-be, our haven of refuge from the shortcomings and disillusions of life. It is, to quote Spenser, who knew it well, — " ' The world's sweet inn from care and wearisome turmoil.' Do we believe, then, that God gave us in EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF LITERATURE 159 mockery this splendid faculty of sympathy with things that are a joy forever? For my part, I believe that the love and study of works of imagina- tion is of practical utility in a country so profoundly material (or, as we like to call it, practical) in its leading tendencies as ours. The hunger after purely intellectual delights, the content with ideal posses- sions, cannot but be good for us in maintaining a wholesome balance of the character and of the fac- ulties. I for one shall never be persuaded that Shakespeare left a less useful legacy to his country- men than Watt. We hold all the deepest, all the highest, satisfactions of life as tenants of imagination. Nature will keep up the supply of what are called hard-headed people without our help, and, if it come to that, there are other as good uses for heads as at the end of battering-rams. ,, " But have you ever rightly considered what the mere ability to read means ? That it is the key which admits us to the whole world of thought and fancy and imagination ? to the company of saint and sage, of the wisest and wittiest at their wisest and wittiest moments ? That it enables us to see with the keen- est eyes, hear with the finest ears, and listen to the sweetest voices of all time? More than that, 'it annihilates time and space for us ; it revives for us without a miracle the Age of Wonder, endowing us with the shoes of swiftness and the cap of darkness, so that we walk invisible like fern-seed, and witness l6o SPECIAL METHOD IN READING unharmed the plague at Athens or Florence or London ; accompany Caesar on his marches, or look in on Catiline in council with his fellow-conspirators, or Guy Fawkes in the cellar of St. Stephen's. We often hear of people who will descend to any servil- ity, submit to any insult, for the sake of getting them- selves or their children into what is euphemistically called good society. Did it ever occur to them that there is a select society of all the centuries to which they and theirs can be admitted for the asking, a society, too, which will not involve them in ruinous expense, and still more ruinous waste of time and health and faculties ? " The riches of scholarship, the benignities of lit- erature, defy fortune and outlive calamity. They are beyond the reach of thief or moth or rust. As they cannot be inherited, so they cannot be alienated. But they may be shared, they may be distributed." This notion of the select companionship of books finds also happy expression in Ruskin's "Sesame and Lilies " : — " We may intrude ten minutes' talk on a cabinet minister, answered probably with words worse than silence, being deceptive ; or snatch, once or twice in our lives, the privilege of throwing a bouquet in the path of a princess, or arresting the kind glance of a queen. And yet these momentary chances we covet; and spend our years, and passions, and powers in pursuit of little more than these; while, EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF LITERATURE l6l meantime, there is a society continually open to us, of people who will talk to us as long as we like, whatever our rank or occupation ; — talk to us in the best words they can choose, and with thanks if we listen to them. And this society, because it is so numerous and so gentle, — and can be kept wait- ing round us all day long, not to grant audience, but to gain it; kings and statesmen lingering patiently in those plainly furnished and narrow anterooms, our bookcase shelves, — we make no account of that company, — perhaps never listen to a word they would say, all day long ! "This court of the past differs from all living aristocracy in this : it is open to labor and to merit, but to nothing else. No wealth will bribe, no name overawe, no artifice deceive, the guardian of those Elysian gates. In the deep sense, no vile or vulgar person ever enters there. At the portieres of that silent Faubourg St.-Germain, there is but brief question, ' Do you deserve to enter ? ' * Pass. Do you ask to be the companions of nobles ? Make yourself noble, and you shall be. Do you long for the conversation of the wise ? Learn to understand it, and you shall hear it. But on other terms ? — no. If you will not rise to us, we cannot stoop to you. The living lord may assume courtesy, the living philosopher explain his thought to you with considerable pain; but here we neither feign nor interpret ; you must rise to the level of our thoughts 1 62 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING if you would be gladdened by them, and share our feelings, if you would recognize our presence.' " Wordsworth says : — " Books, we know, Are a substantial world, both pure and good ; Round these, with tendrils strong as flesh and blood, Our pastime and our happiness will grow." Carlyle says : — "We learn to read, in various languages, in various sciences ; we learn the alphabet and letters of all manner of Books. But the place where we are to get knowledge, even theoretic knowledge, is the Books themselves ! It depends on what we read, after all manner of Professors have done their best for us. The true University of these days is a Collection of Books." Were we willing to accept the testimony of great writers and thinkers, we should but too quickly acknowledge the supreme value of books. James Baldwin, in the first chapter of his " Book Lover," has collected more than a score of like utterances of great writers " In Praise of Books." Such tes- timony may at least suggest to some of us who have drunk but sparingly of the refreshing springs of literature, that there are better things in store for us. We will first inquire into those vital elements of strength which are peculiar to literature. One of the elements that goes into the make-up EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF LITERATURE 1 63 of a masterpiece of literature is its underlying, per- manent truth. Whether written to-day or in earlier centuries, it must contain lasting qualities that do not fade away or bleach out or decay. Time and weather do not stain or destroy its merit. Some classics, as Gray's " Elegy," or " Thanatopsis," are like cut diamonds. The quality that gives them force and brilliancy is inherent, and the form in which they appear has been wrought out by an artist. The fundamental value of a classic is the deep, significant truth which, like the grain in fine woods, is wrought into its very structure. The artist who moulds a masterpiece like " Enoch Arden" or "The Scarlet Letter" is not a writer of temporary fame. The truth to which he feels impelled to give expression is strong, natural, human truth, which has no beginning and no end. It is true forever. Schil- ler's William Tell, though idealized, is a human hero with the hearty thoughts of a real man. Shy- -lock is a Jew of flesh and blood, who will laugh if he is tickled, and break into anger if he is thwarted. The true poet builds upon eternal foundations. The bookmaker or rhymer is satisfied with empty or fleet- ing thoughts and with a passing notoriety. New books are often caught up and blazoned as classics which a few years reveal as patchwork and tinsel. Time is a sure test. Showy tinsel rusts and dulls its lustre, while simple poetic truth shines with grow- ing brightness. 164 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING Schlegel, in his " Dramatic Art and Literature," thus contrasts the false and the true (pp. 18-19): — "Poetry, taken in its widest acceptation, as the power of creating what is beautiful, and represent- ing it to the eye or the ear, is a universal gift of Heaven, being shared to a certain extent even by those whom we call barbarians and savages. In- ternal excellence is alone decisive, and where this exists we must not allow ourselves to be repelled by the external appearance. Everything must be traced up to the root of human nature: if it has sprung from thence, it has an undoubted worth of its own ; but if, without possessing a living germ, it is merely externally attached thereto, it will never thrive nor acquire a proper growth. Many productions which appear at first sight dazzling phenomena in the prov- ince of the fine arts, and which as a whole have been honored with the appellation of works of a golden age, resemble the mimic gardens of children : impa- tient to witness the work of their hands, they break- off here and there branches and flowers, and plant them in the earth ; everything at first assumes a noble appearance : the childish gardener struts proudly up and down among his showy beds, till the rootless plants begin to droop, and hang their withered leaves and blossoms, and nothing soon remains but the bare twigs, while the dark forest, on which no art or care was ever bestowed, and which towered up toward heaven long before human remembrance, bears every EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF LITERATURE 165 blast unshaken, and fills the solitary beholder with religious aw£." In his " Poets and Problems/' George Willis Cooke fitly portrays the poet's function (pp. 42, 32, and 44) : — " The poet must be either a teacher or an artist ; or, what is better, he may be both in one. There- fore, he can never stop at form or at what delights and charms merely. He must go on to the expres- sion of something of deep and real abidingness of thought and beauty. This comes at last to be the real thing for which he works, which he seeks to bring into expression with such power and grandeur in it as he can produce, and which he wills to send forth for the sake of this higher impression on the world.' ' " Man has within him a need for the food which does not perish ; he always is finding anew that he cannot live by bread alone. His mind will crave truth, his heart love, somewhat to satisfy the inward needs of life. A heavenly homesickness will draw him away from the material to those aesthetic and spiritual realities which are at the source of the tru- est poetry. Whenever these wants find fit interpreta- tion, the poet and the poetic method of expression appear and give to them outward forms of beauty. Consequently the poet is * One in whom persuasion and belief Have ripened into faith, and faith become A passionate intuition.' 1 66 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING 11 The true poet is the man of his time who is most alive, who feels, sees, and knows the most. In the measure of his life he is the greatest man of his age and country. His eye sees farther and more clearly ; his heart beats more warmly and with a more uni- versal sympathy ; his thought runs deeper and with a swifter current, than is the case with other men. He is the oracle and guide, the inspirer and the friend, of those to whom he sings. He creates life under the ribs of dead tradition; he illumines the present with heart flames of beaconing truth, and he makes the future seem like home joys far off, but drawing ever nigher. The poet is the world's lover." Emerson found the Greeks standing as close to nature and truth as himself (" Essay on His- tory ") : — "The costly charm of the ancient tragedy, and indeed of all old literature, is, that the persons speak simply, — speak as persons who have great good sense without knowing it, before yet the reflective habit has become the predominant habit of the mind. Our admiration of the antique is not admiration of the old, but of the natural. The Greeks are not reflective, but perfect in their senses and in their health, with the finest physical organization in the world. Adults acted with the simplicity and grace of children." EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF LITERATURE 1 67 J. C. Shairp, in his " On Poetic Interpretation of Nature " (p. 19), says : — " The real nature and intrinsic truth of Poetry will be made more apparent, if we may turn aside for a moment to reflect on the essence of that state of mind which we call poetic, the genesis of that crea- tion which we call Poetry. Whenever any object of sense, or spectacle of the outer world, any truth of reason, or event of past history, any fact of human experience, any moral or spiritual reality ; whenever, in short, any fact or object which the sense, or the intellect, or the soul, or the spirit of man can appre- hend, comes home to one so as to touch him to the quick, to pierce him with a more than usual vivid- ness and sense of reality, then is awakened that stirring of the imagination, that glow of emotion, in which Poetry is born. There is no truth cognizable by man which may not shape itself into Poetry." The passages just quoted are but examples of many that might be cited expressing the strength and scope of the poetic spirit, its truth-revealing quality, its penetrating yet comprehensive grasp of the realities. Shelley says, "A poem is the very image of life expressed in its eternal truth"; and Wordsworth that poetry is " the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge." These utterances will hardly be deemed poetical extravagancies to one who has read such things as the Ninetieth Psalm, " King Lear," or "The Deserted Village," or "Elaine." 1 68 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING There is no form of inspiring truth which does not find expression in literature, but it is preeminently a revelation of human life and experience, a proclama- tion from the housetops of the supreme beauty and excellence of truth and virtue. This brings us close to the question of moral education, and the elements in literature that contribute to this end. Literary critics are quick to take alarm at the propensity of the schoolmaster and the moralist to make literature the vehicle of moral training. To saddle the poets with a moral purpose would be like changing Pegasus into a plough-horse. But the moral quality in the best literature is not something saddled on, it is rather like the frame and muscle which give strength to the body, or, to use a more fitting figure, it is the very pulse and heart-beat of the highest idealism. The proneness toward moralizing, toward formal didacticism, can be best of all corrected by the use of choice literature. The best literature is free from moral pedantry, but full of moral suggestion and stimulus. Edmund Clarence Stedman says, in his "Nature and Elements of Poetry" (p. 216): — "The highest wisdom — that of ethics — seems closely affiliated with poetic truth. A prosaic moral is injurious to virtue, by making it repulsive. The moment goodness becomes tedious and unideal in a work of art, it is not real goodness; the would-be artist, though a very saint, has mistaken his form of expression. On the other hand, extreme beauty and EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF LITERATURE 1 69 power in a poem or picture always carry a moral, they are inseparable from a certain ethical standard ; while vice suggests a depravity. . . . An obtrusive moral in poetic form is a fraud on its face, and out- lawed of art. But that all great poetry is essentially ethical is plain from any consideration of Homer, Dante, and the best dramatists and lyrists, old and new." In literature, as in life, those persons make the strongest moral impression who have the least ex- press discussion of morals. Their actions speak, and the moral qualities appear, not in didactic formality and isolation, but in their life setting. This is seen in the great dramas, novels, and epic poems. These masterpieces are of strong and lasting value to the schools because they bring out human conduct and character in a rich variety of forms corresponding to life. Against the background of scenery created by 'the poet, men and women and children march along to their varied performances. Theseus, Ulysses, Crusoe, Aladdin, Alfred, Horatius, Cinderella, Portia, Evangeline, — they speak and act before us with all the realism and fidelity to human instincts peculiar to the poet's art. These men and women, who are set in action before us, stir up all our dormant thought- energy. We observe and judge their motives and approve or condemn their actions. We are stirred to sympathy or pity or anger. Such an intense study of motives and conduct, as offered in literature, is I70 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING like a fresh spring from which well up strengthening waters. The warmth and energy with which judg- ments are passed upon the deeds of children and adults is the original source of moral ideas. Litera- ture is especially rich in opportunities to register these convictions. It is not the bare knowledge of right and wrong developed, but the deep springs of feeling and emotion are opened, which gush up into volitions and acts. Just as we form opinions of people from their individual acts, and draw inferences as to their char- acter and motives, so the overt act of Brutus or of Miles Standish stands out so clear against the back- ground of passing events that an unerring judgment falls upon the doer. A single act, seen in its rela- tions, always calls forth such a sentence of good or ill. Whether it be a gentle deed of mercy, or the hammer-stroke that fells a giant or routs an army, as with Charles Martel or Alfred, the sense of right or wrong is the deep underflow that gives meaning to all events and stamps character. There is, however, a deeper and more intense moral teaching in literature than that which flows from the right or wrong of individual acts. The whole life and evolution of character in a person, if graphically drawn, reveal the principles of conduct and their fruitage. Character is a growth. Deeds are only the outward signs of the direction in which the soul is moving. A dramatist like Shakespeare, or a novel- EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF LITERATURE 171 ist like George Eliot, gives us a biographical develop- ment. Deeds are done which leave their traces. Tendencies are formed which grow into habits, and thus a character ripens steadily toward its reward. We become conscious that certain deeper principles control thought and action, whether good or bad. There is a rule of law, a sort of fatalism, in human life. " The mills of the gods grind slow, but they grind exceeding small." It is the function of the dramatist or novelist to reveal these working princi- ples in conduct. When the principle adopted by the actor is a good one, it works out well-being in spite of misfortunes ; when evil, the furies are on the track of the evil-doer. Men do not gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles. As we move on from step to step in a life-history, the sympathy deepens. The fatal influence of a false step, followed up, is keenly felt by the reader ; the upward tendency of a right act inspires and lifts into freedom. But whether we love or hate or pity, the character moves on in the course which his deeds mark out. When finally he is over- whelmed in shame and defeat, we see the early ten- dencies and later forces which have led to this result. If ethical triumph is achieved, we recognize the re- ward of generous, unselfish impulses followed out. As the interest in such a life-history deepens, the lessons it evolves come out with convincing and overwhelming power. The effect of a great novel or drama is more intense and lasting than any 172 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING sermon. The elements of thought and feeling have been accumulating energy and momentum through all the scenes, and when contracted into a single current at the close they sweep forward with the strength of a river. A masterpiece works at the foundations of our sympathies and moral judgments. To bring ourselves under the spell of a great author and to allow him, hour after hour and perhaps for days in succession, to sway our feelings and rule far up among the sources of our moral judgments, is to give him great opportunity to stamp our char- acter with his convictions. We seldom spend so many hours in close companionship with a living friend as with some master of the art of character- delineation. Children are susceptible to this strong influence. Many of them take easily to books, and many others need but wise direction to bring them under the touch of their formative influence. A book sometimes produces a more lasting effect upon the character and conduct of a child than a close companion. Nor is this true only in the case of book-lovers. It is probable that the great majority of children may feel the wholesome effect of such books if wisely used at the right time. To select a few of the best books as companions to a child, and teach him to love their companionship, is one of the most hopeful things in education. The boy or girl who reads some of our choice epics, stories, novels, dramas, and biographies, allowing the mind EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF LITERATURE 1 73 to ponder upon the problems of conduct involved, will receive many deep and permanent moral lessons. The realism with which the artist clothes his char- acters only strengthens the effect and makes them lasting food for thought in the coming years. Even in early childhood we are able to detect what is noble and debasing in conduct as thus graphically and naturally revealed, and a child forms an unerring judgment along moral lines. The best influence that literature has to bestow, therefore, may produce its ef- fect early in tender years, where impressions are deep and permanent. There are many other elements of lasting culture-value in the study of literature, but first of all the deep and permanent truths taught by the classics are those of human life and conduct. George Willis Cooke gives clear and simple ex- pression to the ethical force in poetry (" Poets and Problems," p. 46) : — "True poetry is for instruction as much as for pleasure, though it inculcate no formal lessons. Right moral teaching is by example far more than by precept ; and the real poet teaches through the higher purpose he arouses, by the stimulus he gives, and by the purer motive he awakens. He gives no precept to recite, no homilies to con over, no rules for formal repetition ; but he gives the spirit of life md the impulse of true activity. An infallible test Df the great poet is that he inspires us with a sense 3f the richness and grandeur of life." 174 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING Shairp, in his "On Poetic Interpretation of Nature " (pp. 23-24), says : — " Imagination in its essence seems to be, from the first, intellect and feeling blended and interpenetrat- ing each other. Thus it would seem that purely intellectual acts belong to the surface and outside of our nature, — as you pass onward to the depths, the more vital places of the soul, the intellectual, the emotional, and the moral elements are all equally at work, — and this in virtue of their greater reality, their more essential truth, their nearer contact with the centre of things. To this region belong all acts of high imagination — the region intermediate between pure understanding and moral affection, partaking of both elements, looking equally both ways." Besides the moral element or fundamental truth in- volved, every classic masterpiece is infused therefore with an element of imagination. Whether in prose or verse, the artist reveals himself in the creative touch. The rich coloring and imagery of his own mind give a tint to every object. The literary artist is never lacking in a certain, perhaps indefinable, charm. He possesses a magic wand that transforms into beauty every commonplace object that is met. We observe this in Irving, Hawthorne, Warner, as well as in still greater literary masters. Our poets, novelists, and essayists must all dip their pens in this magic ink. Even Webster and Burke, Lincoln and Sumner, must EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF LITERATURE 1 75 rise to the region of fancy if they give their thought sufficient strength of wing to carry it into the coming years. The themes upon which they discoursed kindled the imagination and caused them to break forth into figures of speech and poetic license. The creative fancy is that which gives beauty, pictu- resqueness, and charm to all the work of poet or novelist. This element of fancy diffuses itself as a living glow through every classic product that was made to endure. In the masters of style the rhythmic flow and energy of language are enlivened by poetic imagery. Figures of speech in archi- tectural simplicity and chasteness stand out to sym- bolize thought. That keenness and originality which astonishes us in master thinkers is due to the magic vigor and picturesqueness of their images. Under- neath and permeating all this wealth of ideas is the versatile and original mind which sees everything in the glow of its own poetic temperament, kin- dling the susceptible reader to like inspiration. Among literary masters this creative power shows itself in an infinite variety of forms, pours itself through a hundred divergent channels, and links itself so closely with the individuality of the writer as to merge imperceptibly into his character and style. But as we cannot secure wholesome bread without yeast, so we shall fail of a classic without imagination. Stedman says : " If anything great has been 176 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING achieved without exercise of the imagination, I do not know it. I am referring to striking productions and achievements, not to acts of virtue. Neverthe- less, at the last analysis, it might be found that imagination has impelled even the saints and martyrs of humanity. Imagination is the creative origin of what is fine, not in art and song alone, but also in all forms of action — in campaigns, civil triumphs, material conquest. I have mentioned its indispensability to the scientists." He says further : " Yet if there is one gift which sets Shakespeare at a distance even from those who approach him on one or another side, it is that of his imagination. As he is the chief of poets, we infer that the faculty in which he is supereminent must be the greatest of poetic endowments. Yes: in his wonderland, as elsewhere, imagination is king." Not only is it true that the vitality of poets and prose writers, the conceptive power of scientists, inventors, and business organizers, depend upon the fertility and strength of the imagination, but throughout the broader reaches of common humanity this power is everywhere present — constructive and creative. Max Miiller has shown that the root words of language are imbedded in metaphor, that " Language is fossil poetry." Again, the mythologies of the different races, grand and stately, or fair and lovely, are the immediate product of the folk mind. EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF LITERATURE 177 It has been said that " The man of culture is preeminently a man of imagination." But the kind of mental alertness, freedom, and joy which is suggested by the term culture may spring up in the heart of every boy and girl endowed with a modicum of human nature. Hamilton Wright Mabie, in his " Books and Culture" (pp. 148-149), says : — "The development of the imagination, upon the power of which both absorption of knowledge and creative capacity depend, is, therefore, a matter of supreme importance. To this necessity educators will some day open their eyes, and educational sys- tems will some day conform ; meantime, it must be done mainly by individual work. Knowledge, disci- pline, and technical training of the best sort are accessible on every hand ; but the development of the faculty which unites all these in the highest form of activity must be secured mainly by personal effort. The richest and most accessible material for this highest education is furnished by art ; and the form of art within reach of every civilized man, at all times, in all places, is the book. To these master- pieces, which have been called the books of life, all men may turn with the assurance that as the supreme achievements of the imagination they have the power of awakening, stimulating, and enriching it in the highest degree." Besides the strong thread of truth and the work of the swift-glancing shuttle of imagination, the 178 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING woven fabric of the literary master must show a beauteous pattern or form. The melody and music of poetry spring from a rhythmic form. Appar- ently stiff and formal, it is yet the consensus of critics that only through this channel can the soul of truth and beauty escape from the poet, and mani- fest itself to others. Says George Willis Cooke, "The poet worships at the triple shrine of beauty, love, and truth ; and his mission is to teach men that all other objects and places of veneration are but faint imitations of this one form of faith.' ' But the spirit of this worship can best embody itself in the poetic form. Schlegel, in his "Dramatic Art and Literature " (p. 340), says : — " The works of genius cannot therefore be per- mitted to be without form ; but of this there is no danger. . . . [Some] critics . . . interpret it [form] merely in a mechanical, and not in an organical sense. . . . Organical form, again, is innate ; it unfolds itself from within, and acquires its determi- nation contemporaneously with the perfect develop- ment of the germ. We everywhere discover such forms in nature throughout the whole range of living powers, from the crystallization of salts and minerals to plants and flowers, and from these again to the human body. In the fine arts, as well as in the domain of nature, — the supreme artist, — all genuine forms are organical, that is, determined by the qual- EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF LITERATURE 1 79 ity of the work. In a word, the form is nothing but a significant exterior, the speaking physiognomy of each thing, which, as long as it is not disfigured by any destructive accident, gives a true evidence of its hidden essence.' ' Some products, like the " Paradise Lost," "Thana- topsis," and " Hamlet," show such a perfect fitness of form to thought that every effort to change or mod- ify is profanation. The classic form and thought go together. As far as possible, therefore, it is desir- able to leave these creations in their native strength, and not to mar the work of masters. The poet has moulded his thought and feeling into these forms and transfused them with his own imagery and indi- viduality. The power of the writer is in his peculiar mingling of the poetic elements. Our English and American classics, therefore, should be read in their original form as far as possible. A fixed form is not always necessary. We need many of the stories and epics that were written in other languages. Fortunately some of the works of the old poets are capable of taking on a new; dress. The story of Ulysses has been told in verse and prose, in translation, paraphrase, and simple nar- rative for children. Much, indeed of the old' beauty and original strength of the poem is lost in all these renderings ; but the central truths which give the poetic work its persistent value are still retained. Such a poem is like a person ; the under- l8o SPECIAL METHOD IN READING lying thought, though dressed up by different per- sons with varying taste and skill, is yet the same ; the same heart beats beneath the kingly robes and the peasants frock. Robinson Crusoe has had many renderings, but remains the same old story in spite of variations. The Bible has been translated into all modern tongues, but it is a classic in each. The Ger- mans claim they have as good a Shakespeare as we. But many of the best masterpieces were originally written in other languages, and to be of use to us the ancient form of thought must be broken. The spirit of the old masters must be poured into new moulds. In educating our children we need the stories of Bellerophon, Perseus, Hercules, Rustum, Tell, Sieg- fried, Virginius, Roland, Wallace, King Arthur. Happily some of the best modern writers have come to our help. Walter Scott, Macaulay, Dickens, Kingsley, Hawthorne, Irving, and Arnold have gathered up the old wine and poured it into new bottles. They have told the old stories in simple Anglo-Saxon for the boys and girls of our homes and schools. Nor are these renderings of the old masters lacking in that element of fancy and vigor of expression which distinguishes fertile writers. * They have entered freely and fondly into the old spirit, and have allowed it to pour itself copiously through these modern channels. It takes a poet, in fact, to modernize an ancient story. There are, indeed, many renderings of the old stories which EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF LITERATURE l8l are not ideal, which, however, we sometimes use for lack of anything better. From the preceding discussion we may conclude that a choice piece of literature must embody a last- ing truth, reveal the permeating glow of an artist's imagination, and find expression in some form of beauty. But these elements are so mingled and interlaced, so organically grown into one living plant, that even the critics have given up the effort to dissect and isolate them. There are other strength-conferring qualities in good literature which will be discussed more fully in those chapters which deal with the particular literary materials selected for use in the schools. Among the topics to be treated in connection with materials which illustrate them, are the following: the strong handling of essential historical ideas in literature ; the best novel and drama, as sources and means of culture ; religious ideals as embodied in the choicest forms of literature; the powerful patriotic and social influence of the best writers; the educa- tive quality of the humorous phases of literature ; the great writers as models of skill and enthusiasm in teaching. In the foregoing pages the significance of literature among great studies has been but briefly and inade- quately suggested by these few quotations and com- ments. It would be easy to multiply similar testimony from the most competent judges. But enough has 1 82 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING been said to remind teachers of this rich treasure house of educative materials. Those teachers who wish to probe deeper into this subject will find that it has been handled in a masterly way by some of the great essayists and critics. We will suggest the fol- lowing for more elaborate study : — Ruskin's "Sesame and Lilies." The power and charm of Ruskin's writing appears in full measure in these essays. Carlyle's " Heroes and Hero Worship," especially the chapters on " The Hero as Poet," and " The Hero as Man of Letters." Shelley's " Defence of Poetry " (edited by Cook, and published by Ginn & Co.) is a literary master- piece of rare beauty and charm. Emerson's " Essay on History." George Willis Cooke, " Poets and Problems " (Houghton, Mifflin, & Co.). The first chapter, " The Poet as Teacher," is very suggestive, while the chap- ters on Tennyson, Ruskin, and Browning are fine introductions for those who will study the authors themselves. " The Book Lover," James Baldwin (McClurg & Co.). Charles Kingsley's " Literary and General Essays" (Macmillan & Co.). Chapter on " English Literature," and others. Scudder's " Literature in Schools " (Houghton, Mifflin, & Co.). Excellent for teachers. EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF LITERATURE 1 83 J. C. Shairp, "On Poetic Interpretation of Na- ture " (Houghton, Mifflin, & Co.). Matthew Arnold's " Sweetness and Light." Lowell's " Books and Libraries " (Houghton, Mifflin, & Co.). Edmund Clarence Stedman's "The Nature and Elements of Poetry " (Houghton, Mifflin, & Co.). It is not implied that even the essays of critics on the merits of literature can take the place of a study of the works of the best writers. CHAPTER X The Use of Masterpieces as Wholes With the increasing tendency to consider the literary quality and fitness of the reading matter used in our schools, longer poems and stories, like " Snow Bound," " Rip Van Winkle," " Hiawatha," " Alad- din," "The Courtship of Miles Standish," "The Great Stone Face," and even " Lady of the Lake " and "Julius Caesar," are read and studied as com- plete wholes. Many of the books now used as read- ers are not collections of short selections and extracts, as formerly, but editions of single poems, or kindred groups, like " Sohrab and Rustum," or the " Ara- bian Nights," or " Gulliver's Travels," or a collection of a few complete stories or poems of a single author, as Hawthorne's " Stories of the White Hills," or Lowell's "Vision of Sir Launfal," and other poems. Even the regular series of readers are often made up largely of longer poems and prose masterpieces. The significance of this change is the deeper re- gard which is being paid to good literature as a strong agency of true culture. The real thought and the whole thought of the best authors is sought for, pre- supposing, of course, that they are within the range 184 THE USE OF MASTERPIECES AS WHOLES 1 85 of the children's comprehension. The reading books of a generation ago contained oftentimes just as choice literary materials as now ; but the chief pur- pose of its selection was to give varied exercise in oral reading, not to cultivate a taste for good litera- ture by furnishing complete poetic and prose speci- mens for full and enthusiastic study. The teachers who lay stress on elocutionary skill are not quite satisfied with this drift toward literary study as such. It remains to be seen how both aims, good oral ren- dering and superior literary training, can be secured at the same time. At the close of the last chapter of this volume we give a carefully selected series of the literary ma- terials adapted to the different grades. This body of selections, taken from a wide range of litera- ture, will constitute a basis for our whole treatise. Having made plain by our previous discussion what we understand by the quality of literary masterpieces, we will next consider why these poems and stories should be read and studied as complete wholes, not by fragments or by extracts, but as whole works of literary art. 1. A stronger interest is developed by the study, for several weeks, of a longer complete masterpiece. The interest grows as we move into such a story or poem as "Sohrab and Rustum." A longer and closer acquaintance with the characters represented produces a stronger personal sympathy, as in the 1 86 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING case of Cordelia in " King Lear," or of Silas Marner. The time usually spent in school upon some classic fragment or selection is barely sufficient to start up an interest. It does not bring us past the threshold of a work of art. We drop it just at the point where the momentum of interest begins to show itself. Think of the full story of Aladdin or Crusoe or Ulysses. Take an extract from " Lady of the Lake," "Rip Van Winkle," "Evangeline." The usual three or four pages given in the reader, even if taken from the first part, would scarcely suffice to bring the children into the movement of the story; but oftentimes the fragment is extracted from the body of the play without preliminary or sequence. In reading a novel, story, or poem, we do not begin to feel strongly this interest till two or three chapters are passed. Then it begins to deepen, the plot thickens, and a desire springs up to follow out the fortune of the characters. We become interested in the persons, and our thoughts are busy with them in the midst of other employments or in leisure moments. The per- sonality of the hero takes hold of us as that of an intimate friend. Such an interest, gradually awakened and deepened as we move into the comprehension of a work of art, is the open sesame to all the riches of an author's storehouse of thought. This kind of interest presupposes in the children the ability to appreciate and enjoy the thought, and even the style, of the author. Interest in this sense THE USE OF MASTERPIECES AS WHOLES 1 87 is a fundamental test of the suitableness of the story or poem to lay hold of the inner life of the children. In many cases there will be difficulties at the outset in awakening this genuine form of interest, but if the selection is appropriate, the preparation and skill of the teacher will be equal to its accomplishment. As we get deeper into the study of masterpieces, we shall discover that there are stronger and deepen- ing sources of a genuine interest. Even the difficul- ties and problems which are supposed to dampen interest will be found, with proper study, to be the source of a stronger appreciation and enthusiasm. The refining and strengthening of these interests in literature leads on steadily to the final goal of study, a cultivated taste and habit of using the best books. 2. A complete work of a master writer is a unit of thought. It is almost as complete a whole as a living organism. Its parts, like the branches of a tree, have no vitality except in communication with the living trunk. In the " Vision of Sir Launfal," there is a single thought, like a golden thread, run- ning through the poem, which gives unity and per- fection to it. The separate parts of the poem have very great intrinsic beauty and charm, but their deeper and more vital relation is to this central thought. The story of "The Great Stone Face" is the grouping of a series of interesting episodes along the path of a single developing motive in the life of 1 88 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING Ernest. A great writer would scarcely waste his time in trying to produce a work of art without a controlling motive, collecting his thought, as it were, around a vacuum. This hub-thought must become the centre of all intelligent study. The effort to unravel the motive of the author is the deeper stim- ulus of thoughtful work by both teacher and pupils. In other studies, like geography, history, and natural science, we are gradually picking out the important units of study, the centres of thought and interest, the types. This effort to escape from the wilderness of jumbled and fractional details into the sunlit region of controlling ideas, is a substantial sign of progress in the teacher's work. In literature these units have been already wrought out into per- fect wholes by first-class thinkers. In the greatest of all studies, the works of the literary masters, we have the surest models of inspir- ing thought, organized and focussed upon essential topics. Teachers, in some cases, are so little accus- tomed to lift their heads above the tall grass and weeds around them, that they are overtaken by sur- prise and bewilderment when called upon to take broad and liberal surveys of the topography of school studies. It is fortunate that we have, within the fenced boundaries of the commonly recognized school course, these shining specimens of organized, and, what we might call, intelligent thought. THE USE OF MASTERPIECES AS WHOLES 1 89 We can set the children at work digging for the root-thoughts of those who are the masters of strong thinking. This digging process is not wholly out of place with children. Their abundant energy can be turned to digging if there is anything worth digging for. Ruskin, in "Sesame and Lilies," says : — "And it is just the same with men's best wisdom. When you come to a good book, you must ask your- self : ' Am I inclined to work as an Australian miner would ? Are my pickaxes and shovels in good order, and am I in good trim myself, my sleeves well up to the elbow, and my breath good, and my tem- per ? ' And, keeping the figure a little longer, even at cost of tiresomeness, for it is a thoroughly useful one, the metal you are in search of, being the author's mind or meaning, his words are as the rock which you have to crush and smelt in order to get at it. And your pickaxes are your own care, wit and learning; your smelting furnace is your own thoughtful soul. Do not hope to get at any good author's meaning without those tools and that fire ; often you will need sharpest, finest chiselling, and patientest fusing, before you can gather one grain of the metal." It is not the dreamy, hammock-soothing, vacation idling with pleasant stories that we are now consider- ing. This happy lotus-land has also its fitting sea- son, in the sultry heats of summer, when tired people 190 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING put their minds out to grass. Any study will grow dull and sleepy that lacks energy. Teachers who shrink back with anxiety lest works such as Irving's " Sketch Book/' " Evangeline," " Merchant of Venice/' and " Marmion," are too hard for children in sixth, seventh, and eighth grades, should consider for a moment what classical preparatory schools for centuries have required of boys from ten to twelve years of age, the study of "Caesar," "Eutropius," and " Virgil,' ' of " Herod- otus" and "Xenophon," in unknown languages ex- tremely difficult to master. Yet it has been claimed for ages, by the best scholars, that this was the true strength-producing discipline for boys. It would hardly be extravagant to say that the masterpieces of literature now used, in our intermediate and gram- mar grades, are not a quarter so difficult and four times as appropriate and interesting as the Latin and Greek authors just cited. It seems obvious that we are summoned to a more energetic study and treatment of our masterpieces. This struggle to get at the deeper undercurrent of thought in an author is the true stimulus and dis- cipline of such studies. A great author approaches his deeper thought step by step. He has many side-lights, variety of episode and preliminary. He provides for the proper scenery and setting for his thought. He does not bring us at once, point blank, upon his hero or upon the THE USE OF MASTERPIECES AS WHOLES igi lero's fate. There is great variety of inference and suggestion in the preparation and grouping of the artist's work. As in climbing some mountain peak, we wind through canon, along rugged hillsides and spurs, only now and then catching a glimpse of the towering object of our climb, reaching, after many a devious and toilsome march, the rugged backbone of the giant; so the poet carries us along many a winding road, through byways and thickets, over hill and plain, before he brings us into full view of the main object of search. But after awhile we do stand face to face with a real character, and are con- scious of the framework upon which it is built. King Saul has run his course and is about to reap the reward of his doings, to lie down in the bed which he has prepared. We see the author's deeper plan, and realize that his characters act along the line of the silent but invincible laws of social life and con- duct. These deep significant truths of human expe- rience do not lie upon the surface. If we are really to get a deep insight into human character, as por- trayed by the masters, we must not be in haste. We should be willing to follow our guide patiently and await results. A complete masterpiece, studied as a whole, reveals the author's skill and organizing power in working out his fundamental theme. A play, a poem, a novel, a biography, is a unit. No single part can give a satisfactory idea of the whole. A single scene 192 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING from " Crusoe " or from the " Merchant of Venice " does not give us the author's meaning. An extract from one of Burke's speeches supplies no adequate notion of his statesmanlike grasp of thought. To get some impression of what Daniel Webster was we must read a whole speech. A literary product is like a masterpiece of architecture. The whole must stand out in the due proportion of its parts to reveal the master's thought. " Walk about Zion, and go round about her : Tell the towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces ; That ye may tell it to the generations following." To have read through with care and thoughtful appreciation a single literary masterpiece and to have felt the full measure of a master's power, is a rare and lasting stroke of culture. As children move up through the grades they may receive the strong and abiding impress of the masters of style. Let it come to them in its undiminished strength. To feel the powerful tonic effect of the best stories and poems suited to their age will give them such an apprecia- tion of what is genuine and good in literature, that frivolous and trashy reading is measured at its true value. The fragments and extracts with which our higher readers are filled are not without power and influence upon culture. They have given many children their first taste of the beauty and strength of literature. THE USE OF MASTERPIECES AS WHOLES 1 93 But it is a great mistake to tear these gems of thought from their setting in literature and life, and to jam them into the close and crowded quarters of a text-book. Why satisfy ourselves with crumbs and fragments when a full rich feast may be had for the asking ? In some cases it is said that the reading of frag- ments of large poems or plays has excited curiosity and led to the reading of the larger wholes. This is doubtless true, but in the greater number of cases we are inclined to think the habit of being satisfied with fragments has checked the formation of any appreciation of literary wholes. This tendency to be satisfied with piecemeal performances illustrates painfully the shallowness and incoherency of much of our educational work. If teachers cannot think beyond a broken page of Shakespeare, why should children burden themselves with the labor of thought ? Charles Kingsley, in his essay on English literature, says : — " But I must plead for whole works. ' Extracts ' and ' Select Beauties ' are about as practical as the worthy in the old story, who, wishing to sell his house, brought one of the bricks to market as a specimen. It is equally unfair on the author and on the pupil ; for it is impossible to show the merits or demerits of a work of art, even to explain the truth or false- hood of any particular passage, except by viewing the book as an organic whole." 194 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING What would the authors themselves say upon see- ing their work thus mutilated ? There is even a touch of the farcical in the effort to read naturally and forcibly and discuss intelligently a fragment like Antony's speech over Caesar. 3. The moral effect of a complete masterpiece is deeper and more permanent. Not only do we see a person acting in more situations, revealing thus his motives and hidden springs of action, but the thread of his thought and life is unravelled in a steady sequence. Later acts are seen as the result of for- mer tendencies. The silent reign of moral law in human actions is discovered. Slowly but surely con- duct works out its own reward along the line of these deeper principles of action. Even in the books read in the early grades these profound lessons of life come out clear and strong. Robinson Crusoe, The- seus, Siegfried, Hiawatha, Beauty and the Beast, Jason, King Arthur, and Ulysses are not holiday guests. They are face to face with the serious problems of life. Each person is seen in the present make-up and tendency of his character. When the eventual wind-up comes, be it a col- lapse or an ascension, we see how surely and fatally such results spring from such motives and tendencies. Washington is found to be the first in the hearts of his countrymen; Arnold is execrated; King Lear moves on blindly to the reward which his own folly has prearranged ; Macbeth entangles THE USE OF MASTERPIECES AS WHOLES 1 95 himself in a network of fatal errors; Adam Bede emerges from the bitter ordeal of disappointment with his manly qualities subdued but stronger. Give the novelist or poet time and opportunity, and he is the true interpreter of conduct and destiny. He reveals in real and yet ideal characters the working out in life of the fundamental principles of moral action. 4. A classic work is often a picture of an age, a panoramic survey of an historical epoch. Scott's " Marmion ,, is such a graphic and dramatic portrayal of feudalism in Scotland. The castle with its lord, attendants, and household, the steep frowning walls and turrets, the moat, drawbridge, and dungeon, the chapel, halls, and feastings, the knight clad in armor, on horseback with squire and troop, — these are the details of the first picture. The cloister and nuns, with their sequestered habits and dress, their devotion and masses, supply the other characteristic picture of that age, with Rome in the background. The court scene and ball in King James's palace, before the day of Flodden, the view of Scotland's army from the mountain side, with the motley hordes from high- land and lowland and neighboring isles, and lastly, the battle of Flodden itself, where wisdom is weighed and valor put to the final test, — all these are but the parts of a well-adjusted picture of life in feudal times on the Scottish border. There is incidental to the narrative much vivid description of Scotch I96 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING scenery and geography, of mountain or valley, of frowning castle or rocky coast, much of Scotch tra- dition, custom, superstition, and clannishness. The scenes in cloister and dungeon and on the battle- field are more intensely real than historical narratives can be. While not strict history, this is truer than history because it brings us closer to the spirit of that time. Marmion and Douglas stand out more clear and lifelike than the men of history. Although feudalism underwent constant changes and modifications in every country of Europe, it is still true that " Marmion* ' is a type of feudal conditions, not only in Scotland, but in other parts of Europe, and a full perception of Scott's poem will make one at home in any part of European history during feudal times. As a historical picture of life, it is a key to the spirit and animating ideas that swayed the Western nations during several centuries. It is fiction, not history, in the usual sense, and yet it gives a more real and vivid consciousness of the forces at work in that age than history proper. While the plot of the story covers a narrow field, only a few days of time and a small area of country, its roots go deep into the whole social, religious, and political fabric of that time. It touches real history at a critical point in the relations between England and Scotland. It is stirred also by the spirit of the Scotch bard and of minstrelsy. It shows what a hold Rome had in those days, even in the highlands of THE USE OF MASTERPIECES AS WHOLES Scotland. It is full of Scotch scenery and geography . It rings with the clarion of war and of battle. It reveals the contempt in which letters were held sven by the most powerful nobles. Oxen are de- scribed as drawing cannon upon the field of Flodden, and in time these guns broke down the walls of feudalism. As a historical picture Marmion is many- sided, and the roots of the story reach out through the whole fabric of society, showing how all the parts cohere. Such a piece of historical literature may serve as a centre around which to gather much and varied information through other school and home readings. Children may find time to read "Ivanhoe," "The Crusades," "Roland," "Don Quixote," "The Golden Legend," "Macbeth," "Goetz von Berlich- ingen," etc. They will have a nucleus upon which to gather many related facts and ideas. It should also be brought into proper connection with the regular lessons in history and geography. History reveals itself to the poet in these wonderfully vivid and lifelike types. In many of these historical poems, as "William Tell," "Evangeline," "Crusoe," "The Nibelung Song," " Miles Standish," the " Odyssey," "Sohrab and Rustum," some hero stands in the centre of the narrative, and can be understood as a repre- sentative figure of his times only as the whole series of events in his life is unrolled. Where the study of larger literary wholes has been taken up in good faith, it has brought a rich I98 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING blessing of intelligent enthusiasm. Even in primary schools, where literary wholes like " Hiawatha/ 1 "Robinson Crusoe," and the "Golden Touch" are handled with a view to exploit their whole content, there has been a remarkable enrichment of the whole life of the children. Such a treatment has gone so deep into the problems and struggling conditions of life delineated, that the children have become occu- pied with the tent-making, boat-building, spinning, and various constructions incident to the develop- ment of the story. 5. If it is true, as clearly expressed by strong think- ers in the most various fields of deeper investigation, that many of the chief literary products that have come down to us from former ages are the only means by which we can be brought into vital touch and sympathy with the spirit and motives then ruling among men ; if it is equally true that children will not grow up to the proper appreciation and interpre- tation of our present life, except as they have experi- enced, in thought and interest at least, the chief struggles and motives of our fathers, — we may find in these historic and literary materials the deep and living springs of true education for children. The thought of the educative power of this ances- tral literature has been forcibly expressed by many eminent writers. Scudder, in " Literature in School," says : — "There is the element of continuity. In the THE USE OF MASTERPIECES AS WHOLES I99 Roman household there stood the cinerary urns which held the ashes of the ancestors of the family. Do you think the young ever forgot the unbroken line of descent by which they climbed to the heroic founders of the state? In the Jewish family the child was taught to think and speak of the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob. In that great succession he heard a voice which told him his nation was not of a day. It is the business of the old to transmit to the young the great traditions of the past of the country; to feed anew the undying flame of patriotism. " It is this concentration in poetry and the more lofty prose which gives to literary art its precious- ness as a symbol of human endeavor, and renders it the one essential and most serviceable means for keeping alive the smouldering coals of patriotism. It is the torch passed from one hand to another, sig- naling hope and warning ; and the one place above all others where its light should be kindled is where the young meet together, in those American temples which the people have built in every town and village in the country." Mabie, in "Books and Culture" (pp. 88, 89-113), says : — " Now, it is upon this imperishable food which the past has stored up through the genius of great artists that later generations feed and nourish themselves. It is through intimate contact with these fundamental 200 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING conceptions, worked out with such infinite pain and patience, that the individual experience is broadened to include the experience of the race." "The student of literature, therefore, finds in its noblest works not only the ultimate results of race experience and the characteristic quality of race genius, but the highest activity of the greatest minds in their happiest and most expansive moments. In this commingling of the best that is in the race and the best that is in the individual, lies the mystery of that double revelation which makes every work of art a disclosure, not only of the nature of the man behind it, but of all men behind him. In this com- mingling, too, is preserved the most precious deposit of what the race has been and done, and of what the man has seen, felt, and known. In the nature of things no educational material can be richer, none so fundamentally expansive and illuminative." Emerson, in his " Essay on History," says: — " The advancing man discovers how deep a prop- erty he has in literature, — in all fable as well as in all history. He finds that the poet was no odd fellow who described strange and impossible situations, but that universal man wrote by his pen a confession true for one and true for all. His own secret biography he finds in lines wonderfully intelligible to him, dotted down before he was born. One after another he comes up in his private adventures with every fable of iEsop, of Homer, of Hafiz, of Ariosto, of Chaucer, THE USE OF MASTERPIECES AS WHOLES 201 of Scott, and verifies them with his own head and hands. " The beautiful fables of the Greeks, being proper creations of the imagination and not of the fancy, are aniversal verities. What a range of meanings and fhat perpetual pertinence has the story of Prome- theus ! Besides its primary value as the first chapter Df the history of Europe (the mythology thinly veil- ing authentic facts, the invention of the mechanic irts and the migration of colonies), it gives the his- tory of religion with some closeness to the faith of later ages." "Thus in all ways does the soul concentrate and reproduce its treasures for each pupil. He, too, shall pass through the whole cycle of experience. He shall collect into a focus the rays of nature. History no longer shall be a dull book. It shall walk incar- nate in every just and wise man. You shall not tell me by languages and titles a catalogue of the vol- umes you have read. You shall make me feel what Deriods you have lived. A man shall be the Temple }f Fame. He shall walk, as the poets have described that goddess, in a robe painted all over with wonder- ful events and experiences ; his own form and fea- ires by their exalted intelligence shall be that variegated vest. I shall find in him the Foreworld ; in his childhood the Age of Gold; the Apples of Knowledge ; the Argonautic Expedition ; the calling of Abraham ; the building of the Temple ; the Ad* 202 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING vent of Christ ; Dark Ages ; the Revival of Letters ; the Reformation ; the discovery of new lands ; the opening of new sciences, and new regions in man." It is not intended to limit the reading of the schools to the longer classics, such as " Snow-Bound," " The Vision of Sir Launfal," and Webster's Bunker Hill speech, etc. There are also many shorter poems and stories, ballads, and myths, that are equally good and stand out as strong, complete expressions of thought such as Tennyson's " Brook," Longfellow's " Village Blacksmith," Whittier's " Barefoot Boy," and many others. These shorter pieces should be in- terspersed among the longer, and freely used to give greater variety and zest to reading exercises. Many of the finest literary products of the language are found in these shorter poems and stories. They also should be studied for the beauty and unity of thought contained in each. But the sustained pozver gained from the full and rich study of longer classics is the best fruitage of the reading work. Every term of school should lead the children into the full appreciation of one or more of these masterly works. The value of such study is well expressed by Scudder in his "Literature in Schools" (pp. 54-56): — "The real point of practical reform, however, is not in the preference of American authors to Eng- lish, but in the careful concentration of the minds of boys and girls upon standard American literature, THE USE OF MASTERPIECES AS WHOLES 203 in opposition to a dissipation over a desultory and mechanical acquaintance with scraps from a variety of sources, good, bad, and indifferent. In my paper on ' Nursery Classics in School/ I argued that there is a true economy in substituting the great books of that portion of the world's literature which repre- sents the childhood of the world's mind for the thin, quickly forgotten, feeble imaginations of insignificant bookmakers. There is an equally noble economy in engaging the child's mind, when it is passing out of an immature state into one of rational, intelligent appropriation of literature, upon such carefully chosen classic work as shall invigorate and deepen it. There is plenty of vagrancy in reading ; the public libraries and cheap papers are abundantly able to satisfy the truant: but it ought to be recognized once for all that the schools are to train the mind into appre- ciation of literature, not to amuse it with idle diver- sion ; to this end, the simplest and most direct method is to place before boys and girls for their regular task in reading, not scraps from this and that author, duly paragraphed and numbered, but a wisely selected series of works by men whom their country honors, and who have made their country worth living in. " The continuous reading of a classic is in itself a liberal education ; the fragmentary reading of common- place lessons in minor morals, such as make up much of our reading-books, is a pitiful waste of growing mental powers. Even were our reading-books com- 204 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING posed of choice selections from the highest literature, they would still miss the very great advantage which follows upon the steady growth of acquaintance with a sustained piece of literary art. I do not insist, of course, that ' Evangeline ' should be read at one session of the school, though it would be exceed- ingly helpful in training the powers of the mind if, after this poem had been read day by day for a few weeks, it were to be taken up first in its separate thirds, and then in an entire reading. What I claim is that the boy or girl who has read * Evangeline " through steadily has acquired a certain power in appropriating literature which is not to be had by reading a collection of minor poems, — the power of long-sustained attention and interest." The study of literary wholes, whether longer or shorter, in the common school is based upon the notion that the full, rich thought of the author is the absorbing purpose of our effort. Literature is a reservoir of mental refinement and riches, for the gaining of which we can afford to sacrifice many things and make many even good things subordi- nate. The words of the wise man in recommending wisdom to the sons of men are not inappropriate : " Hear ; for I will speak of excellent things and the opening of my lips shall be right things, and wicked- ness is an abomination to my lips. Receive my instruction and not silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold. For wisdom is better than rubies ; THE USE OF MASTERPIECES AS WHOLES 205 and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it." To get at the wisdom of the best thinkers of the world, so far as it is accessible to children, is the straightforward aim of such study. The teachers of reading, if they but realized it, are the guardians of a temple more beautiful than the Parthenon in the days of Pericles, more impressive than the sacred towers and porticos at Jerusalem ; they are the cus- todians of a treasure far more rich and lasting than that in any palace of a king. Such comparisons, indeed, are almost belittling to the dignity of our subject. How noble and vast is the temple of literature ! What single mind can grasp its propor- tions or the boundless beauty of its decorations? Moreover, it is a living temple, ever springing up afresh, in all its pristine strength and beauty, where- ever minds are found reverent, studious, and thought- ful. The old proverb suggests that we " beware of the man of one book," and is significant of a strong practical truth. Our modern life demands a some- what broader basis of operations than one book can furnish. But a few of the great books, well mastered, give the main elements of strength. Mabie has a short chapter on the " Books of Life " which " include the original, creative, first-hand books in all literatures, and constitute in the last analysis a comparatively small group, with which any student 206 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING can thoroughly familiarize himself. The literary- impulse of the race has expressed itself in a great variety of works of varying charm and power, but the books which are fountain-heads of vitality, ideas, and beauty are few in number." The effect upon the teacher of the study of a few of the " Books of Life" is deserving of emphasis. First, by limiting the choice to a few things, teachers are able, without burdening themselves, to penetrate into the deeper thought and meaning of standard works which are good specimens and criteria of all superior literature. Teachers are enabled thus to become, in a limited way, real students of literature. It Has been observed, not seldom, that teachers of usual capacity, when turned into a single rich field like that of " Hiawatha " or the " Merchant of Venice " or " The Lays of Ancient Rome " or the " Lady of the Lake," receive an awakening which means much for their general culture and teaching power. The scat- tering of the attention over miscellaneous selections and fragments can hardly produce this awakening. Certain difficulties are incident to the reading of longer works as wholes which it is well to recognize. i. There is no such nice grading of verbal and language difficulties as has been wrought out in some of the standard readers. On this point Scudder says (p. 41 of "Literature in Schools"): — " The drawback to the use of these nursery clas- sics in the schoolroom undoubtedly has been in the THE USE OF MASTERPIECES AS WHOLES 207 absence of versions which are intelligible to children if the proper age, reading by themselves. The akers of the graded reading-books have expended .11 their ingenuity in grading the ascent. They have een so concerned about the gradual enlargement of eir vocabularies that they have paid slight atten- on to the ideas which the words were intended to onvey. But just this gradation may be secured through the use of these stories, and it only needs that they should be written out in a form as simple, especially as regards the order of words, as that which obtains in the reading-books of equivalent grade." But in the longer classics for more advanced grades there can be no such adaptation, and the author's form should be retained. The authors of "Rip Van Winkle" or "Snow-Bound" or " Hora- tius at the Bridge " were not trying to phrase their thought to meet the needs of children, but wrote as the spirit moved them. The greater vigor and inten- sity of the author's style will make up, however, in large part, for this defect in easy grading. Children are not so much afraid of big or new words, if there is attractiveness and power of thought. The larger richness and variety of language in a fruitful author is a positive advantage as compared with the leanness and dulness of many a smoothly graded reading lesson. 2. It is claimed that there is, in some masterpieces, like " Evangeline " or one of Webster's speeches, a 208 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING monotony and tiresome sameness which grows bur- densome to pupils ere the conclusion is reached. At least there is much less variety in style and thought than in an equal number of pages in the usual reader. In some cases there is good ground for this criti- cism. It may be a defect in the writer's style, or in not finding a suitable selection for the class. In some cases it is due to lack of power in the teacher to bring the children properly into close contact with the author's thought. But dulness and apathy are often found in reading short selections as well as in longer ones. Generally speaking, longer pieces are apt to kindle a deeper and stronger interest. Many of the longer selections have also great variety of rhetorical style. Dickens's " Christmas Carol" is employed in one of the drill books in reading to illustrate all phases of voice and tone. 3. It is not an unusual experience to find that a longer story or poem seems too hard for a class, and it may be impossible to interest them because of verbal or thought difficulties. But the teacher should not give up the struggle at once. Often, in a new author, difficulties that seem at first insurmountable give way before vigorous effort, and a lively interest is awakened. This has been noticed in Macaulay's " Lays of Ancient Rome," in Irving's " Rip Van Winkle," in Scott's "Lady of the Lake," also in Webster's "Speech in reply to Hayne." The teacher THE USE OF MASTERPIECES AS WHOLES 209 should not depend wholly upon the author's making himself intelligible and interesting to the children. His own enthusiasm, clear grasp of thought, suggest- ive assignment of lesson, and skill in comment and question should awaken insight and attention. It is advisable at times to pass by specially difficult pas- sages, or leave them for later special study. 4. In some schools it is not possible to secure books containing the complete classics. But even the regular readers often contain complete poems and stories, and several of the large companies are publishing many of the complete masterpieces in good print and binding, no more expensive than the regular readers. 5. The greatest difficulty, after all, is the lack of experience of many teachers with the longer classics. In many cases their inability to select what would suit their classes is a hindrance. But the experience of many teachers with these materials is rapidly set- tling the question as to the place and importance of the leading masterpieces as well as of many shorter selections. CHAPTER XI Literary Materials for the Five Upper Grades There is great abundance and variety of choice reading matter suitable for the grades from the fourth to the eighth inclusive. The best sets of reading- books have drawn from this rich material, but no series of readers can compass adequately the field. Some of the longer classical stories and poems have been incorporated into readers, but a single set of readers cannot be made large enough to contain a quarter of the valuable reading matter which should be f urnishedin these grades. The large publishing houses now supply, at moderate expense, in small and con- venient book form, a great variety of the very best complete masterpieces. In order to show more clearly the richness and variety of this material, we will dis- cuss briefly the principal kinds of reading matter which are distributed through these five grades. We assume that during the first three years of school life chil- dren have learned how to read, having mastered the forms and symbols of printed language. At the beginning of the fourth grade, therefore, they are prepared to read some of those choice literary prod- ucts which constitute a part of the permanent lit- LITERARY MATERIALS 211 erature of the world. After having collected and arranged these products, we find that they fall into several distinctly marked classes. i. The Myths. These include such stories as Hawthorne's "Won- der Book " and " Tanglewood Tales," Peabody's " Old Greek Folk Stories," Kingsley's " Greek Heroes," 'The Story of Ulysses," Bryant's translation of the " Iliad " and " Odyssey," Pope's " Homer," and many other prose and poetic renderings of the Greek myths. Another group of myths include Mabie's "Norse Stories," " Heroes of Asgard, " Siegfried," " Myths of Northern Lands," Skinner's " Readings in Folk Lore," and many forms of the Norse myths. The story of "Hiawatha" belongs also to this group, while some of the earlier English and Roman myths belong to the same class. The choicest of these mythical stories are dis- tributed as reading matter through the fourth and fifth grades. They constitute a large share of the most famous literature of the great civilized nations. It is worth while to name over the virtues of these stories and poems. They have sprung directly out of the people's life, they are race products, worked over from age to age by poetic spirits, and finally gathered into enduring form by a Homer, Virgil, or Spenser. The best of our later poets and prose masters have 212 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING .employed their finest skill in rendering them into simple and poetic English, as Bryant, Kingsley, Longfellow, Pope, Hawthorne, Palmer, Tennyson, Church, and many more. They are the best descriptions we have of the customs, ideas, and dress, the homes, habits, and mo- tives, of the ancestral races. Many other sources, as temples, ruins, tombs, coins, etc., help to explain this early history; but this literature calls it again into life and puts meaning into all other sources of knowledge. The influence which this early literature has had upon later historical growth of the great races is overwhelming, and is plain to the eyes of even un- scholarly persons. The root from which the marvel- lous tree of Greek civilization grew is seen in Homer's poems. In these myths we find those commanding char- acters which typify the strength and virtues of the race, as Achilles, Ulysses, Siegfried, Penelope, Thor, Apollo, Theseus, Hiawatha, Orpheus, Diana, Vulcan, Prometheus, and the Muses. A close acquaintance with these creative ideas of the early world is necessary to an understanding of all subsequent life and literature. And it is not merely the names of Greek divinities and definitions of their character and qualities which put meaning into the numberless allusions of modern writers. One reason why many modern thinkers smile at the trite- LITERARY MATERIALS 213 ness and childishness of Greek fable is, that they have not caught the spirit and meaning of the Greek story. The great masters of thought, like Goethe, Shakespeare, Emerson, Tennyson, and Bryant, have seen deeper. It is, moreover, in childhood, during the early school years especially, that we may best appreciate and enjoy these poetic creations of an early world. It is hardly to be expected that people whose youth has been clamped into the mould of commonplace and sensuous facts, and whose later years have been crusted over with modern materialism and commer- cialism, should listen with any patience to Orpheus and the Muses, or even to the wood notes of Pan. We hardly need to dwell upon the idea that the old heroic myths are the delight of boys and girls, and that this sympathy for the myth is the founda- tion of its educative power. Nor is it the purpose of the school to warp the minds of children into this one channel of growth. The historical and scientific studies run parallel with the myth, and give strength for other realities. It is not difficult to see that music, the drama, and the fine arts spring from these old myths as from their chief source. They furnish motive to many of the greatest works of dramatist, composer, painter, and sculptor, in all the ages since. -^Eschylus and the Greek dramatists, Goethe and Wagner, Fenelon and Shakespeare, drew abundantly from these sources. 214 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING A few of the striking characters of this great age of heroic myths should be treated with such fulness as to stand out clearly to the children and appeal to the heart as well as to the head. Ulysses and Sieg- fried stand in the centre of two of the chief stories, and exemplify great qualities of character, strength, wisdom, and nobleness of mind. In the third grade the children have had an oral introduction to some of the old stories, and have had a spirited entrance to Mythland. This oral treat- ment of the stories is a fitting and necessary prelude to the reading work of the fourth and fifth grades. It is more fully discussed, together with the art of the story-teller, in the earlier chapters of this book. Closely related to the myths, and kindred in spirit, are such choice reading materials as "The Arabian Nights," "King of the Golden River," Stockton's "Fanciful Tales," "The Pied Piper," and a number of shorter poems and stories found in the collections recommended for fourth and fifth grades. Some of Hawthorne's and Irving's stories belong also to this group. 2. Ballads and Traditional Stories. A somewhat distinct group of the best reading for fourth and fifth grades is found in the historical ballads and national legends from the early history of England, Germany, Italy, and France. They in- clude such selections as "Sir Patrick Spens," "The LITERARY MATERIALS 21 5 Ballads of Robin Hood," " Horatius," " Bannock- burn," "The Heart of the Bruce," "The Story of Regulus," of " Cincinnatus," "Alfred the Harper," and many more. In the list of books recommended for children's reading are several ballad books, Macaulay's " Lays of Ancient Rome," " The Book of Golden Deeds," "Tales from English History," and several others, with great variety of poem and story. Many of these selections are short and spirited and well suited to awaken the strongest enthusiasm of children. They are sometimes in dialogue form, both in prose and verse, have strong dramatic action, and are thus helpful in variety and force of expression. There is also much early history and national spirit involved. The old historical ballads and traditions have great educative value. They are simple, crude, and powerful, and awaken the spirit to receive the message of heroism. In her introduction to the " Ballad Book," Katharine Lee Bates says, " For these primitive folk-songs, which have done so much to educate the poetic sense in the fine peasantry of Scotland — that peasantry which has produced an Ayrshire Ploughman and an Ettrick Shepherd — are assuredly, " l Thanks to the human heart by which it lives,' among the best educators that can be brought into our schoolrooms." " The Lays of Ancient Rome," the " Ballads," and 2l6 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING the "Tales from English History " belong to the heroic series. Though far separated in time and place, they breathe the same spirit of personal energy, self-sacrifice, and love of country. They reveal manly resistance to cruelty and tyranny. We may begin this series with a term's work upon Macaulay's " Lays " and a few other choice stories in prose and verse. Thereafter we may insert other ballads, where needed, in connection with history, and in amplification of longer stories or masterpieces like Scott's " Tales of a Grandfather," and " Marmion." In the fifth grade, children are of an age when these stories of heroism in olden days strike a responsive chord. They delight in such tales, memorize them, and enter into the full energy of their spirited re- production. The main purpose at first is to appre- ciate their thought as an expression of history, tradition, and national life. A complete and absorb- ing study of a single series of these ballads, as of Macaulay's, supplies also an excellent standard of comparison for other more or less similar episodes in the history of Switzerland, Greece, England, and America. These historical legends merge almost imper- ceptibly into the historical tales of early English, Roman, and French or German history. The patri- archal stories of the Old Testament furnish the finest of early history stories and should be included in these materials. "The Old Stories of the East," LITERARY MATERIALS 21 *J id " Old Testament Stories in Scripture Language " ire among the best. 3. Stories of Chivalry. Tales of chivalry, beginning with " Arthur and his Round Table Knights," "Roland and Oliver," and other mediaeval tales, have a great attraction for poets and children. Such books are included in our lists as " The Court of King Arthur," the " Story of Roland," "Tales of Chivalry," "The Boys , King Arthur," the " Age of Chivalry," and " The Coming of Arthur " and " Passing of Arthur." There are also many shorter poems touching this spirit of chivalry in the Ballad literature. The character and spirit of King Arthur as revealed in the matchless music of Tennyson should find its way to the hearts of children before they leave the school. Like Sir Galahad, he could say, "My strength is as the strength often Because my heart is pure." 4. Historical Stories and Poems. In the fifth and sixth grades children should begin to read some of the best biographical and historical stories of America and of European countries. Of these we have excellent materials from many lands and periods of time, such as Higginson's " American Explorers," Morris's " Historical Tales " (both Ameri- can and English), " Stories of American Life and Adventure," " Stories of Our Country," " Pioneer His- tory Stories," "Ten Boys on the Road from Long 218 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING Ago/' "The Story of the English/' "Stories from Herodotus," "Pilgrims and Puritans/' Hawthorne's " Biographical Stories," " Stories from American Life," and others. In the oral history lessons given on alternate days in fourth grade (see special method in history) we have made a spirited entrance to American history through the pioneer stories of the Mississippi Valley. These should precede and pave the way for classic readings in American history. In the fifth grade, the stories of Columbus and of the chief navigators, also the narratives of the Atlantic coast pioneers, are told. The regular history work of the sixth grade should be a study of the growth of the leading colonies during the colonial period and the French and Indian Wars. In the fifth grade we may begin to read some of the hero narratives of our own pioneer epoch as rendered by the best writers ; for instance, Higgin- son's " American Explorers," " Pilgrims and Puri- tans," " Stories of Our Country," and " Grandfather's Chair." They are lifelike and spirited, and intro- duce us to the realism of our early history in its rugged exposure and trials, while they bring out those stern but high ideals of life which the Puritan and the Cavalier, the navigator, the pioneer hunter, and explorer illustrate. Higginson's collection of letters and reports of the early explorers, with their quaint language and eye-witness descriptions, is strikingly LITERARY MATERIALS 219 vivid in its portraiture of early scenes upon our shores. Hawthorne, in "Grandfather's Chair," has moulded the hardy biography of New England leaders into literary form. 5. Great Biographies. In addition to the shorter biographical stories just mentioned, as children advance into the sixth, seventh, and eighth grades, they should make a close acquain- tance with a few of the great biographies. There is an abundance of excellent American biographies, but we should limit ourselves to those most important and best suited to influence the character of young people. It is necessary also to use those which have been written in a style easily comprehended by the children. Some of the best are as follows : Scudder's "Life of Washington," Franklin's "Autobiography," Hosmer's " Life of Samuel Adams," and the lives of John Quincy Adams, Daniel Webster, and Lin- coln in the "Statesman Series." There are two fairly good books of Lincoln's early life for children. There are also many shorter biographies included in the books recommended for regular or collateral reading. In style and content the story of Franklin is one of the best for children. The "Autobiog- raphy " of Franklin has many graphic touches from American life. His intense practical per- sonality, his many-sidedness and public spirit, make up a character that will long instruct and open 220 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING out in many directions the minds of the young. His clear sense and wisdom in small affairs as in great, and the pleasing style of his narrative, are sufficiently characteristic to have a strong personal impression. It will hardly be necessary to take the whole of the " Autobiography/ ' but the more attrac- tive parts, leaving the rest to the private reading of children. " Poor Richard's Almanac " intensifies the notion of Franklin's practical and everyday wisdom, and at the same time introduces the children to a form of literature that, in colonial days, under Franklin's patronage, had a wide acceptance and lasting influence in America. Plutarch's " Lives " furnish a series of great bi- ographies which grammar school children should become well acquainted with. The lives of Ameri- can writers and poets should be brought to the atten- tion of children in conjunction with their productions. "The Children's Stories of American Literature" and the introductory chapters of many of the master- pieces furnish this interesting and stimulating material. It should not be neglected by pupils and teachers. For older pupils and for teachers several of Macaulay's " Essays " are valuable, and the style is strikingly interesting. For example, the essays on Samuel Johnson, Lord Chatham, Milton, Addison, and Frederick the Great. Motley's " Essay on Peter the Great" and Carlyle's "Essay on Burns" are of similar interest and value. " The Schonberg Cotta LITERARY MATERIALS 221 Family " is valuable in the upper grammar grades. Most of this kind of reading must be outside refer- ence work if it is done at all. Teachers should, first of all, enrich their own experience by these read- ings, occasionally bring a book to the class from which selections may be read, and, secondly, encour- age the more enthusiastic and capable children to this wider field of reading. 6. Historical Poems and Pictures of American Life. Some of the best American poems and prose masterpieces are fine descriptions of American life and manners, in different parts of the country and at various times. Such are: "Courtship of Miles Standish," "Tales of the White Hills, ,, "Snow- Bound," "Rip Van Winkle," and "Sleepy Hollow." "The Gentle Boy," "Mabel Martin," "Giles Corey," "Evangeline," "Uncle Tom's Cabin," and some of the great biographies, like those of Samuel Adams, Franklin, Washington, and Lincoln, are also fine descriptions of home life in America. The same may be said of some of the masterpieces of English and European literature, for example, "Ivanhoe," "Roger de Coverley," "The Christmas Carol," "Vicar of Wakefield," "William Tell," "Silas Mar- ner," " The Cotter's Saturday Night," and " Schon- berg Cotta Family." The culture value of these pictures of home and domestic life for young people is surpassingly great. 222 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING Gradually their views are broadened, and they may be imbued with those social, home-bred qualities and virtues so fundamental in human life. Irving' s stories and Longfellow's " Miles Stan- dish " give a still more pronounced and pleasing literary cast to two of the characteristic forms of life in our colonial history, the Puritan and the Dutch Patroon. If the children have reached this point, where they can read and enjoy the "Sketch- Book," it will be worth much as a description of life along the Hudson, and will develop taste and appre- ciation for literary excellence. Even the fanciful and ridiculous elements conduce to mental health and soundness, by showing up in pleasing satire the weaknesses and foibles of well-meaning people. " Snow-Bound," "Songs of Labor/' and "Among the Hills," while not historical in the usual sense, are still plainly American, and may well be asso- ciated with other poetic delineations of American life. " Snow-Bound " is a picture of New England life, with its pleasing and deep-rooted memories. Its family spirit and idealization of common objects and joys make it a classic which reaches the hearts of boys and girls. "Among the Hills" is also a pic- ture of home life in New England mountains, a con- trast of the mean and low in home environment to the beauty of thrift and taste and unselfish home joys. The "Songs of Labor" are descriptive of the toils and spirit of our varied employments in New LITERARY MATERIALS 223 England and of that larger New England which the migrating Yankees have established between the oceans. 11 Evangeline " is another literary pearl that en- shrines in sad and rhythmic measures a story of colonial days, and teaches several great lessons, as of the harshness and injustice of war, of fair-minded- ness and sympathy for those of alien speech and country, of patience and gentleness and loyalty to high ideals in a cherished character familiar to all. 7. The Poetry of Nature in the Masterpieces of Literature. Both in poetic and in prose form there is great variety and depth of nature worship in good litera- ture. There are few, if any, of the great poets who have not been enthusiastic and sympathetic observers of nature, — nature lovers, we may call them. We can hardly mention the names of Emerson, Bryant, and Wordsworth, without thinking of their loving companionship with nature, their flight to the woods and fields. But the same is true of Lowell, Whittier, Hawthorne, Whitman, and all the rest. When we add to these, those companions of nature, such as Thoreau, Leander Keyser, Olive Thorn Miller, Bur- roughs, Warner, and others of like spirit, we may be surprised at the number of our leading writers who have found their chief delight in dwelling close to the heart of nature. An examination of the books recommended for 224 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING children's study and delight will reveal a large num- ber of the most graceful, inspiriting products of human thought, which are nature poems, nature hymns, odes to skylark, the dandelion, the mountain daisy, communings with the myriad moods and forms of the natural world. Such books as "Nature Pictures by American Poets,' ' " Golden Treasury of Songs and Lyrics," "Poetry of the Seasons," the " Open Sesame" books, and others, show an infinite variety of poetic inspiration from nature. Adding to these Burroughs's " Birds and Bees," " Wake Robin," " Squirrels and other Fur-bearers " ; Tho- reau's " Succession of Forest Trees " ; Higginson's " Outdoor Papers " ; Keyser's " News from the Birds," "In Bird Land," and "Birddom"; Torrey's "Footpath Way," and "Birds in the Bush"; Long's "Wilderness Ways," and "Ways of Wood Folk"; the "Plant World" of Vincent, the "Natural His- tory of Selborne," and others of like quality, — and we have an abundance of the most friendly and en- ticing invitations to nature study. These materials are suited, by proper arrangement, to all the grades from the fourth up. Under good teachers such books can do no other than awaken and encourage the happiest kind of observation and sympathy for nature. It is the kind of appreciation of birds and trees, insects and clouds, which at once trains to close and discriminating perception, and to the culti- vation of aesthetic sense in color, form, and sound. LITERARY MATERIALS 225 The love of nature cannot be better instilled than by following these poets. While the study of literature as it images nature cannot take the place of pure science, it is the most powerful ally that the scientist can call in. The poets can do as much to idealize science study, to wake the dull eye, and quicken the languid interest in nature, as scientists themselves. Away, then, with this presumed antagonism between literature and science ! Neither is complete without the other. Neither can stand on its own feet. But together, in mutual support, they cannot be tripped up. The facts, the laws, the utilities, adaptations, and wonders in nature are not so marvellous but the poet's eye will pierce beneath and above them, will give them a deeper interpretation, and clothe them in a gar- ment of beauty and praise. There is nothing beau- tiful or grand or praiseworthy that the poet's eye will not detect it, and the poet's art reveal it in living and lasting forms. Let the scientist delve and the poet sing. The messages between them should be only those of cheer. It is in this myriad-voiced world of fields and brooks, of mountain, lake, and river, of storm and cloud and of the changing seasons, that poets find the images, suggestions, and analogies which inter- pret and illustrate the spiritual life of man. The more rigid study of science in laboratory and class- room is necessary to the student, but it would be a 226 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING narrow and pedantic teacher who would not welcome the poetic temper and enthusiasm in nature study. The teachers of reading have, therefore, the best of all opportunities for cultivating this many-sided sympathy for and insight into nature, and at the same time to train the children to correlate these nature poems with their science studies. Observers like Thoreau and Burroughs give us the greatest inducement for getting out into the woods. They open our eyes to the beauties and our hearts to the truth of nature's teachings. These are the gardens of delight where science and poetry walk hand in hand and speak face to face. It would not be diffi- cult to show that many of the greatest scientists were poets, and that some of the chiefest poets have been foremost in scientific study. 8. The Sentiment of Patriotism in Literature. The powerful national spirit finds expression in many forms of literature, in hymns, in war song, in oration, in essay, in pioneer narrative, in stories of bat- tle, in novel, in flag song, in ballad, and in biography. We have already noted the great significance of American history stories in fourth and fifth grades. It is from the early pioneer epoch and the colonial history that we derive much of our best educative history. The heroism of these old days has been commemorated in story and poem by our best writers."' As we approach the Revolutionary crisis a new body of choice literary products, aglow with the fire of patri- LITERARY MATERIALS 227 otism and independence, is found stored up for the joy and stimulus of our growing young Americans : " Paul Revere's Ride," " Grandmother's Story of Bunker Hill," Washington's letters, " A Ballad of the Boston Tea Party," " Ode for Washington's Birthday," " Lex- ington" (Holmes), "The Song of Marion's Men," " The Green Mountain Boys," Webster's speeches at Bunker Hill and on Adams and Jefferson, " Old Ticonderoga " (Hawthorne), Burke's speech on the American War, Washington's "Farewell to the Army," The Declaration of Independence, "Under the Old Elm," and descriptions of some of the great scenes of the war by our best historians. It is to be desired that children in the seventh grade may have opportunity in regular history lessons to study in detail a few of the central topics of the Revolutionary epoch. This will put them in touch with the spirit and surroundings of the Americans. In the reading lessons of the same grade we may well afford to discover and feel what our best patriots and men of letters have said and felt in view of the struggle for freedom. The noblest expressions of sentiment upon great men and their achievements are contagious with the young. Patriotism can find no better soil in which to strike its deepest roots than the noble outbursts of our orators and poets and patriotic statesmen. The cumulative effect of these varied but kindred materials is greater than when scattered and disconnected. They mutually support 228 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING each other, and when they are brought into close dependence upon parallel historical studies, we may well say that the children are drinking from the deep and pure sources of true Americanism. Parallel to whatever history we attempt to teach in the eighth grade should run a selection of the best literary products that our American authors can furnish, and here again we are rich in resources. The thought and life of our people find their high- water mark in the poet's clarion note and the states- man's impassioned appeal. No others have perceived the destiny of our young republic as our cherished poets, Longfellow, Whittier, Bryant, Holmes, and Emerson. They have stood upon the mountain tops, looking far and wide through the clear atmosphere, while the great army of the people has been tenting in the valleys below. These wakeful priests and prophets have caught the bright tints of the morning while the people were still asleep, and have witnessed the suffused glory of the sunset clouds when the weary masses below had already forgotten the day's toil. One thing at least, and that the greatest, can be done for our children before they finish the common school course. They may rise into this pure atmos- phere of poet, patriot, sage, and prophet. They may hear these deathless strains and feel the thrill of these ringing notes. Let their ears be once attuned to the strength and harmony of this music, and it will not cease to echo in their inner life. The future LITERARY MATERIALS 229 patriots will be at hand, and the coming years will see them rising to the great duties that inevitably await them. We have a body of noble, patriotic material which is capable of producing this effect if handled by skilful teachers: the Ordinance of 1787, The Federalist, Numbers 1 and 2, Washington's " In- augurals " and the " Farewell Address," Everett's " Oration on Washington," " O Mother of Mighty Race" (Bryant); "Our Country's Call" (Bryant); "Abraham Lincoln" (Bryant); Lincoln's "Inaugu- rals " and "Gettysburg Speech," " Army Hymn " and " The Flower of Liberty " (Holmes), Webster's " Sec- ond Speech on Foot's Resolution," The Emancipation Proclamation, " The Fortune of the Republic " (Emerson), etc., " Antiquity of Freedom " (Bryant) ; "Centennial Hymn" (Whittier); "The Building of the Ship " (Longfellow) ; " The Poor Voter on Elec- tion Day " (Whittier). Why not gather together these sources of power, of unselfish patriotism, of self-sacrifice, of noble and inspiring impulse ? Let this fruit-bringing seed be sown deep in the minds and hearts of the receptive young. What has inspired the best of men to high thinking and living can touch them. It is not by reading and declaiming a few miscel- laneous fragments of patriotic gush, not by waving flags and banners and following processions, that the deeper sentiments of patriotism and humanity are to be touched, but by gathering and concentrating these 230 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING fuller, richer sources of spiritual power and conscious national destiny. The schoolroom is by far the best place to consolidate these purifying and conserving sentiments. By gathering into a rising series and focussing in the higher grades the various forms, in prose and verse, in which the genius of our country has found its strongest expression ; by associating these ringing sentiments with the epochs and crises of our history, with the valorous deeds of patriots upon the field and of statesmen in the senate, with the life and longings of home-nurtured poets and sages, — we shall plant seed whose fruitage will not disappoint the lovers of the fatherland. Mr. Horace E. Scudder, in his two essays on " Literature " and " American Classics in the Common School," has portrayed with convincing clearness the spiritual power and high-toned Americanism which breathe from those literary monuments which have been quarried from our own hillsides and chiselled by American hands. We recommend to every teacher the reading in full of these essays, from which we quote at much length : — " Fifty years ago there were living in America six men of mark, of whom the youngest was then nine- teen years of age, the oldest forty-four. Three of the six are in their graves and three still breathe the kindly air. [Since this was written, in 1888, the last of the six has passed away.] One only of the six has held high place in the national councils, and it is LITERARY MATERIALS 23 1 not by that distinction that he is known and loved. They have not been in battle ; they have had no armies at their command; they have not amassed great fortunes, nor have great industries waited on their movements. Those pageants of circumstances which kindle the imagination have been remote from their names. They were born on American soil ; they have breathed American air ; they were nurtured on American ideas. They are Americans of Ameri- cans. They are as truly the issue of our national life as are the common schools in which we glory. During the fifty years in which our common school system has been growing up to maturity these six have lived and sung ; and I dare say that the lives and songs of Bryant, Emerson, Longfellow, Whittier, Holmes, and Lowell have an imperishable value, regarded as exponents of national life, not for a moment to be outweighed in the balance by the most elaborate system of common schools which the wit of man may devise. The nation may command armies and schools to rise from the soil, but it cannot call into life a poet. Yet when the poet comes and we hear his voice in the upper air, then we know the nation he owns is worthy of the name. Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles ? Even so, pure poetry springs from no rank soil of national life. " I am not arguing for the critical study of our great authors, in the higher grades of our schools. 232 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING They are not the best subjects for critical scholar- ship ; criticism demands greater remoteness, greater foreignness of nature. Moreover, critical study is not the surest method of securing the full measure of spiritual light, though it yields abundant gain in the refinement of the intellectual nature and in the quickening of the perceptive faculties. I am arguing for the free, generous use of these authors in the principal years of school life. It is then that their power is most profoundly needed, and will be most strongly felt. We need to put our children in their impressionable years into instant and close connec- tion with the highest manifestation of our national life. Away with the bottle and the tube! Give them a lusty draft at the mother's full breast! "Nor do I fear that such a course will breed a narrow and parochial Americanism. On the con- trary, it would destroy a vulgar pride in country, help the young to see humanity from the heights on which the masters of song have dwelt, and open the mind to the more hospitable entertainment of the best literature of every clime and age. I am convinced that there is no surer way to introduce the best English literature into our schools than to give the place of honor to American literature. In the order of nature a youth must be a citizen of his own country before he can become naturalized in the world. We recognize this in our geography and his- tory ; we may wisely recognize it also in our reading. LITERARY MATERIALS 233 "The place, then, of literature in our common school education is in spiritualizing life, letting light into the mind, inspiring and feeding the higher forces of human nature. " It is the business of the old to transmit to the young the great traditions of the past of the country, to feed anew the undying flame of patriotism. There is the element of destiny. No nation lives upon its past ; it is already dead when it says, ' Let us eat and drink to-day; for to-morrow we die/ But what that destiny is to be may be read in the ideals which the young are forming; and those ideals, again, it is the business of the old to guide. They cannot form them; the young must form them for themselves; but whether these ideals shall be large or petty, honorable or mean, will depend upon the sustenance on which they are fed. " Now in a democracy, more signally than under any other form of national organization, it is vitally nec- essary that there should be an unceasing, unimpeded circulation of the spiritual life of the people. The sacrifice of the men and women who have made and preserved America, from the days of Virginia and New England to this hour, has been ascending from the earth in a never-ending cloud; they have fallen again in strains of music, in sculpture, in painting, in memorial hall, in tale, in oration, in poem, in consecration of life; and the spirit which ascended is the same as that which descended. In 234 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING literature above all is this spirit enshrined. You have but to throw open the shrine, and the spirit comes with its outspread blessings upon millions of waiting souls. Entering them, it reissues in count- less shapes, and thus is the life of the nation in its highest form kept ever in motion, and without motion is no life. " The deposit of nationality is in laws, institutions, art, character, and religion; but laws, institutions, character, and religion are expressed through art and mainly through the art of letters. It is litera- ture, therefore, that holds in precipitation the genius of the country ; and the higher the form of literature, the more consummate the expression of that spirit which does not so much seek a materialization as it shapes itself inevitably in fitting form. Long may we read and ponder the life of Washington, yet at last fall back content upon those graphic lines of Lowell in ' Under the Old Elm/ which cause the figure of the great American to outline itself upon the imagination with large and strong portraiture. The spirit of the orations of Webster and Benton, the whole history of the young giant poised in con- scious strength before his triumphant struggle, one may catch in a breath in those glowing lines which end 1 The Building of the Ship.' The deep passion of the war for the Union may be overlooked in some formal study of battles and campaigns, but rises pure, strong, and flaming in the immortal ' Gettysburg Speech/ LITERARY MATERIALS 235 " Precisely thus the sentiment of patriotism must be kept fresh and living in the hearts of the young through quick and immediate contact with the sources of that sentiment; and the most helpful means are those spiritual deposits of patriotism which we find in noble poetry and lofty prose, as communicated by men who have lived patriotic lives and been fed with coals from the altar. " It is from the men and women bred on American soil that the fittest words come for the spiritual en- richment of American youth. I believe heartily in the advantage of enlarging one's horizon by taking in other climes and other ages, but first let us make sure of that great expansive power which lies close at hand. I am sure there never was a time or coun- try where national education, under the guidance of national art and thought, was so possible as in America to-day. " The body of wholesome, strong American litera- ture is large enough to make it possible to keep boys and girls upon it from the time when they begin to recognize the element of authorship until they leave the school, and it is varied and flexible enough to give employment to the mind in all its stages of development. Moreover, this literature is interest- ing, and is allied with interesting concerns ; half the hard places are overcome by the willing mind, and the boy who stumbles over some jejune lesson in his reading-book will run over a bit of genuine prose 236 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING from Irving which the schoolbook maker, with his calipers, pronounces too hard. 11 We have gone quite far enough in the mechani- cal development of the common school system. What we most need is the breath of life, and reading offers the noblest means for receiving and imparting this breath of life. The spiritual element in educa- tion in our common schools will be found to lie in reserve in literature, and, as I believe, most effec- tively in American literature. " Think for a moment of that great, silent, resist- less power for good which might at this moment be lifting the youth of the country, were the hours for reading in school expended upon the undying, life- giving books ! Think of the substantial growth of a generous Americanism, were the boys and girls to be fed from the fresh springs of American litera- ture ! It would be no narrow provincialism into which they would emerge. The windows in Long- fellow's mind looked to the east, and the children who have entered into possession of his wealth travel far. Bryant's flight carries one through upper air, over broad champaigns. The lover of Emerson has learned to get a remote vision. The companion of Thoreau finds Concord become suddenly the centre of a very wide horizon. Irving has annexed Spain to America. Hawthorne has nationalized the gods of Greece and given an atmosphere to New England. Whittier has translated the Hebrew Scriptures into LITERARY MATERIALS 237 the American dialect. Lowell gives the American boy an academy without cutting down a stick of timber in the grove, or disturbing the birds. Holmes supplies that hickory which makes one careless of the crackling of thorns. Franklin makes the America of a past generation a part of the great world before treaties had bound the floating states into formal connection with venerable nations. What is all this but saying that the rich inheritance we have is no local ten-acre lot, but a part of the undivided estate of humanity. Universality, Cosmo- politanism, — these are fine words, but no man ever secured the freedom of the Universe who did not first pay taxes and vote in his own village. ,, — " Lit- erature in School " (Houghton, Mifflin, & Co.). 9. The series of American classics is nowise con- fined to the ideas of local or national patriotism, but above and beyond that deep and powerful sentiment which magnifies the opportunity and manifest destiny of our nation, it grasps at the ideal form and content of those Christian virtues which now and evermore carry healing and comfort to the toiling millions. Our poets, as they have pondered on the past and looked into the future, were not able to be content with less than the best. As the vision of the com- ing years unrolled itself before them they looked upon it with joy mingled with solicitude. In the mighty conflicts now upon us only those of generous and saintly purpose and of pure hearts can prevail. 238 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING u Brief is the time, I know, The warfare scarce begun ; Yet all may win the triumphs thou hast won. Still flows the fount whose waters strengthened thee, The victors' names are yet too few to fill Heaven's mighty roll ; the glorious armory That ministered to thee is open still." — Bryant. To reveal this Christian armory, the defences of the soul against the assaults of evil, has been the highest inspiration of our poets. What depth and beauty and impersonation of Christian virtues do we find in " Snow-Bound," " Among the Hills," "Evange- line, "The Conqueror's Grave," "To a Waterfowl," " The Groves were God's First Temples," " The Liv- ing Temple," "The Sun Day Hymn," "The Cham- bered Nautilus," "Vision of Sir Launfal," "The Great Stone Face." The Bible is not generally admissible as a school- book, but the spirit of Christianity, clad in the forms of strength and grace, is immanent in the works of our poets. So universal, so human, so fit to the needs and destinies of men, are the truths of the great evangel, that the prophets and seers of our race drift evermore into the sheltering haven they supply. To drink in these potent truths through poetry and song, to see them enshrined in the im- agery and fervor of the sacred masterpieces of our literature, is more than culture, more than morality ; it is the portal and sanctuary of religious thought, and children may enter it. LITERARY MATERIALS 239 10. The higher products of literature contain an energy that quickens spiritual life in morals, in art, and in religion. To many people, whose lives are submerged in commercial pursuits or in the great struggle to develop and utilize the material resources of the world, these spiritual forces seem vague and shadowy, if not mythical. But there are plenty of heroic souls in the realm of letters, such as Emerson, Scudder, Ruskin, Arnold, and Carlyle, who are not disposed to let men settle down in lazy satisfaction with material good, nor to be blinded even by the splendor of modern achievements in engineering, in medicine, and in the application of electricity. We must at least reach a point of view high enough to perceive the relations of these natural riches to the higher nature and destiny of man. Scudder says, "It is to literature that we must look for the substantial protection of the growing mind against an ignoble, material conception of life, and for the inspiring power which shall lift the nature into its rightful fellowship with whatsoever is noble, true, lovely, and of good report.' ' Shelley, in like spirit, says : " The cultivation of poetry is never more to be desired than at periods when, from an excess of the selfish and calculating principle, the accumulation of the materials of ex- ternal life exceed the quantity of the power of as- similating them to the internal laws of human nature. The body has then become too unwieldy for that which animates it." 24O SPECIAL METHOD IN READING Matthew Arnold, in " Sweetness and Light," while discussing the function of that truer culture and " per- fection which consists in becoming something rather than in having something," remarks : — " And this function is particularly important in our modern world, of which the whole civilization is, to a much greater degree than the civilization of Greece and Rome, mechanical and external, and tends con- stantly to become more so. But above all in our own country has culture a weighty part to perform because here that mechanical character, which civilization tends to take everywhere, is shown in the most emi- nent degree. Indeed, nearly all the characters of perfection, as culture teaches us to fix them, meet in this country with some powerful tendency which thwarts them and sets them at defiance. The idea of perfection as an inward condition of the mind and spirit is at variance with the mechanical and material civilization in esteem with us, and nowhere, as I have said, so much in esteem as with us." 11. Judged by these higher standards our writers and literary leaders were not simply Americans. They were also Europeans. The Puritan brought his reli- gion with him, the Cavalier acquired his gentlemanly instincts in the old home, not in the untrodden forests of the New World. Much of what we call American is the wine of the Old World poured into .the bear- skins and buckskins of the West, with a flavor of the freedom of our Western wilds. Though born and LITERARY MATERIALS 24 1 bred on American soil and to the last exemplars of the American spirit, our literary leaders have derived their ideas and inspiration from the literature, tradi- tion, and history of the Old World. It will be no small part of our purpose, therefore, to open up to the children of our common schools the best entrance to the history and literature of Europe. Our own writers and poets have done this for us in a variety of instances : Hawthorne's rendering of the Greek myths, Bryant's translation of the " Iliad " and " Odyssey," a good half of Irving's " Sketch-Book," Lowell's "Vision of Sir Launfal," "Aladdin," and "Prome- theus," Irving's "Alhambra," Longfellow's "Golden Legend," " Sandalphon," Taylor's " Boys of Other Countries." Nearly the whole of our literature, even when dealing ostensibly with American topics, is suf- fused with the spirit and imagery of the Old World traditions. There is also a large collection of prose versions of European traditions, which, while not classic, are still lively renderings of old stories and well suited to the collateral reading of children. Such are " Gods and Heroes," " Tales from English His- tory," " Tales from Spenser," " Heroes of Asgard," " Story of the Iliad and Odyssey." The transition from our own poets who have handled European themes to English writers who have done the same, is easy and natural ; Macaulay's " Lays of Ancient Rome," Scott's " Tales of a Grand- father," " The Stories of Waverley," the " Christmas 242 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING Carol," Kingsley's "Greek Heroes" and "Water Babies," Ruskin's "King of the Golden River," "Lady of the Lake," " Marmion," " Roger de Coverley Papers," " Merchant of Venice," " Arabian Nights," "Peasant and Prince," Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Prog- ress," " Gulliver's Travels," and others have become by inheritance and birthright as much a part of the American child's culture as the more distinctive prod- ucts of our own writers. No line can be drawn be- tween those writings which are American and those which sprung from the soil of England and Europe. So intimate and vital is the connection between our present and our past, between our children and their cousins across the water. These American and European literary products lie side by side in the school course, though the predomi- nating spirit through the middle and higher grades up to the eighth should be American. We have noticed that in the earlier grades most of our classic reading matter comes from Europe, the nursery rhymes, the folk-lore, fables, and myths, because the childhood of our culture periods was in Europe. But into the fourth grade, and from there on, begin- ning with the pioneers on sea and land, our American history and literature enters as a powerful agent of culture. It brings us into quick and vital contact, not simply with the outward facts, but with the inmost spirit, of our national life and struggle toward de- velopment. This gives the American impulse free LITERARY MATERIALS 243 and full expansion, and fortunate are we, beyond expression, that pure and lofty poets stand at the threshold to usher the children into this realm, founded deep in the realism of our past history and rising grandly into the idealism of our desires and hopes. As we advance into the sixth, seventh, and eighth grades the literature of Europe begins again to increase in quantity and influence, and to share equally with American authors the attention of the children. The Americanism of our poets and prose writers, as previously shown, has also another side to it, which is one sign of the breadth and many-sidedness of lit- erature as a study for the young. North America is a land rich in variety of natural scenery and resource. Nature has decked the New World with a lavish hand, forest and mountain, lake and river, prairie and desert, the summer land of flowers and the home of New England winters. The masterpieces of our poets are full of the scenery, vegetation, sunsets, mountains, and prairies of the Western empire. The flowers, the birds, the wild beasts, the pathless forests, the limit- less stretches of plain, have mirrored themselves in the songs of our poets, and have rendered them dearer to us because seen and realized in this ideal- ism. Unconsciously perhaps the feeling of patri- otism is largely based upon this knowledge of the rich and varied beauty and bounty of our native land. 244 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING u I love thy rocks and rills, Thy woods and templed hills, My heart with rapture thrills, Like that above." As along the shores of our Northern lakes the clear and quiet waters reflect the green banks, the rolling, forest-crowned hills, the rocky bluffs, the floating clouds, and overarching blue, so in the homespun, classic verse and prose of our own writers are imaged the myriad charms of our native land. Bryant especially is the poet of forest and glade, " The For- est Hymn," " The Death of the Flowers," " The Re- turn of the Birds," "A Summer Ramble," "The Fringed Gentian," "The Hunter of the Prairies," "The White-footed Deer," "To a Waterfowl," " Thanatopsis," and many others. Longfellow's "Hiawatha," "Evangeline"; Whittier's "Barefoot Boy," "Songs of Labor," "Among the Hills," and " Snow-Bound " ; Hawthorne's " Tales of the White Hills"; Holmes's "Spring"; Lowell's "Indian Sum- mer Reverie," "The Oak," and many more. The literature selected for these grades has a wide scope. It is instinct with the best Americanism. It draws from Europe at every breath, while enjoying the freedom of the West. Social, political, and home life and virtue are portrayed in great variety of dress. Nature also and natural science reveal the myriad forms of beauty and utility. CHAPTER XII Class-room Method in Reading i. Preparation. There is a strong comfort in the idea that in the preparation of a masterpiece for a reading class the teacher may be dealing with a unity of thought in a variety of relations that makes the study a compre- hensive culture-product both to herself and to the children. To become a student of " Hiawatha " as a whole, and in its relations to Indian life and tradition, early aboriginal history, and Longfellow's connection with the same, is to throw a glance into history and anthropology, and to recognize literature as the permanent form of expressing their spirit. There are a good many side-lights that a teacher needs to get from history and other literature, and from the author's life, in order to see a literary masterpiece in its true setting. It is the part of the poet to make his work intensely real and ideal, the two elements that appeal with trenchant force to children. The teacher needs not only to see the graphic pictures drawn by the artist, but to gather about these central points of view other collateral, explanatory facts that give a deeper setting to the picture. Fortunately, 245 246 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING such study as this is not burdensome. There is a joyousness and sparkle to it that can relieve many an hour of tedium. Literature in its best forms is recreation, and brings an infusion of spiritual energy. We should not allow ourselves to confuse it with those more humdrum forms of school employment, like spelling, figuring, reading in the formal sense, grammar, writing, etc. Literature is the spiritual side of school effort, the uplands of thought, where gushing springs well from the roots and shade of overarching trees. There is jollity and music, beauty and grandeur, the freshness of cool breezes and of mountain scenery, in such profusion as to satisfy the exuberance of youthful spirit, and to infuse new energy into old and tired natures. If the teacher can only get out of the narrow streets of the town and from between the dead walls of the schoolroom, up among the meadows and groves and brooks, in company with Bryant or Longfellow or Whittier, if she can only take a draught of these spirit-waters before walking into the schoolroom, her thought and con- duct will be tempered into a fit instrument of culture. The teachers preparation is not only in the intel- lectual grasp of the thought, but in the sympathy, feeling, and pleasure germane to a classic. The aesthetic and emotional elements, the charm of poetry, and the sparkle of wit and glint of literary elegance and aptness are what give relish and delight to true literary products. Literature appeals to the whole CLASS-ROOM METHOD IN READING 247 nature and not to the intellect alone. It is not super- ficial and formal, but deep and spiritual. The teacher who reads a classic like " Marmion," thoughtfully dwelling upon the historic pictures, calling to mind other of Scott's stories and the earlier struggle be- tween Scotland and England, is drinking at the fresh fountains and sources of some of the best parts of European history. The clear and rock-rimmed lakes of Scotland, her rugged mountains and ruined castle walls, are not more delightful to the traveller than the pictures of life and history that appear in " Tales of a Grandfather/' " Rob Roy," " Marmion," and " Lady of the Lake." To paint these stirring panoramic views of Scotch adventure and prowess upon the imagination of the young is to invigorate their thought with the real sentiment of patriotism, and with appre- ciation for manly struggle, endurance, and spirit. The vivid insight it gives into feudal society in church and court and castle, on battle-field and in dining hall, among the rude peasantry and the unlet- tered nobility, is found more lifelike and lasting than the usual results of historical study. The moment we take a longer masterpiece and examine it as a representative piece of human life, or as a typical portraiture of a historical epoch, it becomes the converging point for much lively and suggestive knowledge, deep and strong social inter- ests, and convincing personification of moral impulses. The best preparation, therefore, a teacher can make 248 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING for a class is a spiritual and spirited one. At first the linguistic, formal, verbal mastery of literature, its critical examination, even its elocution, should remain in the background both for teacher and children. Let the direct impress of the thought, motive, and emotion of the characters be unimpeded; give the author a chance to speak direct to the hearts of the children, and the avenue toward the desired results in formal reading will be left wide open. We would not deny that a certain labor is required of the teacher in such preparation. But, in the main, it is a refreshing kind of labor. If it brings a feel- ing of weariness, it is the kind that conduces to sound and healthy sleep. It invokes a feeling of inward power and of accumulated rich resource that helps us to meet with confidence the emergencies and opportunities of instruction. 2. In the assignment of the lesson the teacher has a chance to give the children a glimpse of the pleasure that awaits them, and to catch a little of the enthu- ' siasm which her own study has awakened. This should be done briefly and by significant suggestion. In first introducing a longer work, it will pay to occupy more than is usual in recitations in opening up the new subject; if it is historical, in locating the time, circumstances, and geographical setting. The chief aim of the assignment should be to awaken curiosity and interest which may be strong enough to lead to a full and appreciative study of the lesson. A second aim of the assignment is to pave the way to an easier mastery of verbal difficulties that arise, such as new and difficult words, obscure or involved passages. The first aim is a substantial and fruitful one. It approaches the whole reading lesson from the side of interest and spirit. It seeks to plant direct incentives and suggestions deep enough in the mind to start effort. The assignment should take it for granted that natural interest. and absorption in the thought will lead directly to that kind of vigorous effort and mastery that will secure natural and ex- pressive oral reading. Look well to the deeper springs of thought and action, and the formal read- ing will open just the avenue needed to realize good expression. Skill, originality, and teaching art are much needed in the assignment. It is not how much the teacher says, but the suggestiveness of it, the problems raised, the questions whose answers lie in the exam- ination of the lesson. The reference to previous readings which bear resemblance to this selection; the inquiry into children's experiences, sets them to thinking. Sometimes it pays to spend five or ten minutes in attacking the difficult words and meanings of the lesson assigned. Let the class read on and discover words or phrases that puzzle them. Let difficult forms be put on the board and syllabicated if neces- sary. A brief study of synonymous words and phrases may be in place. 250 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING It is a mistake to decline all helpful and sugges- tive study of the next lesson in class, on the ground that it invalidates the self-activity of children. Self- activity is, indeed, the chief aim of a good assign- ment. It is designed to stimulate the children to energetic and well-directed effort. Self-activity is not encouraged by requiring children to struggle with obstacles they have not the ability to surmount. Pronouncing new words and searching for dictionary meanings is often made a mechanical labor which is irksome and largely fruitless, because the wrong pronunciations are learned and the definitions do not fit. Before children are required to use the dic- tionary in pronouncing and defining words, they need careful exercises in how to use and to interpret the dictionary. The teacher needs to make a study of the art of assigning lessons. Clearness and simplicity, so as to give no ground for misunderstandings, are the result of thoughtful preparation on the teacher's part. There is always danger of giving too much or too little, of carelessness and unsteady requirements, overburdening the children one day, and even for- getting the next day to assign a definite task. The forethought and precision with which a teacher assigns her lessons is one of the best tests of her prudence and success in teaching. It is necessary also to be on one's guard against hasty assignments. Even when proper care has CLASS-ROOM METHOD IN READING 25 1 been taken in planning the next lesson, the time slips by with urgent work, and the signal for dis- missal comes before time has been taken for any clear assignment. If the teacher knows just what references will throw added light upon the lesson, what books and pages will be directly helpful, if he can appoint dif- ferent pupils to look up particular references and sometimes even go to the library with them and search for the references, in grades from the fifth through the eighth, the result may be very helpful. In the class recitation it is necessary to gather up the fruits of this reference work with as little waste of time as possible, recognizing that it is purely collateral to the main purpose. Pictures and maps are useful oftentimes as refer- ences. As children advance in the grades, they are capable of greater independence and judgment in the use of such materials. General, loose, and indefinite references are a sign of ignorance, carelessness, and lack of preparation on the teacher's part. They are discouraging and unprofitable to children. But we desire to see children broadening their views, extend- ing their knowledge of books and of how to use them. The amount of good literature that can be well treated and read in the class is small, but much sug- gestive outside home and vacation reading may be encouraged, that will open a still wider and richer area of personal study. 252 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING 3. In spite of all the precautions of the teacher, in spite of lively interest and intelligent study by the children, there will be many haltings and blunders, many inaccuracies in the use of eye and voice. These faults spring partly from habit and previous home influences. The worst faults are often those of which a child is unconscious, so habitual have they become. If we are to meet these difficulties wisely, we must start and keep up a strong momentum in the class. There should be a steady and strong current of effort in which all share. This depends, as has been often said, upon the power of the selec- tion to awaken the thought and feeling of the chil- dren. It depends equally upon the pervasive spirit and energy of the teacher. If we try to analyze this complex phenomenon, we may find that, so far as the children are concerned, two elements are present, natural and spontaneous absorption in the ideas and sensibilities awakened by the author, and the bracing conviction that sustained effort is expected and re- quired by the teacher. Children, to read well, must be free ; they must feel the force of ideas and of the emotions and convictions awakened by them. They must also be conscious of that kind of authority and control which insists upon serious and sustained effort. Freedom to exercise their own powers and obedience to a controlling influence are needful. If the teacher can secure this right movement and fer- ment in a class, she will be able to correct the errors CLASS-ROOM METHOD IN READING 253 and change bad habits into the desired form of ex- pression. The correction of errors, in the main, should be quiet, incidental, suggestive, not disturbing the child's thought and effort, not destroying the momentum of his sentiment and feeling. Let him move on firmly and vigorously ; only direct his move- ment here and there, modify his tone by easy sugges- tions and pertinent questions, and encourage him as far as possible in his own effort to appreciate and express the author's idea. In reading lessons there are certain purely formal exercises that are very helpful. The single and con- cert pronunciation of difficult or unusual words that come up in old and new lessons, the vocal exercises in syllabication and in vowel and consonant drill, are examples. They should be quick and vigorous, and preliminary to their application in lessons. 4. The teacher is only a guide and interpreter. With plenty of reserve power, he should only draw upon it occasionally. His chief business is not to show the children how to read by example, nor to be always explaining and amplifying the thought of the author. His aim should be to best call the minds of the children into strong action through the stimula- tion of the author's thought, and to go a step farther and reproduce and mould this thought into oral expression. In order to call out the best efforts of children, a teacher needs to study well the art of questioning. 254 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING The range of possibilities in questioning is very wide. If a rational, sensible question is regarded as the central or zero point, there are many degrees below it in the art of questioning and many degrees above it. Below it is a whole host of half -rational or useless questions which would better be left unborn: What does this word mean ? Why didn't you study your lesson ? Why weren't you paying attention ? What is the definition of also ? How many mistakes did Mary make ? Much time is sometimes wasted in trying to an- swer aimless or trivial questions : Peter, what does this strange word mean, or how do you pronounce it ? Ethel may try it. Who thinks he can pronounce it better? Johnny, try it. Perhaps somebody knows how it ought to be. Sarah, can't you pronounce it ? Finally, after various efforts, the teacher passes on to something else without even making clear the true pronunciation or meaning. This is worse than kill- ing time. It is befuddling the children. A question should aim clearly at some important idea, and should bring out a definite result. The children should have time to think, but not to guess and dawdle, and then be left groping in the dark. The chief aim of questions is to arouse vigor and variety of thought as a means of better appreciation and expression. Children read poorly because they do not see the meaning or do not feel the force of the sentiment. They give wrong emphasis and CLASS-ROOM METHOD IN READING 255 intonation. A good question is like a flash of light- ning which suddenly reveals our standing-ground and surroundings, and gives the child a chance to strike out again for himself. His intelligence lights up, he sees the point, and responds with a significant ren- dering of the thought. But the teacher must be a thinker to ask simple and pertinent questions. He can't go at it in a loose and lumbering fashion. Lively and sympathetic and appreciative of the child's moods and feelings must he be, as well as clear and definite in his own perception of the author's meaning. Questioning for meaning is equivalent to that for securing expression, and thus two birds are hit with one stone. A pointed question energizes thought along a definite line, and leads to a more intense and vivid perception of the meaning. This is just the vantage-ground we desire in order to secure good expression. We wish children not to imitate, but first to see and feel, and then to express in becoming wise the thought as they see it and feel it. This makes reading a genuine performance, not a parrot- like formalism. 5. Trying to awaken the mental energy and action of a class as they move on through a masterpiece, requires constant watchfulness to keep alive their sense-perceptions and memories, and to touch their imaginations into constructive effort at every turn in the road. Through the direct action of the senses 256 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING the children have accumulated much variety of sense- materials, of country and town, of hill, valley, river, lake, fields, buildings, industries, roads, homes, gar- dens, seasons. Out of this vast and varied quarry they are able to gather materials with which to con- struct any landscape or situation you may desire. Give the children abundance of opportunity to use these collected riches, and to construct, each in his own way, the scenes and pictures that the poet's art so vividly suggests. Many of the questions we ask of children are designed simply to recall and reawaken images which lie dormant in their minds, or, on the other hand, to find out whether they can combine their old sense-perceptions so skilfully and vividly as to realize the present situation. Keen and apt questions will reach down into the depth of a child's life experiences and bring up concrete images which the fancy then modifies and adjusts to the present need. The teacher may often suggest some- thing in his own observations to kindle like memories in theirs. Or, if the subject seems unfamiliar, he may bring on a picture from book or magazine. Sometimes a sketch or diagram on the board may give sense-precision and definiteness to the object discussed, even though it be rudely drawn. This con- stant appeal to what is real and tangible and experi- mental, not only locates things definitely in time and space, makes clear and plain what was hazy or mean- ingless, awakens interest by connecting the story or CLASS-ROOM METHOD IN READING 257 description with former experiences, but it sets in action the creative imagination which shapes and builds up new and pleasing structures, combining old and new. This kind of mental elaboration, which reaches back into the senses and forward into the imagination, is what gives mobility and adjustability to our mental resources. It is not stiff and rigid and refractory knowledge that we need. Ideas may retain their truth and strength, their inward quality, and still submit to infinite variations and adjustments. Water is one of the most serviceable of all nature's compounds, because it has such mobility of form, such capacity to dissolve and take into solution other substances, or of being absorbed and even lost sight of in other bodies. The ideas we have gathered and stored up from all sources are our building mate- rials ; the imagination is the architect who conceives the plan and directs the use of different materials in the growth of the new structures. The teach- er's chief function in reading classes is, on the one hand, to see that children revive and utilize their sense-knowledge, and on the other, to wake the sleeping giant and set him to work to build the beauteous structures for which the materials have been prepared. But for this, teachers could be dis- pensed with. As Socrates said, they are only helpers ; they stand by, not to perform the work, but to gently guide, to stimulate, and now and then to lend a helping hand over a bad place. 258 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING Explanations, therefore, on the teacher's part, should be clear and brief, purely tributary to the main effort. In younger classes, when the children have, as yet, little ability to use references, the teacher may add much, especially if it be concrete, graphic, picturesque, and bearing directly upon the subject. But as children grow more self-reliant they can look up facts and references, and bring more material themselves to the elucidation of the lesson. But even in adult classes the rich experience of a trained and wise teacher, whose illustrations are apt and graphic and criticisms incisive, is an intense pleasure and stimulus to students. 6. The major part of time and effort in reading classes should be given to the reading proper, and not to oral discussions, explanations, and collateral information and references. It is possible to have interesting discussions and much use of reference books, and still make small progress in expressive reading. The main thing should not be lost sight of. We should learn to march steadily forward through lively and energetic thought toward expres- sive reading. There is no other right approach to good reading except through a lively grasp of the thought, sentiment, and style of the author. But the side-lights that come from collateral reading and reference are of great significance. They are some- thing like the scenery on the stage. They make the effect more intense and real. They supply a CLASS-ROOM METHOD IN READING . 259 background of environment and association which give the ideas more local significance and a stronger basis in the whole complex of ideas. The reading or oral rendering is the final test of understanding and appreciation of the lesson. The recitation should focus in this applied art. All questioning and discussion that do not eventuate in expressive reading ,fall short of their proper result. Reading is a school exercise in which the principles discussed can be immediately applied, and this is scarcely true in studies like history, science, and mathematics. There are many hindrances in the way of this fruitful result ; the teacher is tempted to talk and explain too much, interesting questions and controversies spring up, trivial matters receive too much consideration, much time is spent in the oral reproduction of the thought ; often the time slips by with a minimum of effective reading. The questions, discussions, collateral references, and explanations should be brought into immediate connection with the children's reading, so that the special thought may produce its effect upon expres- sion. This test of effectiveness is a good one to apply to explanations, definitions, and questions. Unless they produce a pronounced effect upon the reading, they are largely superfluous. In view of this the teacher will learn to be sparing of words, laconic and definite in statement, pointed and clear in questioning, and energetic in pushing forward. 260 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING While interest in the thought-content is the impel- ling motive in good reading exercises, lively and natural expression is likewise the proper fruit and outcome of such a motive carried to its proper end. 7. In order to keep up the right interest and movement, it is necessary to give considerable vari- ety to the work. A teacher's good sense and tact should be like a thermometer which registers the mental temperature of the class. If kept too long at a single line of effort, its monotony induces careless- ness and inattention; while a total change to some other order of exercise would awake their interest and zeal. Variety is needed also within the compass of a single recitation, because there are several pre- liminaries and varieties of preparatory drill which conduce to good rendering of any selection. Such are vocal exercises in consonants and vowels; pro- nunciation and syllabication of new or difficult words ; physical exercises to put the body and ner- vous system into proper tone; the assignment of the next lesson, requiring a peculiar effort and manner of treatment; the report and discussion of refer- ences ; concert drills ; the study of meanings — syno- nyms and derivations; illustrations and information by the teacher ; introduction of other illustrative mat- ter, as pictures, drawings, maps, and diagrams. Variety can be given to each lesson in many ways according to the ingenuity of the teacher. If we are reading a number of short selections, they themselves CLASS-ROOM METHOD IN READING 26 1 furnish different varieties and types of prose and verse. The dramatist or novelist provides for such variety by introducing a series of diverse scenes, all leading forward to a common end. 8. Parallel to the requirement of variety is the equally important demand that children should learn to do one thing at a time and learn to do it well. This may appear contradictory to the former require- ment, but the skill and tact of the teacher is what should solve this seeming contradiction. It is a fact that we try to do too many things in each reading lesson. We fail to pound on one nail long enough to drive it in. Reading lessons often resemble a child pounding nails into a board. He strikes one nail a blow or two, then another, and so on until a dozen or more are in all stages of incompleteness. We too often allow the recitation hour to end with a number of such incomplete efforts. Good reading is not like moving a house, when it is all carried along in one piece. We reach better results if we concen- trate attention and effort during a recitation along the line of a narrow aim. At least this seems true of the more formal, mechanical side of reading. It is better to try to break up bad habits, one at a time, rather than to make a general, indefinite onslaught upon all together. Suppose, for example, that the teacher suggests as an aim of the lesson conversa- tional reading, or that which sounds like pupils talk- ing to each other. Many dialogue selections admit 262 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING of such an aim as this. If this aim is set up at the beginning of the lesson, the children's minds will be rendered acute in this direction ; they will be on the alert for this kind of game. Each child who reads is scrutinized by teacher and pupils to see how near he comes to the ideal. A conscious effort begins to dominate the class to reach this specific goal. Chil- dren may close their eyes and listen to see if the reading has the right sound. A girl or boy goes into an adjoining entry or dressing room and listens to see if those in the class are reading or talking. The enthusiasm and class spirit awakened are very helpful. Not that a whole recitation should be given up to that sort of thing, but it is the characteristic effort of the lesson. When the children practise the next lesson at home they will have this point in mind. For several days this sort of specific, definite aim at a narrow result may be followed up in the class till the children begin to acquire power in this direc- tion. What was, at first, painfully conscious effort begins to assume the form of habit, and when this result is achieved, we may drop this aim as a leading one in the recitation, and turn our attention to some different line of effort. Distinct pronunciation of sounds is one of the things that we are always aim- ing at, in a general way, and never getting. Why not set this up in a series of recitations as a definite aim, and resort to a series of devices to lay bare the CLASS-ROOM METHOD IN READING 263 kind of faults the children are habitually guilty of? Give them a chance to correct these faults, and awake the class spirit in this direction. It will not be diffi- cult to convince them that they are not pronouncing their final consonants, like d, t, /, m> r, and k. Keep the attention for a lesson to this kind of error till there is recognizable improvement. Then notice the short vowel sounds in the unaccented syllables, and give them search-light attention. Notice later the syllables that children commonly slur over. Mark these fugitives, and see if they continue so invisible and inaudible. They are like Jack the Giant Killer, when he put on his cloak of invisi- bility, or like Perseus under similar circumstances. See if we can find these fellows who seem to mas- querade and dodge about behind their companions. Then some of the long vowels and diphthongs will require investigation. They are not all so open- faced and above board as they might be. When children have such a simple and distinct aim in view, they are ready to work with a vim and to exert themselves in a conscious effort at improve- ment. Keep this aim foremost in the recitation, although other requirements of good reading are not wholly neglected. After a definite line of effort has been strongly developed as one of the above described, it is pos- sible thereafter to keep it in mind with slight atten- tion. But if no special drill has ever been devoted 264 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING to it for a given length of time, it has not been brought so distinctly to mind as to produce a lasting impression and to lay the basis for habit. Besides the two aims, clear articulation and conversational tones, there are others that may be labored at simi- larly. Appreciation of the thought as expressed by the reading is a rich field for critical study of a piece, and as a basis for observing and judging the chil- dren^ reading. This idea is well implied by such questions as follow: Is that what the passage means? Have you given expression to the author's meaning by emphasis on this word? Does your rendering of this passage make good sense ? Com- pare it with what precedes. How did the man feel when he said this ? What do we know of his char- acter that would lead us to expect such words from him ? This line of questions has a wide and varied range. The chief thing is to scrutinize the thought in all the light attainable, and appeal to the child's own judgment as to the suitableness of the tone and emphasis to the thought. Does it sound right ? Is that what the passage means ? Each characteristic form of prose or verse has a peculiar style and force of expression that calls for a corresponding oral rendering. There is the serious and massive, though simple, diction of Webster's speeches, with its smooth and rounded periods, call- ing for slow and steady and energetic reading. We should notice this characteristic of an author, and CLASS-ROOM METHOD IN READING 265 grow into sympathy with his feeling, language, and mental movement. In Macaulay's " Lays of Ancient Rome," the ring of martial music is in the words, and it swells out into rapid and rousing speech which should correspond to the thought. In " Evangeline " the flow of language is placid and gentle and rhyth- mical, and in consonance with the gentle faith and hope of Evangeline. Every true literary product has its own character, which the genius of the author has impressed upon its language and moulded into its structure, and which calls for a rendering fit and appropriate. • Before completing a selection, we should detect this essence and quality and bring our reading to reveal it. The places should be pointed out where it comes into prominence. When completing such a work of art there should be given opportunity to bring all the varied elements and special aims discovered and worked out during its reading to a focus. In the final review and rereading of a complete poem or prose selection the points of excellence in reading which have been the special aims of effort in the studies of the piece should be kept sharply in mind and pushed to a full expression. The realiza- tion of these various aims may be set before the class as the distinct object of their closing work on a masterpiece. The failure to hold vigorously to this final achievement is a clear sign of intellectual and moral lassitude. Reading, as noticed before, is 266 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING one of the few studies in which the final application of theory to practice can be effected, and children may realize that things are learned for the sake of using them, and not simply against some future con- tingency. This implies, however, much resource and skill on the teacher's part in awakening the chil- dren. The impulses and aims which arouse the children to strenuous effort should spring from within, and should be expressions of their own self- activity and volition. There is much need of the enthusiasm and will-energy that overcome drudgery. Children should be taught to be dissatisfied with any- thing less than real accomplishment. The children will naturally memorize certain pas- sages which strike their fancy. Other passages have been suggested by the teacher for different pupils to memorize. In one of the closing lessons let the children recite these parts before the class. If the teacher has succeeded in calling out the live interest of the class during the previous study, such a lesson will be a joy to both pupils and teacher. One or two of the children may also volunteer or be appointed to make an oral statement of the argu- ment, which will give freedom to natural and effec- tive speech. Such a round-up of the reading lessons at the end of a series of interesting studies is a rich experience to the whole class. Besides the important special aims thus far sug- gested, which should each stand out clear for a CLASS-ROOM METHOD IN READING 267 series of lessons until its value is realized and worked over into habit, there are other subordinate aims that deserve particular and individual consideration, and may now and then become the dominant purpose of a lesson. Such are the correction of singsong read- ing, the use of the dictionary, the study of synonyms and antitheses, the comparisons and figures of speech, exercises in sight reading of unfamiliar selections, quotations from selections and masterpieces already read, study of the lives and works of authors. Reading is a many-sided study, and to approach its difficulties with success we must take them up one at a time, conquering them in detail. Good house- keepers and cooks are accustomed to lay out a series of dinners in which the chief article of diet is varied from day to day as follows : chicken pie with oysters, veal potpie, stewed fish, broiled beefsteak, venison roast, bean soup with ham, roast mutton, baked fish, broiled quail, roast beef, baked chicken with parsnips, etc. Such a series of dinners gives a healthy variety and relish. It is better for most people than the bill of fare at a large hotel, where there is so much variety and sameness each day. When we try each day to do everything in a reading lesson, we grasp more than our hands can hold, and most of it falls to the ground. Children are pleased and encouraged by actual progress in surmounting difficulties when they are presented one at a time, and opportunity is given for complete mastery. The children should 268 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING labor consciously and vigorously at one line of effort, be it distinctness or rhythm or emphasis or conversa- tional tone, till decided improvement and progress are attained, and the ease of right habit begins to show itself. Then we can turn to some new field, secur- ing and holding the vantage-ground of our foregoing effort by occasional reminders. 9. One of the best tests applied to a reading class is their degree of class attention. The steadiness and responsiveness with which the whole class fol- low the work is a fair measure of successful teach- ing. To have but one child read at a time while the others wait their turn or scatter their thoughts, is very bad. It is a good sign of a teacher's skill and efficiency to see every child in energetic pursuit of the reading. It conduces to the best progress in that study and is the genesis of right mental habit. Attention is a sine qua non to good teaching, and yet it is a result rather than a cause. It is a ripe fruit rather than the spring promise of it. The pro- visions which lead up to steady attention are deserv- ing of a teacher's study and patient scrutiny. She may command attention for a moment by sheer force of will and personality, but it must have something to feed upon the next moment and the next, or it will be wandering in distant fields. So great and indis- pensable is the value of attention, that some teachers try to secure it at too heavy a cost. They command, threaten, punish. They resort to severity and CLASS-ROOM METHOD IN READING 269 cruelty. But the more formidable the teacher be- comes, the more difficult for a child to do his duty. Here, again, we can best afford to go back to the sources from which attention naturally springs, interesting subject of thought, vivid and concrete perceptions, lively and suggestive appeal to the im- agination, the sphere of noble thought and emotion, variety and movement in mental effort, a mutual sympathy and harmony between teacher and pupil. It is indeed well for the teacher to gauge his work by the kind and intensity of attention he can secure. If the class has dropped into slothful and habitual carelessness and inattention, he will have to give them a few severe jolts; he must drop questions where they are least expected. He must be very alert to detect a listless child and wake him into action. The vigor, personal will, and keen watchfulness of the teacher must be a constant resource. On the other hand, let him look well to the thought, the feeling, and capacity of the children, and give them matter which is equal to their merits. It is not unusual to find the teacher's eye following the text closely instead of watching the class. But the teacher's eye should be moving alertly among the children. In case he has studied the lesson carefully, the teacher can detect almost every mistake without the book. In fact, even if one has not recently read a selection, he can usually detect a verbal error by the break or incoherency of the thought. Moreover, 270 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING the teacher can better judge the expressiveness of the reading by listening to it than by following the text with his eye. Depending wholly upon the ear, any defect of utterance or ineptness of expression is quickly detected. Even the children at times should be asked to close their books and to listen closely to the reading. This emphasizes the notion that good reading is the oral expression of thought, so that those who listen can understand and enjoy it. The treadmill style of reading, which repeats and repeats, doing the same things day by day, going through the like round of mechanical motions, should give way to a rational, spirited, variegated method which arouses interest and variety of thought, and moves ever toward a conscious goal. 10. In studying the masterpieces of great writers, a question arises how to treat the moral situations in- volved in the stories. In their revolt against exces- sive moralizing with children, some critics object to any direct teaching of moral ideas in connection with literature, being opposed to explicit discussions of moral notions. All will admit that literature, dealing as it does with human life, is surcharged with practical moral- ity, with social conduct. It is also the motive of great writers, while dealing honestly with human nature, to idealize and beautify their representations of men. Nor is it their purpose to make unworthy characters pleasing and attractive models. CLASS-ROOM METHOD IN READING 2J\ It is expected, of course, that children will get clear notions and opinions of such persons as Miles Standish and John Alden, of Whittier's father and mother and others in the fireside circle of " Snow- Bound," of Antonio and Shylock in the " Merchant of Venice," of Cinderella and her sisters in the story, of Wallace and Bruce in Scott's " Tales," of Gluck and his brothers in Ruskin's story, of Scrooge in the " Christmas Carol," of Evangeline, Enoch Arden, etc. But boys and girls are not infallible judges of character. They are apt to form erroneous or one- sided judgments from lack of insight into the author's meaning, or from carelessness. There is the same possibility of error in forming moral judgments as in forming judgments in other phases of an author's thought. It is the province of the teacher to stimulate the children to think, and, by his superior experience and judgment, to guide them into correct thinking. It is not the function of the teacher to impose his ready- made judgments upon children, either in morals or in anything else. But it is his concern, by questions, suggestions, and criticisms, to aid in clarifying the thought, to put the children upon the right track. There is no reason why a teacher should abdicate his place of instructor because he chances to come be- fore moral problems. Literature is full of moral situations, moral problems, and moral evolutions in character, and even of moral ideals. Is the teacher 272 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING to stand dumb before these things as if he had lost his wits ? Or is he to consider it the greatest oppor- tunity of his life to prudently guide young people to the correct perception of what is beautiful and true in human life ? Why, indeed, should he sup- press his own enthusiasm for these ideals? Why should not his personality be free to express itself in matters of moral concern, as well as in intellectual and aesthetic judgments? So long as the teacher throws the pupils back upon their own self-activity and thinking power, there need be no danger of moral pedantry or of moral dyspepsia. It seems to me, therefore, that the teacher should use freedom and boldness in discussing with the children candidly and thoughtfully the characters presented in good literature. Let the situations be made clear so that correct judgments of single acts can be formed. Let the weaknesses and virtues of the persons be noted. Let motives be studied and characteristic tendencies traced out. In this way children may gradually increase their insight and enlarge the range of their knowledge of social life. If these things are not legitimate, why should such materials be presented to children at all ? We need not make premature moralists of children, or teach them to pass easy or flippant moral judgments upon others. But we wish their interest in these charac- ters to be deep and genuine, their eyes wide open to the truths of life, and their intuitive moral judg- CLASS-ROOM METHOD IN READING 273 ments to ripen in a healthy and hearty social environ- ment. To this end the teacher will need to use all his skill in questioning, in suggestion, in frank and candid discussion. In short, he needs just those qualities which a first-class teacher needs in any field of study. We have gotten out of the mode of tacking a moral to a story. Ostensibly moral stories, over- weighted with a moral purpose, do not please us. We wish novelists and dramatists to give us the truth of life, and leave us to pass judgment upon the characters. Our best literature presents great variety of scenes and characterizations in their natural setting in life. They specially cultivate moral judgment and insight. One of the ultimate standards which we apply to all novels and dramas is that of their fundamental moral truth. Schlegel, in his "Dramatic Art and Literature," in his criti- cisms of great writers, discusses again and again the moral import of the characters, and even the moral purpose of Shakespeare and the dramatists. In fact, these moral considerations lie deep and fun- damental in judging the great works of literary art. The masterpieces we use in the schools bear the same relation to the children that the more difficult works bear to adults. The clear discussion of the moral element in litera- ture seems, therefore, natural and legitimate, while its neglect and obscuration would be a fatal defect. 274 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING ii. There are two kinds of reading which should be cultivated in reading lessons, although they seem to fall a little apart from the main highway of effort. They are, first, sight reading of supplementary matter for the purpose of cultivating a quick and accurate grasp of new thought and forms. When we leave school, one of the values of reading will be the power it gives to interpret quickly and grasp firmly the ideas as they present themselves in the magazines, papers, and books we read. Good efforts in school reading will lead forward gradually to that readiness of thought and fluency of perception which will give freedom and mastery of new reading matter. To develop this ability and to regulate it into habit, we must give children a chance to read quite a little at sight. We need supplementary readers in sets which can be put into the hands of children for this purpose. The same books will answer for several classes, and may be passed from room to room of similar grade. The reading matter we select for this purpose may be classic, and of the best quality, just as well as to be limited to information and geographical readers which are much inferior. There are first- class books of literary merit, which are entirely ser- viceable for this purpose and much richer in culture. They continue the line of study in classic literature, and give ground for suggestive comparisons and reviews which should not be neglected. There is CLASS-ROOM METHOD IN READING 275 strong tendency in our time to put inferior reading matter, in the form of information readers, science primers, short history stories, geographical readers, newspapers, and specially prepared topics on current events, into reading classes. These things may do well enough in their proper place in geography, his- tory, natural science, or general lessons, but they should appear scarcely at all in reading lessons. Preserve the reading hour for that which is choicest in our prose and verse, mainly in the form of shorter or longer masterpieces of literature. Secondly, many books should be brought to the attention of the children which they may read outside of school. The regular reading exercises should give the children a lively and attractive introduction to some of the best authors, and a taste for the strength and beauty of their productions. But the field of litera- ture is so wide and varied that many things can only be suggested, which will remain for the future leisure and choice of readers. Children might, however, be made acquainted with some of the best books suited to their age for which there is not school time. Many of the best books, like "Ivanhoe," "Quentin Durward," " Captains Courageous," " Swiss Family Robinson/' and "Nicholas Nickleby," cannot be read in school. They should be in the school library, and the teacher should often refer to them and to others suggested by the regular reading, which give deeper and wider views into life. 276 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING 12. In the use of the symbols and language forms of reading, the children should be led on to freedom and self-activity. How to get the mastery of these forms in the early reading work is dis- cussed at some length in the earlier chapters of this book. In the fourth and fifth years of school, children should learn to use the dictionary. It is a great means of self-help when they have learned to inter- pret the dictionary easily. But special lessons are necessary to teach children : first, how to find words in the dictionary ; second, how to interpret the diacritical markings so as to get a correct pronuncia- tion; and third, how to discriminate among definitions. Adults and even teachers are often deficient in these particulars, and children will not form habits of using the dictionary with quick and easy confidence with- out continuous, attentive care on the teacher's part. The best outcome of such training is the conscious power of the child to help himself, and there is nothing in school work more deserving of encourage- ment. The system of diacritical markings used in the dictionary should be put on the blackboard, varied illustrations of the markings given, and the applica- tion of these markings to new words in the dictionary discovered. Lack of success in this work is chiefly due to a failure to pursue this plan steadily till ease and mastery are gained and habits formed. SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT POINTS IN READING 277 In the later grades these habits of self-help should be kept up and extended further to the study of synonyms, root words and their kindred, homonyms, prefixes and suffixes, and the derived meanings of words. SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT POINTS IN READING 1. The teacher's effort is first directed to a vivid interpretation of the author's thought and feeling, and later to an expressive rendering of the thought. 2. Every exertion should be made to lead the children to an absorbed and interested attention in the selections. 3. The author's leading motive in the whole se- lection should be firmly grasped by the teacher. By centring all discussion toward this motive, unneces- sary digressions will be avoided. 4. The teacher will hardly teach well unless he has saturated himself with the spirit of the selection, and enjoys it. To this end he needs not only to study the selection, but also the historical, geographi- cal, biographical, and other, side-lights. 5. The teacher needs great freedom and versa- tility in the use of his materials. Warmth, anima- tion, and freedom of manner are necessary. 6. Children often do not know how to study a reading lesson. In the assignment and in the way of handling the lesson they should be taught how to get at it, how to understand and enjoy it. 278 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING 7. In the assignment of the lesson the thought of the piece should be opened up in an interesting way, and such difficulties as children are not likely to grapple with and master for themselves pointed out and approached. Difficult words need to be pro- nounced and hard passages explained. 8. The assignment should be unmistakably clear and definite, so as to insure a good seat study. 9. The seat study should be chiefly on parts already discussed in class. 10. During the recitation proper, strong class at- tention by all the members of the class is a first necessity. Much knowledge, alertness, and skill are necessary to secure this. One must keep all the members of the class in the eye constantly, and distribute the questions and work among them promptly and judiciously, so as to secure con- centrated effort. 11. The teacher can often judge a recitation better without looking at the book while the class is read- ing. 12. Skill in questioning is very useful in reading lessons. (a) Questions to arouse the thought should appeal to the experience of children. (b) Questions to bring out the meaning of words or passages, or to expose errors or to develop thought, should be clear and specific, not long and ambiguous. SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT POINTS IN READING 279 13. Let the teacher be satisfied with reasonable answers, and not insist on the precise verbal form present to his own mind. 14. The teacher needs to awaken strongly the imagination in picturing scenes, in interpreting poetic images and figures, and in impersonating characters. The picture-forming power is stimulated by apt questions, by suggestion of the teacher, by interpretation, by appeal to experience, by dramatic action. 15. The use of the dialogue and dramatic repre- sentation is among the best means of awakening interest and producing freedom and self-forgetful- ness. 16. The pupil should give his own interpretation, subject to correction, and interpret parts in relation to the whole. 17. Without too much loss of time children should learn to help themselves in overcoming difficulties in solving problems. 18. Sometimes it is well for children to come pre- pared to ask definite questions on parts they do not understand. 19. The tendency to more independent and mature thinking is encouraged by comparing similar ideas, figures of speech, and language in different poems and from different authors. 20. There should be much effective reading and not much mere oral reproduction. The paraphrase 280 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING may be used at times to give the pupil a larger view of the content of the piece. 21. Let the pupil reading feel responsible for giv- ing to the class the content of the printed page. Often it is best to face the class. 22. The teacher should occasionally read a pas- sage in the best style for the pupils, not for direct imitation, but to suggest the higher ideals and spirit of good reading. A high standard is thus set up. 23. Children should be encouraged to learn by heart the passages they like. In the midst of the recitation it is well occasionally to memorize a pas- sage. 24. The teacher must drill himself in clear-cut enunciation of short vowels, final consonants, and pure vowel sounds. Cultivate also a quick ear for accurate enunciation in the pupils and for pleasing tones. Frequent drill exercise, singly and in con- cert, is necessary. 25. Use ingenuity by indirect methods to over- come nasality, stuttering, nervously rapid reading, slovenly and careless expression, monotone, and sing- song. 26. By means of physical training, deep breathing, vigorous thought work, encourage to self-reliant manner and good physical position. 27. Give variety to each lesson ; avoid monotony and humdrum. 28. Each lesson should emphasize a particular SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT POINTS IN READING 28 1 aim, determined by the nature of the selection or by the previous bad habits and faults of the children in reading. It is impossible to give proper emphasis to all things in each lesson, and indefiniteness and monotony are the result. CHAPTER XIII Illustrative Lessons in Reading "hiawatha" The " Hiawatha " is sometimes read in the regular reading work of fourth or fifth grades. The pictures in Houghton, Mifflin's edition of the " Hiawatha " are one means of producing the proper environment of the poem. The suggestions for dramatizing parts of the poem and of working up the proper costume for representing the characters of the story may be carried out in any school. That the story begins with the early childhood of Hiawatha and describes his early home and training at the feet of Nokomis is at least one point in its favor. " By the shores of Gitchee Gumee, By the shining Big-Sea-Water, Stood the wigwam of Nokomis, Daughter of the Moon, Nokomis. Dark behind it rose the forest, Rose the black and gloomy pine-trees, Rose the firs with cones upon them ; Bright before it beat the water, Beat the clear and sunny water, Beat the shining Big-Sea- Water. 282 ILLUSTRATIVE LESSONS IN READING 283 There the wrinkled old Nokomis Nursed the little Hiawatha, Rocked him in his linden cradle, Bedded soft in moss and rushes, Safely bound with reindeer sinews ; Stilled his fretful wail by saying, 1 Hush ! the Naked Bear will hear thee ! * Lulled him into slumber, singing, ' Ewa-yea ! my little owlet ! Who is this that lights the wigwam ? With his great eyes lights the wigwam? Ewa-yea ! my little owlet! ' " Where have you seen a lake shore bordered with pine or other forest ? Show pictures of Indian wigwam. Collect views of northern lakes and Indians in their dress. What do we call the Big-Sea- Water in our geography? Refer to map. How were the reindeer sinews used ? Why not use cords or twine? Would you enjoy living in a wigwam summer and winter ? Explain how the cradle was shaped and made comfortable. Repeat some of the cradle songs we sing in putting the baby to sleep. " Then the little Hiawatha Learned of every bird its language, Learned their names and all their secrets, How they built their nests in Summer, Where they hid themselves in Winter, Talked with them whene'er he met them, Called them i Hiawatha's Chickens.' " What birds do you know by their song or twitter ? Do the birds have secrets ? Describe the nest the 284 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING robin builds ; the sparrow ; the woodpecker. Do you ever feed the wild birds ? The authors motive is explained in the following passage. Most of us have been accustomed to look upon the Indians as savage and brutal. How does Longfellow feel toward them ? What have you heard of William Penn and his treatment of the Indians ? " Ye who love a nation's legends, Love the ballads of a people, That like voices from afar off Call to us to pause and listen, Speak in tones so plain and childlike, Scarcely can the ear distinguish Whether they are sung or spoken ; — Listen to this Indian Legend, To this song of Hiawatha ! Ye whose hearts are fresh and simple, Who have faith in God and Nature, Who believe, that in all ages Every human heart is human, That in even savage bosoms There are longings, yearnings, strivings For the good they comprehend not, That the feeble hands and helpless, Groping blindly in the darkness, Touch God's right hand in that darkness, And are lifted up and strengthened ; — Listen to this simple story, To this Song of Hiawatha! " Where did Longfellow get these early Indian legends ? What legends and ballads are you familiar ILLUSTRATIVE LESSONS IN READING 285 with from the early English? from the Greeks? The Indians worshipped the Great Spirit and called their future beyond death the Happy Hunting Grounds. In the following passage Longfellow gives an ex- planation where these stories of Hiawatha came from. Locate the lakes and forests and prairies that are referred to. Where do we find moors and f enlands ? What other tribes are we familiar with besides the O jib ways and Dakotahs ? u Should you ask me, whence these stories, Whence these legends and traditions, With the odors of the forest, With the dew and damp of meadows, With the curling smoke of wigwams, With the rushing of great rivers, With their frequent repetitions, And their wild reverberations, As of thunder in the mountains ? I should answer, I should tell you, * From the forests and the prairies, From the great lakes of the Northland, From the land of the Ojibways, From the land of the Dacotahs, From the mountains, moors, and fenlands, Where the heron, the Shuh-shuh-gah, Feeds among the reeds and rushes.' " Should you ask where Nawadaha Found these songs, so wild and wayward, Found these legends and traditions, I should answer, I should tell you, ' In the birds'-nests of the forest, In the lodges of the beaver, In the hoof-prints of the bison, 286 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING In the eyry of the eagle ! All the wild-fowl sang them to him, In the moorlands and the fenlands, In the melancholy marshes ; Chetowaik, the plover, sang them, Mahng, the loon, the wild-goose, Wawa, The blue heron, the Shuh-shuh-gah, And the grouse, the Mushkodasa! ■ " The Indians lived in the midst of wild nature, in woods and on the banks of lakes and streams. In hunting, of course, they were very familiar with all wild animals, birds, and fruits. Some of the Indian tribes were named for wild animals, as the Foxes. Can you name others? The favorite sign or totem of a tribe was the bear, or wolf, or crow. How do the beavers and muskrats build their lodges ? How many of the animals and birds mentioned have you seen? Where may they be found and seen nowadays ? " snow-bound " It is primarily a picture of family life in a Quaker home of New England. Whittier loved to reflect on the home of his boyhood and youth, and this poem gives us the deeper sympathies of his heart and makes beautiful the spirit of a Christian fireside. Let boys and girls enjoy and appreciate these pictures and the kindly affections of a good home, and they will naturally set up higher ideals. ILLUSTRATIVE LESSONS IN READING 287 In reading successive poems and prose selections from different authors, strong resemblances in thought or language are frequently detected. It is a thought- provoking process to bring such similar passages to a definite comparison. Even where the same topic is treated differently by two authors, the different or contrasted points of view are suggestive. Calling such familiar passages to mind is in itself a good practice, and it is well to cultivate this mode of turning previous knowledge into use. To illustrate this point, let us call to mind some familiar passages, touching the winter snow-storm and the fireside comforts, from Whittier, Emerson, and Lowell. Whittier's description of a snow-storm in " Snow- Bound' ' is well known: — u Unwarmed by any sunset light The gray day darkened into night, A night made hoary with the swarm And whirl-dance of the blinding storm, As zigzag wavering to and fro Crossed and recrossed the winged snow : And ere the early bedtime came The white drift piled the window-frame, And through the glass the clothes-line posts Looked in like tall and sheeted ghosts." Notice and explain the striking descriptive ad- jectives in this passage as hoary, zigzag, winged, sheeted. 288 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING u So all night long the storm roared on : The morning broke without a sun ; In tiny spherule traced with lines Of Nature's geometric signs, In starry flake and pellicle All day the hoary meteor fell; And, when the second morning shone, We looked upon a world unknown, On nothing we could call our own." How long had the storm lasted ? " Around the glistening wonder bent The blue walls of the firmament, No cloud above, no earth below, — A universe of sky and snow ! The old familiar sights of ours Took marvellous shapes ; strange domes and towers Rose up where sty or corn-crib stood, Or garden-wall, or belt of wood ; A smooth white mound the brush-pile showed, A fenceless drift what once was road." Name other changes wrought by the snow not mentioned by Whittier. " The bridle-post an old man sat With loose-flung coat and high cocked hat ; The well-curb had a Chinese roof; And even the long sweep, high aloof, In its slant splendor, seemed to tell Of Pisa's leaning miracle." Explain the old-fashioned well-sweep. ILLUSTRATIVE LESSONS IN READING 289 Again the fireside joy is expressed : — 11 Shut in from all the world without, We sat the clean-winged hearth about, Content to let the north-wind roar In baffled rage at pane and door, While the red logs before us beat The frost-line back with tropic heat ; And ever, when a louder blast Shook beam and rafter as it passed, The merrier up its roaring draught The great throat of the chimney laughed, The house-dog on his paws outspread Laid to the fire his drowsy head, The cat's dark silhouette on the wall A couchant tiger's seemed to fall ; And, for the winter fireside meet, Between the andirons' straddling feet, The mug of cider simmered slow, The apples sputtered in a row, And, close at hand, the basket stood With nuts from brown October's wood." What kind of house did the Whittier family live in ? What were the chief rooms, and how furnished ? Show the descriptive aptness of these words, clean- winged, baffled, tropic, roaring, couchant. " What matter how the night behaved ? What matter how the north-wind raved ? Blow high, blow low, not all its snow Could quench our hearth -fire's ruddy glow." If these passages and others in "Snow-Bound" are familiar to the children in previous study, the reading of Emerson's "The Snow-Storm," might set 29O SPECIAL METHOD IN READING them to recalling a whole series of pictures from Whittier: — " Announced by all the trumpets of the sky, Arrives the snow, and, driving o'er the fields, Seems nowhere to alight : the whited air Hides hills and woods, the river, and the heaven, And veils the farm-house at the garden's end. The sled and traveller stopped, the courier's feet Delayed, all friends shut out, the housemates sit Around the radiant fireplace, enclosed In a tumultuous privacy of storm." The word whited corresponds with what word in Whittier ? Radiant suggests what word in Whittier ? " Come see the north wind's masonry. Out of an unseen quarry evermore, Furnished with tile, the fierce artificer Curves his white bastions with projected roof Round every windward stake, or tree, or door. Speeding, the myriad-handed, his wild work So fanciful, so savage, nought cares he For number or proportion. Mockingly, On coop or kennel he hangs Parian wreaths ; A swan-like form invests the hidden thorn ; Fills up the farmer's lane from wall to wall, Maugre the farmer's sighs ; and at the gate A tapering turret overtops the work. And when his hours are numbered, and the world Is all his own, retiring, as he were not, Leaves, when the sun appears, astonished Art To mimic in slow structures, stone by stone, Built in an age, the mad wind's night-work, The frolic architecture of the snow." ILLUSTRATIVE LESSONS IN READING 29 1 The architecture of the snow can be compared point by point in both authors, in the objects about the farm-house, while the picture of the snug com- forts of the fireplace is in both. Of a somewhat different, yet closely related, char- acter is the description in the Prelude to Part Sec- ond, in the " Vision of Sir Launf al " : - — " Down swept the chill wind from the mountain peak, From the snow five thousand summers old ; On open wold and hill-top bleak It had gathered all the cold, And whirled it like sleet on the wanderer's cheek ; It carried a shiver everywhere From the unleafed boughs and pastures bare ; The little brook heard it and built a roof 'Neath which he could house him, winter-proof; All night by the white stars' frosty gleams He groined his arches and matched his beams ; Slender and clear were his crystal spars As the lashes of light that trim the stars ; He sculptured every summer delight In his halls and chambers out of sight ; Sometimes his tinkling waters slipt Down through a frost-leaved forest-crypt, Long, sparkling aisles of steel-stemmed trees Bending to counterfeit a breeze ; Sometimes the roof no fretwork knew But silvery mosses that downward grew ; Sometimes it was carved in sharp relief With quaint arabesques of ice-fern leaf; Sometimes it was simply smooth and clear For the gladness of heaven to shine through, and here He had caught the nodding bulrush-tops And hung them thickly with diamond drops, 292 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING Which crystalled the beams of moon and sun, And made a star of every one : No mortal builder's most rare device Could match this winter-palace of ice ; 'Twas as if every image that mirrored lay In his depths serene through the summer day, Each flitting shadow of earth and sky, Lest the happy model should be lost, Had been mimicked in fairy masonry By the elfin builders of the frost. " Within the hall are the song and laughter, The cheeks of Christmas glow red and jolly, And sprouting is every corbel and rafter With the lightsome green of ivy and holly ; Through the deep gulf of the chimney wide Wallows the Yule-log's roaring tide ; The broad flame-pennons droop and flap And belly and tug as a flag in the wind ; Like a locust shrills the imprisoned sap, Hunted to death in its galleries blind ; And swift little troops of silent sparks, Now pausing, now scattering away as in fear, Go threading the soot-forest's tangled darks Like herds of startled deer." The elfin builders of the frost have raised even more delicate structures than the snow. The descrip- tive power of the poets in picturing nature's handi- work cannot be better seen than in these passages. It is hardly worth while to suggest the points of resemblance which children will quickly detect in these passages, as the comparison of — " Through the deep gulf of the chimney wide Wallows the Yule-log's roaring tide," ILLUSTRATIVE LESSONS IN READING 293 with this, — " The merrier up its roaring draught The great throat of the chimney laughed." Such passages, suggesting like thoughts in earlier studies, are very frequent and spring up in unex- pected quarters. For example, Emerson, in " Waldeinsamkeit," says : — " I do not count the hours I spend In wandering by the sea ; The forest is my loyal friend, Like God it useth me." Again, in the " Apology," he says : — u Think me not unkind and rude That I walk alone in grove and glen ; I go to the god of the wood To fetch his word to men." And Lowell, in * The Bobolink " : — " As long, long years ago I wandered, I seem to wander even yet. The hours the idle schoolboy squandered, The man would die ere he'd forget. hours that frosty eld deemed wasted, Nodding his gray head toward my books, 1 dearer prize the lore I tasted With you, among the trees and brooks, Than all that I have gained since then From learned books or study-withered men." 294 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING And Whittier says : — " Our uncle, innocent of books, Was rich in lore of fields and brooks, The ancient teachers never dumb Of Nature's unhoused lyceum." It would not be difficult to recall other passages from Bryant, Shakespeare, Byron, and many others, expressing this love of solitude in woods or on the seashore, and the wisdom to be gained from such communion with nature. This active retrospect to gather up kindred thoughts out of previous studies and mingle them with the newer influx of radiant ideas from master minds is a fruitful mode of assim- ilating and compounding knowledge. It may be advisable at times for the teacher to bring together a few additional passages from still wider sources, expressive of a thought kindred to that worked out in the class. Such study leads to a self-reliant, en- thusiastic companionship with the thoughts of great men, and is most profitable. " ODYSSEY " The " Odyssey " is as well known as any master- piece in the world's literature. For illustration, we will enter upon a brief discussion of the mode of handling it as a unit in the school. There are abundant sources in English from ILLUSTRATIVE LESSONS IN READING 295 which the teacher can get an adequate knowledge of this great poem without using the original Greek. A few of the leading books are as follows : " The Story of Ulysses " (Cook). A very simple, abbre- viated narrative of Ulysses* wanderings sometimes used as a reading-book in fourth or fifth grade. (Pub- lic School Publishing Co.) — " Lamb's Adventures of Ulysses." A pleasing prose rendering of the chief incidents of the story, more difficult than the preced- ing. Sometimes used as a reader. (Ginn & Co.) — " Church's Stories of the Old World," in which " The Adventures of Ulysses " forms a chapter. A good short treatment of the story in simple language. (Ginn & Co.) — "Ulysses among the Phaeacians," con- sisting of selections from five books of the " Odyssey" as translated into verse by Bryant. This seems well adapted for use as a reading-book in fourth or fifth grade, and will be discussed more fully as such. (Houghton, Mifflin & Co.) — "The Odyssey of Homer," by Palmer, is an excellent prose-poetic rendering of the whole poem, and is of great service to the teacher. (Houghton, Mifflin & Co.) — An- other excellent prose translation, by Butcher and Lang, has been much used. (The Macmillan Co.) — Bryant's " Homer's * Odyssey,' " a complete poetic rendering of the whole twenty-four books of the poem, is probably the best basis for school refer- ence and study of the poem. — " National Epics," by Rabb, has a good narrative and introduction for the 296 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING " Odyssey/' and a list of critical references. (A. C. McClurg & Co.) — " Art and Humanity in Homer," by Lawton, has an interesting discussion of the "Odyssey. Other famous translations of the whole "Odyssey," were made by Alexander Pope, William Cowper, George Chapman, and others. It is not unusual in schools for teachers to give children of the third or fourth grade an oral introduc- tion to the whole story in a series of lessons. This requires skill in presenting and discussing the epi- sodes, and should be attended by good oral repro- ductions by the children. Such oral work should be done in distinct lessons apart from the regular read- ing. Later, in fourth or fifth grade, the story is sometimes read in class from one of the simple prose narratives of Miss Cook, or Lamb, or Church. In the fifth or sixth grade, " Ulysses among the Phaea- cians " forms an interesting reading-book, with which to acquaint the children more fully with the poetic beauty and descriptive detail of the original, so far as it can be secured in English. In connection with such reading it may be interesting to choose from Bryant's complete translation other selected parts of the story, and encourage the children to read them, if books from the library or homes can be provided. We may dwell for a moment upon those qualities of Homer's story which have commanded the admira- tion of the great poets in different ages and countries. The peculiar poetic charm and power of the original ILLUSTRATIVE LESSONS IN READING 297 Greek are probably untranslatable, although several eminent poets have attempted it. But we have at least both prose and verse renderings of it that are beautiful and poetic. Some of the critics have said that the whole poem is a unit in thought, — much more so than the " Iliad," — centring in the person of Ulysses. His wanderings and his final return constitute the thread of the narrative. In the main it is a story of peace, with descriptions of cities, islands, palaces, strange lands, and peaceful arts and manners. After their return from Troy we meet Nestor and Menelaus, dwelling happily in their palaces and surrounded with home comforts. Ulysses, himself, the great sufferer, is tossed about the world, or held captive on sea-girt, far-away islands. He passes through a series of wonderful adventures, keeping his alertness and balance of mind so completely that his name has become a synonym in all lands for shrewdness and far-seeing wisdom. And it is not only a wise percep- tion, but a self-control in the midst of old and new temptations which is most remarkable. This over- mastering shrewdness or calculation even overdoes itself and becomes amusing, when he tries, for example, to deceive his guardian goddess as to whom he is. The descriptions of women and of domestic life are famous and delightful. The constancy of Penelope, her industry and shrewdness in outwitting the suitors, have given her a supreme place among 298 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING the women of story. The descriptions of peaceful manners and customs, of public games, of feasting and music, of palace halls and ornament, are among the great literary pictures of the world. The particular adventures through which Ulysses passed with Circe, with the Sirens, with Polyphemus, with Eolus, with the lotus-eaters, and others, are plainly suggestive of the dangers which threaten the thoughtless minded, those who plunge headlong into danger without forethought. Ulysses is slow to give way to folly or passion, is bold and skilful in danger, and persevering to the last extreme. In the treatment of the "Odyssey," the teacher will need a general knowledge of Greek mythology, which can be easily derived from "Greek Gods, Heroes, and Men " (Scott, Foresman, & Co.), and from several other of the reference books. Some study of Greek architecture, sculpture, and modes of life will be instructive and helpful, as given in Smith's " History of Greece " and other histories. Pictures of Greek temples and ruins, sculpture, and palaces will be pleasing and attractive to children. (See Liibke's " History of Art," Vol. I, Dodd, Mead, & Co.) Some of the children's books also contain good pictures. A good map, indicating the supposed wanderings of Ulysses in the Mediterranean, is given in several of the books, e.g. in Palmer's " Odyssey," and fixes many of the most interesting events of the story. The teacher should not overlook the geography of ILLUSTRATIVE LESSONS IN READING 299 the story and its relation to this and later studies in history, literature, and geography. In using "Ulysses among the Phaeacians" as a reader in fourth or fifth grade, the first unit of study is the voyage of Ulysses on his raft, from the time of leaving Calypso till he is wrecked by the storm and driven upon the island of Scheria, the home of the Phaeacians. We will suggest a few points in the treatment. The supposed places and the route of the voyage can be traced on the map. Let the teacher sk*etch it on the board in assigning the lesson. Suggest that the children locate in the sky the stars and constellations by which Ulysses is to direct his course. The story of the construction of the raft on which Ulysses is to make this journey, just preceding this part of the story, could be read to the class by the teacher, as it is not contained in these extracts. In length of time how does this voyage compare with a voyage across the Atlantic to-day ? Why is it said, in line 329, that the Great Bear " alone dips not into the waters of the deep"? From previous studies, the children may be able to tell of Ulysses' stay upon the island with Calypso. What may the children know of Neptune ? Why is he angered with Ulysses? A picture of Neptune with the trident is in place. Explain the expression " while from above the night fell suddenly." Was Ulysses justified in saying, " Now must I die a miser- able death"? In spite of the desperate storm, in 300 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING what ways does Ulysses struggle to save his life? How do the gods assist him? In what way does this experience of Ulysses remind us of Robinson Crusoe's shipwreck and escape? With how many men had Ulysses started on his way to Troy? Now he alone escapes after great suffering and hopeless bufferings. In what way during this voyage and shipwreck did Ulysses display his accustomed shrewdness and foresight? After landing, what dangers did he still fear? The nearly three hundred lines of Book V, which give this account of Ulysses' voyage and shipwreck, will require several lessons, and the above questions are but a few of those raised in its reading and dis- cussion. When Neptune, Ulysses, or Ino speaks, let the speaker be impersonated so as to give greater force and reality. In the next book (VI), there is more of dialogue and better opportunity for variety of manner and voice. It would be tedious to enter into further detail suggesting questions. But we may believe that a spirited treatment of this part of the story of Ulysses in reading lessons, including his stay and treatment among the Phaeacians, will give the children much appreciation of the beauty and power of this old story. By means of occasional readings of other selected parts of the " Odyssey," from Bryant or Palmer, some of the most striking pictures in the story of his wanderings can be presented. Even ILLUSTRATIVE LESSONS IN READING 301 the children may find time for some of this addi- tional, outside reading. In any event the story of Ulysses, as a piece of great literature, can thus be brought home to the understandings and hearts of children, and will constitute henceforward a part of that rich furniture of the mind which we call culture. CHAPTER XIV The Value of Classics to the Teacher In discussing the value and fruitfulness of this field of study to children, it is impossible to forbear the suggestion of its scope and significance for teachers. If the masters of song and expression are able to work so strongly upon the immature minds of children, how much deeper the influence upon the mature and thoughtful minds of teachable teachers ! They above all others should have dis- positions receptive of the best educational influences. The duties and experiences of their daily work pre- dispose them toward an earnest and teachable spirit. In very many cases, therefore, their minds are wide open to the reception of the best. And how deep and wide and many-sided is this enfranchisement of the soul through literature ! It is a gateway to history ; not, however, that cast- away shell which our text-books, in the form of a dull recital of facts, call history; but its heart and soul, the living, breathing men and women, the source and incentive of great movements and struggles toward the light. Literature does not make the study of history superfluous, but it puts a purpose 302 THE VALUE OF CLASSICS TO THE TEACHER 303 into history which lies deeper than the facts, it sifts out the wheat from the chaff, casts aside the super- ficial and accidental, and gets down into the deep current of events where living causes are at work. The " Courtship of Miles Standish," for example, is deeper and stronger than history because it ideal- izes the stern and rigid qualities of the Puritan, while John Alden and Priscilla touch a deeper universal sympathy, and body forth in forms of beauty that pulsing human love which antedates the Puritan and underlies all forms of religion and society. Illustrative cases have been given in sufficient abundance to show that literature, among other things, has a strong political side. It grasps with a master hand those questions which involve true patriotism. It exalts them into ideals, and fires the hearts of the people to devotion and sacrifice for their fulfilment. Burke's " Oration on the American War" is, to one who has studied American history, an astonishing confirmation of how righteous and far-sighted were the principles for which Samuel Adams and the other patriots struggled at the opening of the Revo- lution. Webster's speech at Bunker Hill is a graphic and fervent retrospect on the past of a great struggle, and a prophetic view of the swelling tide of indi- vidual, social, and national well-being. If the teacher is to interpret history to school children, he must learn to grasp what is essential 304 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING and vital; he must be able to discriminate between those events which are trivial and those of lasting concern. The study of our best American literature will reveal to him this distinction, and make him a keen and comprehensive critic of political affairs. Barnett, in his " Common Sense in Education and Teaching " (p. 170), says : — "In the second place, literature provides us with historical landmarks. We cannot be said to under- stand the general % history ' of a particular time unless we know something of the thought that stirred its most subtle thinkers, and interpreted and made articu- late the spirit of the times in which they lived. The most notable facts in the history of the times of Edward III, of Elizabeth, and of Victoria are that Chaucer and Shakespeare and Tennyson and their contemporaries lived and wrote. Political history, social history, economic history, even ecclesiastical his- tory, are all reflected, illustrated, and interpreted by what we find in the great works of contemporary literature." Charles Kingsley, in his " Literary and General Essays " (p. 249), holds a like opinion : — " I said that the ages of history were analogous to the ages of man, and that each age of literature was the truest picture of the history of its day, and for this very reason English literature is the best, per- haps the only, teacher of English history, to women especially. For it seems to me that it is principally by THE VALUE OF CLASSICS TO THE TEACHER 305 the help of such an extended literary course that we can cultivate a just and enlarged taste which will con- nect education with the deepest feelings of the heart." Literature is also a mirror that reflects many sides of social life and usage. There is no part of a teacher's education that is so vital to his practical success as social culture. John Locke's "Thoughts on Education " are, in the main, an inquiry into the methods and means by which an English gentleman can be formed. The aim of the tutor who has this difficult task is not chiefly to give learning, to fill the mind with information, to develop mentality, but to train the practical judgment in harmony with gentle- manly conduct. The tutor, himself a scholar, is to know the world, its ins and outs, its varieties of social distinction and usage, its snares and pitfalls, its wise men and fools. The child is to learn to look the world in the face and understand it, to know himself and to be master of himself and of his conduct, to appreciate other people in their moods and characters, and to adapt himself prudently and with tact to the practical needs. The gentleman whom Locke sets up as his ideal is not a fashion-plate figure, not a drawing-room gallant, but a clear-headed man who understands other people and himself, and has been led by insensible degrees to so shape his habitual conduct as most wisely to answer his needs in the real world. Emerson, with all his lofty idealism and unconventionalism, has an ideal of education nearly 306 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING akin to that of Locke. This social ideal of Locke and Emerson is one that American teachers can well afford to ponder. As a nation, we have been accus- tomed to think that a certain amount of roughness and boorishness was necessary as a veil to cover the strongest manly qualities. Smoothness and tact and polish, however successful they may be in real life, are, theoretically at least, at a discount. The Adamses, Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln, Thoreau, were men who did violence in a good many ways to social usages, and we may admire their faults overmuch. To the teacher who stands in the presence of thirty or fifty distinct species of incipient men and women, social insight and culture, the ability to appreciate each in his individual traits, his strength or weakness, are a prime essential to good educative work. Now, there are two avenues through which social culture is attainable, — contact with men and women in the social environment which envelops us all, and literature. Literature is, first of all, a hundred-sided revelation of human conduct as springing from motive. Irving, Hawthorne, Longfellow, Holmes, and Lowell are revealers of humanity. Still more so are Dickens and Eliot and Shakespeare and Goethe. To study these authors is not simply to enjoy the graphic power of an artist, but to look into the lives of so many varieties of men and women. They lay bare the heart and its inward promptings. Our apprecia- tion for many forms of life under widely differing THE VALUE OF CLASSICS TO THE TEACHER 307 conditions is awakened. We come in touch with those typical varieties of men and women whom we shall daily meet if we will but notice. It broadens one's perceptions and sympathies, it reveals the many-sidedness of human life. It suggests to a teacher that the forty varieties of humanity in her schoolroom are not after one pattern, nor to be manipulated according to a single device. The social life that surrounds each one of us is small and limited. Our intimate companionships are few, and we can see deeply into the inner life of but a small portion even of those about us. The deeper life of thought and feeling is largely covered up with conventionalities and externalities. But in the works of the best novelists, dramatists, and poets, we may look abroad into the whole world of time and place, upon an infinite variety of social conditions, and we are permitted to see directly into the inner thought and motive, the very soul of the actors. Yet fidelity to human nature and real life is claimed to be the peculiar merit of these great writers. By the com- mon consent of critics, Shakespeare is the prince of character delineators. Schlegel says of him : — " Shakespeare's knowledge of mankind has become proverbial ; in this his superiority is so great that he has justly been called the master of the human heart. A readiness to remark the mind's fainter and invol- untary utterances, and the power to express with cer- tainty the meaning of these signs, as determined by 308 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING experience and reflection, constitute * the observer of men/" " After all, a man acts so because he is so. And what each man is, that Shakespeare reveals to us most immediately ; he demands and obtains our be- lief, even for what is singular and deviates from the ordinary course of nature. Never perhaps was there so comprehensive a talent for characterization as Shakespeare. It not only grasps every diversity of rank, age, and sex, down to the lispings of infancy ; not only do the king and the beggar, the hero and the pickpocket, the sage and the idiot, speak and act with equal truthfulness ; not only does he transport himself to distant ages and foreign nations, and por- tray with the greatest accuracy (a few apparent vio- lations of costume excepted) the spirit of the ancient Romans, of the French in the wars with the English, of the English themselves during a great part of their history, of the Southern Europeans (in the serious part of many comedies), the cultivated society of the day, and the rude barbarism of a Norman foretime ; his human characters have not only such depth and individuality that they do not admit of being classed under common names, and are inexhaustible even in conception, — no, this Prometheus not merely forms men, he opens the gates of the magical world of spirits." What is true of Shakespeare in a preeminent degree is true to a marked extent of all the great novelists and poets. THE VALUE OF CLASSICS TO THE TEACHER 309 The teacher needs to possess great versatility and tact in social situations. A quick insight, social ease, freedom, and self-possession are of the first importance to him. The power of sympathy, of appreciation for others' feelings and difficulties, is wholly dependent upon such social cultivation. Otherwise the teacher will be rude, even uncouth and boorish in manner, producing friction and ill- will where tact and gentleness would bring sympathy and confidence. Many people absorb this refine- ment of thought and manner from the social circles with which they mingle, and it is, of course, a smil- ing fortune that has placed a teacher's early life in a happy and cultured atmosphere, where the social sympathies and graces are absorbed almost uncon- sciously. But even where the earlier conditions have been less favorable, the opportunity for rapid social development and culture is most promising. The numberless cases in our country in which young people, by the strength of their energetic purpose and desire for improvement, have raised themselves not only to superior knowledge and scholarship, but also to that far greater refinement of social life and manner which we call true culture, — the numberless instances of this sort are a surprising indication of the power of education. Literature has been a potent agent in this direction. It emancipates, it sets free, the spirit of man. It lifts him above what is sordid and material, and gives him those true 3IO SPECIAL METHOD IN READING standards of worth with which to measure all things. It contains within itself the refining elements, the aesthetic and ethical ideals, and, best of all, it por- trays human life in all its thought, feeling, and passion with such intensity and realistic fidelity that its teaching power is unparalleled. This potentiality of the better literature to produce such noble results in the higher range of culture is dependent upon conditions. No one will understand literature who does not study and understand ordi- nary life as it surrounds him ; who does not con- stantly draw upon his own experience in interpreting the characters portrayed in books. No stupid or unobservant person will be made wise through books, be they never so choice. Even the student who works laboriously at his text-books, but has no eye nor care for the people or doings about him, is get- ting only the mechanical side of education, and is losing the better part. He who will draw riches out of books must put his intellect and sympathy, his whole enthusiastic better self, into them. The indwelling virtue of great books is that they demand this intense awakening, this complete absorp- tion of the whole self. The mind of a child and of a man or woman has to stretch itself to the utmost limit to take in the message of a great writer. One feels the old barriers giving way and the mind ex- panding to the conception of larger things. Speak- ing of the ancient drama at Athens, Shelley says, THE VALUE OF CLASSICS TO THE TEACHER 3II "The imagination is enlarged by a sympathy with pains and passions so mighty that they distend in their conception the capacity of that by which they are conceived." Those who have received into the inner self the expansive energy of noble thought and social culture, are the better qualified, from the rich variety of the inner life, to act effectively upon the complex con- ditions and forces of the outer world. The teacher whose inner life is teeming with these rich sympa- thies and potent ideals will react with greater pru- dence and tact upon the kaleidoscopic conditions of a school. Practical social life and literature are not distinct modes of culture. They are one, they interact upon each other in scores of ways. Give a teacher social opportunities, give him the best of our literature, let these two work their full influence upon him, — then, if he cannot become a teacher, it is a hopeless case. Let him go to the shop, to the farm, to the legisla- ture ; there is no place for him in the schoolroom. Literature is also a sharp and caustic critic of his own follies or foibles, to one who can reflect. It has a multitude of surprises by which we are able, as Burns wished, — " To see oursels as ithers see us." Even the schoolmaster finds an occasional apt de- scription of himself in literature which it is often 312 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING interesting and entertaining for him to ponder. One of the most familiar is that of Goldsmith in "The Deserted Village n .: — " Beside yon straggling fence that skirts the way With blossom'd furze unprofitably gay, There, in his noisy mansion, skill'd to rule, The village master taught his little school. A man severe he was, and stern to view ; I knew him well, and every truant knew : Well had the boding tremblers leaned to trace The day's disasters in his morning face ; Full well they laugh'd, with counterfeited glee, At all his jokes, for many a joke had he ; Full well the busy whisper, circling round, Convey'd the dismal tidings when he frown'd. Yet he was kind, or, if severe in aught, The love he bore to learning was in fault. The village all declar'd how much he knew ; 'Twas certain he could write, and cipher too ; Lands he could measure, terms and tides presage, And even the story ran that he could gauge ; In arguing, too, the parson own'd his skill, For even though vanquish'd he could argue still; While words of learned length and thundering sound Amaz'd the gazing rustics rang'd around ; And still they gaz'd, and still the wonder grew That one small head could carry all he knew." A like entertainment and suggestion of what the schoolmaster may be, as seen by others, are fur- nished by Irving's Ichabod Crane. William Shen- stone's description of the schoolmistress and the school near two hundred years ago in his native village, is very diverting. Charles Dickens's descrip- THE VALUE OF CLASSICS TO THE TEACHER 313 tion of schools and schoolmasters is important in the history of England, and, like his portrayals of child life generally, of deep pedagogical worth to teachers. In his book, "The Schoolmaster in Literature/* Mr. Skinner has done a real service to the teaching world in bringing together, into a convenient com- pilation from many sources, the literature bearing directly upon the schoolmaster. Even the comic representations and caricatures are valuable in call- ing attention to common foibles and mannerisms, to say nothing of the more serious faults of teachers. It is in literature, also, and in those lives and scenes from history which literary artists have worked up, that the teacher can best develop his own moral ideals and strengthen the groundwork of his own moral character. The stream will not rise above its source, and a teachers moral influence in a school will not reach above the inspirations from high sources which he himself has felt. Those teachers who have devoted themselves solely to the mastery of the texts they teach, who have read little from our best writers, are, drawing upon a slender capital of moral resource. Not even if home influ- , ences have laid a sound basis of moral habits are these sufficient reserves for the exigencies of teach- ing. The moral nature of the teacher needs con- stant stimulus to upward growing, and the children need examples, ideal illustrations, life and blood im- 314 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING personations of the virtues ; and literature is the chief and only safe reservoir from which to draw them. We have already discussed the moral value of the right books for children. The lessons of the great works are so profound in this respect that they offer a still wider range of study to the teacher. Even the foremost thinkers and philosophers have found therein an inexhaustible source of truth and wisdom. In the Foreword to his " Great Books as Life Teachers," Newell Dwight Hillis says, " For some reason our generation has closed its text-books on ethics and morals, and opened the great poems, essays, and novels.' ' This is a remarkable statement and is the key-note to a silent but sweeping change in education. He adds, " Doubtless for thoughtful persons this fact argues, not a decline of interest in the fundamental principles of right living, but a desire to study these principles as they are made flesh and embodied in living persons.' ' Again, " It seems important to remember that the great novel- ists are consciously or unconsciously teachers of morals, while the most fascinating essays and poems are essentially books of aspiration and spiritual culture.' ' It is suggestive to note that this fundamental text is worked out in his book by chapters on Ruskin's "Seven Lamps of Architecture," George Eliot's " Romola," Hawthorne's " Scarlet Letter," Victor Hugo's " Les Miserables," Tennyson's " Idylls of THE VALUE OF CLASSICS TO THE TEACHER 315 the King/' and Browning's "Saul." This suggests a fruitful line of studies for every teacher. Among modern essayists, Emerson, Carlyle, Rus- kin, and Matthew Arnold stand preeminent, and they are already well established among the mightiest teachers of our age, and it may be, of many to come. Sure it is that teachers could not do better than put themselves within earshot of these reso- nant voices. Their heart-strings will vibrate and their intellects will be stretched to a full tension, not simply by the music, but by the truth which surges up and bursts into utterance. It is scarcely a figure of speech to say that the lightning flashes across their pages. The stinging rebuke of wrong, the noble ideals of righteousness, place them among the prophets whose tongues have been touched with fire from the altar. Besides the historical, social, and moral tuition for teachers in literature, there are several other impor- tant culture effects in it. The deepest religious in- centives are touched, nature in her myriad phases is observed with the eye of the poet and scientist, and the aesthetic side of poetry and rhythmic prose, its charm and graces of style, its music and eloquence, work their influence upon the reader. Literature is a harp of many strings, and happy is that teacher who has learned to detect its tones and overtones, who has listened with pleasure to its varied raptures, and has felt that expansion of soul which it produces. 3l6 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING Literature, in the sense in which we have been using it, has been called the literature of power, the literature of the spirit. That is, it has generative, spiritual life. It is not simple knowledge, it is knowledge energized, charged with potency. It is knowledge into which the poet has breathed the breath of life. The difference between bare knowl- edge and the literature of power is like the differ- ence between a perfect statue in stone and a living, pulsing, human form. One of the virtues of literature, therefore, is the mental stimulus, the joy, the awakening, the inten- sity of thought it spontaneously calls forth. Text- books are usually a bore, but literature is a natural resource even in hours of weariness. Who would dream of enlivening leisure hours or vacation rest with text-books of grammar, or arithmetic, or his- tory, or science? But the poet soothes with music, solemn or gay, according to our choice. If we go to the woods or lakes to escape our friends, we take one of the masters of song with us. After a day of toil and weariness, we can turn to " Evangeline/' or " Lady of the Lake," or the " Vision of Sir Launfal," and soon we are listening to — " The murmuring pines and the hemlocks," or the echo of the hunter's horn, — " The deep-mouthed bloodhound's heavy bay Resounded up the rocky way, THE VALUE OF CLASSICS TO THE TEACHER 317 And faint, from farther distance borne, Were heard the clanging hoof and horn." At a time when we are not fit for the irksome and perfunctory preparation of text-book lessons, we are still capable of receiving abundant entertainment or hearty inspiration from Warner's " How I killed a Bear," or Tennyson's "Enoch Arden," or "Sleepy Hollow," Literature is recreation in its double sense. It gives rest and relief, and it builds up. Teachers should shake themselves free from the conviction that severe disciplinary studies are the best part of education. They have their well- merited place. But there are higher spiritual foun- tains from which to draw. Read the lives of Scott, Macaulay, Irving, Hawthorne, and Emerson, and discover that the things we do with the greatest inward spontaneity and pleasure and ease are often the best. Literature, both in prose and verse, is what the teacher needs, because our best authors are our best teachers in their method of handling their sub- jects. They know how to find access to the reader's mind by making their ideas attractive, interesting, and beautiful. They seem to know how to sharpen the edge of truth to render it more keen and inci- sive. They drive truth deeper, so that it remains embedded in the life and thought. Let a poet clothe an idea with strength and wing it with fancy, and it 3l8 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING will find its way straight to the heart. First of all, nearly all our classic writers, especially those we use in the grades, handle their subjects from the concrete, graphic, picturesque side. They not only illustrate abundantly from nature and real things in life; they nearly always individualize and personify their ideas. Virtue to a poet is nothing unless it is impersonated. A true poet is never abstract or dry or formal in his treatment of a subject. It is natural for a literary artist, whether in verse or prose, to create pictures, to put all his ideas into life forms and bring them close to the real ones in nature. Homer's idea of wisdom is Minerva, war is Mars, strength is Ajax, skill and prudence are Ulysses, faithfulness is Penelope. Dickens does not talk about schoolmasters in general, but of Squeers. Shake- speare's idea of jealousy is not a definition, not a formula, but Othello. Those books which have enthralled the world, like " Robinson Crusoe," " Pil- grim's Progress," " Gulliver's Travels," " Arabian Nights," " Evangeline," " Ivanhoe," " Merchant of Venice," — they deal with no form of classified or generalized knowledge; they give us no definitions, they are scenes from real life. They stand among realities, and their roots are down in the soil of things. They are persons hemmed in by the close environment of facts. This realism, this objectifying of thought, this liv- ing form of knowledge, is characteristic of all great THE VALUE OF CLASSICS TO THE TEACHER 319 writers in prose or verse. The novelist, the romancer, the poet, the orator, and even the essayist, will always put the breath of reality into his work by an infu- sion of concreteness, of graphic personification. The poet's fancy, building out of the abundant materials of sense-experience, is what gives color and warmth to all his thoughts. Strong writers make incessant use of figures of speech. Their thought must clothe itself with the whole panoply of imagery and graphic representation in order to be efficient in the warfare for truth. What a lesson for the teacher ! What models upon which to develop his style of thinking ! If the teach- ing profession and its work could be weighed in the balance, the scale would fall on the side of the abstract with a heavy thud. Not that object lessons will save us. They only parody the truth. For the object lesson as a separate thing we have no use at all. But to ground every idea and every study in realism, to pass up steadily through real objects and experience to a perception of truths which have wide application, to science — this is the true philosophy of teaching. The classic writers lead us even one grand step beyond realism. The fancy builds better than the cold reason. It adorns and ennobles thought till it becomes full-fledged for the flight toward the ideal. As the poet, standing by the sea-shore, ponders the life that has been in the now empty shell washed up 320 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING from the deep, his fancy discovers in the shell a re- semblance to human life and destiny, and he cries : — " Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul, As the swift seasons roll ! Leave thy low-vaulted past ! Let each new temple, nobler than the last, Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast, Till thou at length art free, Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea ! n Is it possible that one could fall under the sway of the poets and artists, appropriate their images and fruitful style of thought, be wrought upon by their fancies, and still remain dull and lifeless and prosaic in the class-room ? No wonder that true literature has been called the literature of power, as distin- guished from the literature of knowledge (supple- mentary readers, pure science, information books, etc.). The lives and works of our best writers con- tain an expansive spiritual energy, which, working into the mind of a teacher, breaks the shell of mechanism and formality. The artist gives bright tints and colors to ideas which would otherwise be faded and bleached. The study of the best literature adapted to chil- dren in each age is a fruitful form of psychology and child study. The series of books selected for the different grades is supposed to be adapted to the children at each period. The books which suit THE VALUE OF CLASSICS TO THE TEACHER 32 1 the temper and taste of children in primary grades are peculiar in quality, and fit those pupils better than older ones. In intermediate classes the boyhood spirit, which delights in myth, physical deeds of prowess, etc., shows itself, and many of the stories, ballads, and longer poems breathe this spirit. In grammar grades the expanding, maturing minds of children leap forward to the appreciation of more complex and extended forms of literature which deal with some of the great problems of life more seriously, as " Snow-Bound," " Evangeline," " Roger de Coverley," "Merchant of Venice," etc. Any poem or story which is suited to pupils of the common school may generally be used in several grades. Hawthorne's " Wonder Book," for instance, may be used anywhere from the third to the eighth grade by a skilful teacher. But for us the impor- tant question is, to what age of children is it best adapted? Where does its style of thought best fit the temper of the children ? The eighth grade may read it and get pleasure and good from it, but it does not come up to the full measure of their needs. Chil- dren of the third grade cannot master it with sufficient ease, but in the latter part of the fourth or first part of the fifth grade it seems to exactly suit the wants, that is, the spiritual wants, of the children. It will vary, of course, in different schools and classes. Now, it is a problem for our serious consideration to deter- mine what stories to use and just where each belongs, 322 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING within reasonable limits. Let us inquire where the best culture effect can be realized from each book used, where it is calculated to work its best and strongest influence. To accomplish this result it is necessary to study equally the temper of the children and the quality of the books, to seek the proper food for the growing mind at its different stages. This is not chiefly a matter of simplicity or complexity of language. Our readers are largely graded by the difficulty of language. But literature should be distributed through the school grades according to its power to arouse thought and interest. Language will have to be regarded, but as secondary. Look first to the thought material which is to engage children's minds, and then force the language into subservice to that end. The final test to determine the place of a selection in the school course must be the experiment of the class-room. We may exercise our best judgment beforehand, and later find that a classic belongs one or two grades higher or lower than we thought. We really need some comprehensive principle upon which to make the selection of materials as adapted to the nature (psychology) of children. The theory of the culture epochs of race history as parallel to child development offers at least a suggestion. A few of the great periods of history seem to correspond fairly well to certain epochs of child growth. The age of folk-lore and the fairy tale is often called the THE VALUE OF CLASSICS TO THE TEACHER 323 childhood of the race; the predominance of the imagination and of the childlike interpretation of things in nature reminds- us strikingly of the fancies of children. We find also that the literary remains of this epoch in the world's history, the fairy tales, are the peculiar delight of children from four to six. In like manner the heroic age and its literary prod- ucts seem to fascinate the children of nine to eleven years. In connection with this theory it is observed that the greatest poets of the world in different countries are those who have given poetic form and ex- pression to the typical ideas and characters of certain epochs of history. So Homer, Virgil, Dante, Milton, Scott. The best literature is, much of it, the precipi- tate of the thought and life of historical epochs in race development Experiment has shown that much of this literature is peculiarly adapted to exert strong culture influence upon children. Emerson, in his " Essay on History," says : "What is the founda- tion of that interest all men feel in Greek history, let- ters, art, and poetry, in all its periods, from the Heroic or Homeric age down to the domestic life of the Athenians and Spartans, four or five centuries later ? What but this, that every man passes personally through a Grecian period ?" And again : "The stu- dent interprets the age of chivalry by his own age of chivalry, and the days of maritime adventure and cir- cumnavigation by quite parallel miniature experiences of his own. To the sacred history of the world, he has 324 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING the same key. When the voice of a prophet out of the deeps of antiquity merely echoes to him a sentiment of his infancy, a prayer of his youth, he then pierces to the truth through all the confusion of tradition and the caricature of institutions/ * The literary heritage of the chief culture epochs is destined therefore to enter as a powerful agent in the education of children in our schools, and the place of a piece of literature in history suggests at least its place in child culture. The study of these literary masterpieces, the choic- est of the world, while it offers a broad perspective of history, also enters deep into the psychology of children and their periods of growth and change. What a study for the teacher! Suppose now that a wise selection of the best products for school use had been made. The books for each grade would respond not only to the ability but to the characteristic temper and mental status of children at that age. The books would arouse the full compass of the children's mental power, their emotional as well as intellectual capacities, their sympathy, interest, and feeling. The teacher who is about to undertake the training of these children may not know much about children of that age. How can she best put herself into an attitude by which she can meet and understand the children on their own ground ? Not simply their intellectual ability and standing, but, better still, their impulses and sympathies, their motives and hearts ? Most THE VALUE OF CLASSICS TO THE TEACHER 325 people, as they reach maturity and advance in years, have a tendency to grow away from their childhood. Their purposes have changed from those of childhood to those of mature life. They are no longer interested in the things that interest children. Such things seem trivial and even incomprehensible to them. Now the person who is preparing to be a teacher should grow back into his childhood. Without losing the dignity or purpose of mature life, he should allow the memories and sympathies of childhood to revive. The insight which comes from companionship and sympathy with children he needs in order to guide them with tact and wisdom. The literature which belongs to any age of child- hood is perhaps the best key to the spirit and dispo- sition of that period. The fact that it is of permanent worth makes it a fit instrument with which the teacher may reawaken the dormant experiences and mem- ories of that period in his own life. The teacher who finds it impossible to reawaken his interest in the literature that goes home to the hearts of children has prima facie evidence that he is not qualified to stimulate and guide their mental movements. The human element in letters is the source of its deep and lasting power; the human element in children is the centre of their educative life, and he who dis- regards this and thinks only of intellectual exercises is a poor machine. The literature which children appreciate and love is the key to their soul life. It 326 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING has power to stimulate teacher and pupil alike, and is therefore a common ground where they may both stand and look into each other's faces with sympathy. This is not so much the statement of a theory as a direct inference from many observations. It has been observed repeatedly, in different schools under many teachers, that the "Lady of the Lake," "Vision of Sir Launfal," " Sleepy Hollow," or " Merchant of Venice" have had an astonishing power to bring teacher and children into near and cherished com- panionship. It is not possible to express the profound lessons of life that children get from the poets. In the prelude to Whittier's "Among the Hills," what a picture is drawn of the coarse, hard lot of parents and children in an ungarnished home, "so pinched and bare and comfortless," while the poem itself, a view of that home among the hills which thrift and taste and love have made, — " Invites the eye to see and heart to feel The beauty and the joy within their reach ; Home and home loves and the beatitudes Of nature free to all." To study such poetry in its effect upon children is a monopoly of the rich educational opportunity which falls naturally into the hands of teachers. Psychol- ogy, as derived from text-books, is apt to be cold and formal; that which springs from the contact of young minds with the fountains of song lives and breathes. If a teacher desires to fit herself for THE VALUE OF CLASSICS TO THE TEACHER 327 primary instruction, she can do nothing so well calcu- lated to bring herself en rapport with little children as to read the nursery rhymes, the fairy tales, fables, and early myths. They bring her along a charming road into the realm of childlike fancies and sympa- thies, which were almost faded from her memory. The same door is opened through well-selected literature to the hearts of children in intermediate and grammar grades. The sense of humor is cultivated in literature better than elsewhere. In fact, no other study contains much material of humorous quality. A quick sense of it is deemed by many of the best judges an indispensable quality in teachers. Not that a teacher needs to be a diverting story-teller or entertainer, if only he has an indulgent patience and kindly sympathy for those who enjoy telling stories. There is a certain hearty, wholesome social spirit in the enjoyment of humor which diffuses itself like sunlight through a school. It contains an element of kindliness, humanity, and good fellowship which lubricates all the machinery and takes away unnecessary stiffness and gravity in conduct. Best of all it is a sort of mental balance-wheel for the teacher, which enables him to see the ludicrous phases of his own behavior, should he be inclined to run to foolish extremes in various directions. Much of our best literature abounds in humorous elements. Lowell, Holmes, Shakespeare, and Irving 328 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING are spontaneously rich in this quality of ore, and it is just as well perhaps to cultivate our appreciation in these richer veins as in shallow and unproductive ones elsewhere. Schlegel says of Shakespeare, his " comic talent is equally wonderful with that he has shown in the pathetic and tragic; it stands at an equal elevation and possesses equal extent and profundity. . . . Not only has he delineated many kinds of folly, but even of sheer stupidity he has contrived to give a most diverting and entertaining picture." The inability to appreciate the ludicrous and farci- cal, and especially of witty conceits, is felt to be a mark of dulness and heaviness, and in dealing with children and young people a versatile perception of the humorous is very helpful. Many of the pupils possess this quality of humor in a marked degree, and the teacher should at least have sufficient insight to appreciate this peculiar bent of mind and turn of wit. A brief retrospect will make plain the profitable- ness of classics to the teacher. They show a deep perspective into the spirit and inner workings of his- tory. The social life and insight developed by the study of literature give tact and judgment to under- stand and respect the many-sided individualities found in every school. The teacher's own moral and aesthetic and religious ideals are constantly lifted and strengthened by the study of classics. Such reading THE VALUE OF CLASSICS TO THE TEACHER 329 is a recreation and relief even in hours of weariness and solitude. It is an expansive spiritual power rather than a burden. Literary artists are also a standing illustration of the graphic, spirited manner of handling subjects. Finally, this rich and varied realm of classic thought and expression is the door- way by which we enter again into the moods and impulses and fancies of childhood. We thus revive our own youth and fit ourselves for a quick and ap- preciative perception of children's needs. It is the best kind of child study. A few of the books which are suggestive, and illus- trate the value of literature for teachers, and in some cases even lay out lines of profitable and stimulative reading, are as follows : — Newell Dwight Hillis. Great Books and Life Teachers. (Flem- ing H. Revell Co.) George Willis Cooke. Poets and Problems. (Houghton, Mif- flin, & Co.) The Schoolmaster in Literature. (The American Book Co.) Representative Essays. (G. P. Putnam's Sons.) Hamilton Wright Mabie. Books and Culture. (Dodd, Mead, &Co.) James Baldwin. The Book Lover. (A. C. McClurg & Co.) The Schoolmaster in Comedy and Satire. (The American Book Co.) Emerson's Essays. Schlegel's Dramatic Art and Literature. (Bonn's Libraries.) Ruskin's Sesame and Lilies, and Seven Lamps of Architecture. Thomas Wentworth Higginson. Book and Heart. (Harper & Brothers.) 330 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING Carlyle's Heroes and Hero-Worship. Counsel upon the Reading of Books. Van Dyke. (Houghton, Mifflin, & Co.) Literary and General Essays. Charles Kingsley. (Macmillan &Co.) CHAPTER XV List of Books The following list of books, arranged according to grades, is designed to supply the children of the five grades, from the fourth to the eighth inclusive, with excellent reading matter in the form of complete masterpieces of American and English literature. It includes, besides the books for regular reading lessons, a large list of collateral and closely related works for the children and also for teachers. The books of these lists contain a rich and varied fund of finest culture material, first of all for the teacher, and, through her spirit and enthusiasm, for the children. Besides the general discussions of these books in the preceding chapters, a few additional explanations are necessary to make plain the grounds upon which this particular selection and arrangement of books is based. The whole purpose of the preceding chapters is to throw light upon this list, and to qualify the teacher for an intelligent and efficient use of these books as school readers. i. The books apportioned to each grade or year are divided into two series. The first series is care- 33i 332 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING fully selected to serve as regular reading-books for that grade. Almost without exception they are com- plete works, or collections of complete poems, stories, etc. Many of them are very familiar and have been much used in the schools. The number of books for each grade is large, so as to have room for choice and adaptation to each class. The second series consists of closely related collat- eral readings derived from a much wider range of books in literature, history, and science. Many of these books of the second list are not so strictly mas- terpieces of literature, but of a secondary rank as prose renderings of the great poems, myths, and stories of other languages, also American and Euro- pean history stories. These materials are well adapted for the reference studies and home readings of chil- dren. They all deal with interesting and worthy subjects of thought in a superior style. Many of these books, however, are great and permanent works of literature. They are materials, also, which the teacher should be familiar with. They should be constantly referred to and discussed in connection with the first series. It is quite probable that some teachers will prefer books of the second series for regular reading in the place of some suggested in the first series. LIST OF BOOKS 333 FOURTH GRADE I. BOOKS FOR REGULAR READING LESSONS Hawthorne's Wonder Book. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co.; The Macmillan Co. Has been very extensively used in fourth and fifth grades, and even in sixth. A book of standard excellence. Kingsley's Greek Heroes. Ginn & Co. ; The Macmillan Co. Much used. Excellent. Covers much the same ground as the Wonder Book and is preferred to it by some. Stories from the Arabian Nights. The Macmillan Co. Excellent. It contains some of the most familiar stories, as Aladdin, in simple form. Whittier's Child Life in Poetry and Prose. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. An excellent selection of poems and stories of child life by Whittier. It has many simple poems and stories, as Barefoot Boy, John Gilpin, etc. Also for fifth grade. Fanciful Tales (Stockton). Scribner's Sons. Very pleasing and well-told stories for children. It has not been as widely known as it should be. Book of Tales. American Book Co. A good collection of old fairy tales, stories, and poems. It has been extensively used. Old Testament Stories in Scripture Language. Houghton, Mif- flin, & Co. Abraham, Joseph, Moses, and others. The patriarchal stories in familiar Bible language. It may be a little difficult for the first part of the year. Round the Year in Myth and Song (Holbrook). American Book Co. A fine collection of nature poems for occasional use through- out the year. Bird-World (Stickney-HofFman). Ginn & Co. An interesting collection of bird stories and descriptions. Simple. A good book to encourage observation of birds. Nature in Verse (Lovejoy). Silver, Burdett, & Co. 334 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING An excellent collection of nature poems arranged by the seasons. Book of Legends (Scudder). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. Andersen's Fairy Tales. First and Second Series. Ginn & Co. Grimm's Fairy Tales. The Macmillan Co. Four Great Americans (Baldwin). Werner School Book Co. Hans Andersen Tales. The Macmillan Co. Squirrels and Other Fur-Bearers (Burroughs). Houghton, Mif- flin, & Co. Very entertaining, but somewhat difficult in language. Use toward the end of the year, and in fifth grade. Peabody's Old Greek Folk Stories. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. Simple and well written. It supplements the Wonder Book. King Arthur and his Court (Greene). Ginn & Co. A recent book. Simple in style and pleasing to children. The Howells Story Book. Scribner's Sons. 2. SUPPLEMENTARY AND REFERENCE BOOKS Stories of Our Country (Johonnot). American Book Co. Good American stories for children to read at home or school. Tales from the " Faerie Queene." The Macmillan Co. For reference and library. Bimbi (De la Rame'e) . Ginn & Co. The Niirnberg Stove and other good stories. Good for home reading and for school work. The Niirnberg Stove. Maynard, Merrill, & Co. ; Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. Gods and Heroes (Francillon) . Ginn & Co. Suitable to late fourth and fifth grades for collateral read- ing. Simple in style. Waste Not, Want Not (Edgeworth). Ginn & Co.; D. C. Heath & Co. ; Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. Practical stories for children, illustrating foresight, economy, etc. A Ballad Book (Bates). Sibley & Ducker. LIST OF BOOKS 335 A good collection of the older, simpler ballads. These bal- lads should be distributed through the year. Good for supplementary reading, also for drill in reading. The Story of Ulysses (Cook). Public School Publishing Co. An excellent rendering, sometimes used as a reader. Friends and Helpers (Eddy) . Ginn & Co. Stories of animals and birds. Instructive. Hans Andersen Stories. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. Tommy-Anne and the Three Hearts (Wright). The Macmil- lan Co. First Book of Birds (Miller). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. Very simple and interesting descriptions and accounts of common birds. Will help to interest the children in nature. The Little Lame Prince. Maynard, Merrill, & Co. ; D. C. Heath & Co. A story for home reading. The Dog of Flanders. Maynard, Merrill, & Co. ; Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. ; Educational Publishing Co. An excellent story for children to read at home or in school. Pathetic. Old Stories of the East (Baldwin). American Book Co. A pleasing treatment of the old Bible stories, not in Bible language. Well written. Fairy Tales in Prose and Verse (Rolfe). American Book Co. A choice collection of stories and poems. Heroes of Asgard. The Macmillan Co. A good simple treatment of the Norse myths. Suitable for supplementary and sight reading. Tales of Troy (De Garmo). Public School Publishing Co. A simple narrative of the Trojan War. Supplementary. Our Feathered Friends (Grinnell). D. C. Heath & Co. Instructive book on birds. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Carroll). The Macmil- lan Co. ; Educational Publishing Co. Very suitable for home and family reading. Younger chil- dren enjoy it much. Entertaining. 336 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING Jackanapes, and The Brownies (Mrs. Ewing). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. Through the Looking Glass (Carroll). The Macmillan Co.; Educational Publishing Co. The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood (Pyle). Scribner's Sons. An expensive book (about three dollars) . Excellent stories to read to children. Full of humor and adventure. Finely illustrated. A good book for school and home library. Open Sesame, Vol. I and Vol. II. Ginn & Co. A fine collection of the best poems of nature, heroism, Christmas time, etc. Ballads and stories. They are adapted to children in several grades, and should be used for reading, memory work, and for recitation. Stories of the Old World (Church) . Ginn & Co. Good reading matter for fourth and fifth grades. Interest- ing for supplementary reading. Stories of American Life and Adventure (Eggleston) . Ameri- can Book Co. Black Beauty. Educational Publishing Co. ; University Pub. Co. Children's Treasury of English Song. The Macmillan Co. A collection of spirited and interesting poems. FIFTH GRADE i. BOOKS FOR REGULAR READING LESSONS Hiawatha. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. ; The Macmillan Co. ; Educational Publishing Co. ; University Pub. Co. Used in several grades. Lays of Ancient Rome (Macaulay). Maynard, Merrill, & Co. ; Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. ; The Macmillan Co. ; Educa- tional Publishing Co. ; American Book Co. The four ballad poems. Good school reading for children. Names somewhat hard at first. Very stimulating and heroic. Used also in sixth grade. LIST OF BOOKS 337 King of the Golden River (Ruskin). Ginn & Co. ; The Mao millan Co. ; Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. ; D. C. Heath & Co. ; Maynard, Merrill, & Co. Much used. Excellent story and reading. Tanglewood Tales (Hawthorne). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. Companion book to the Wonder Book. Excellent matter for reading. Water Babies (Kingsley). Ginn & Co. ; The Macmillan Co.; Educational Publishing Co. ; Maynard, Merrill, & Co. Interesting story. Good also for home reading. Better, perhaps, for sixth grade. Ulysses among the Phaeacians (Bryant). Houghton, Mif- flin, & Co. Simple and easy. Poetic in its rendering. Better for sixth grade in some classes. Tales from English History (prose and verse). American Book Company. Stories and ballads of the leading periods of English history from the best authors. Illustrated. Gulliver's Travels. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. ; Ginn & Co. ; The Macmillan Co. ; Educational Publishing Co. Somewhat difficult in spots. Very interesting to boys and girls. For some classes use in sixth grade. Adventures of Ulysses (Lamb). Ginn & Co. ; D. C. Heath &Co. Well told, giving complete outline of the whole story. Heroic Ballads. Ginn & Co. Scotch and English and many later and American ballads. The Pied Piper and Other Poems (Browning). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. Also other poems and ballads of Browning. Tales from Scottish History (Rolfe). American Book Co. Some Merry Adventures of Robin Hood (Pyle). Scribner's Sons. Shorter School Edition. Humorous and entertaining. Little Daffydowndilly and Biographical Stories (Hawthorne). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. The latter for sixth grade. 338 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING Stories of American Life and Adventure (Eggleston) . Ameri- can Book Co. The Ways of Wood Folk (Long). Ginn & Co. An excellent nature book for children, entertaining, instruc- tive, and well written. Gulliver's Voyage to Lilliput (Swift). Maynard, Merrill, &Co. Squirrels and Other Fur-Bearers (Burroughs) . Houghton, Mif- flin, & Co. The Children's Hour (Longfellow). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. 2. SUPPLEMENTARY AND REFERENCE BOOKS Arabian Nights (Hale). Ginn & Co. Many of the best stories of the collection, including a number of the less familiar ones. Also for regular reading. Ten Boys on the Road from Long Ago. Ginn & Co. A book interesting and much used. Good for reading in fourth, fifth, and sixth grades. Also for sight reading. Robinson Crusoe. Ginn & Co. ; D. C. Heath & Co. ; American Book Co. ; The Macmillan Co. Much reduced and simplified from the original. A complete and more difficult edition is published by Houghton, Mif- flin, & Co. The Odyssey of Homer (Palmer). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. A complete prose translation of the entire Odyssey. Prob- ably the best. Good for fifth and sixth grades. Bryant's Odyssey. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. A simple, poetic rendering of the whole Odyssey. A good teacher's book. Use parts in class. Bryant's Iliad. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. Complete poetic translation. One of the best. Heroes of the Middle West (Catherwood). Ginn & Co. Good stories of the early French explorers of the Great Lakes and the Mississippi Valley. Somewhat difficult. LIST OF BOOKS 339 Pope's Iliad. The Macmillan Co. ; Ginn & Co. ; American Book Co. ; Silver, Burdett, & Co. ; D.C. Heath & Co. A famous rendering of the old Greek story. Still better for sixth grade. A Story of the Golden Age (Baldwin). Scribner's Sons. Secrets of the Woods (Long) . Ginn & Co. Old Greek Story (Baldwin). American Book Co. Arabian Nights (Clarke). American Book Co. Colonial Children (Hart). The Macmillan Co. Simple and well-chosen source material. Excellent. Krag and Jonny Bear (Seton). Scribner's Sons. Poems of American Patriotism (Matthews). Scribner's Sons. Ballads and Lyrics. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. Stories from Herodotus. Maynard, Merrill, & Co. ; The Mac- millan Co. Simple and interesting stories. Good also for sixth grade. Jason's Quest. Sibley & Ducker. The story of Jason told in full. Interesting and well written. Book of Golden Deeds. The Macmillan Co. A fine collection of historical and famous stories. For sixth grade also. Historical Tales, American (Morris). J. B. Lippincott. One of the best collections of American stories. Greek Gods, Heroes, and Men. Scott, Foresman, & Co. A collection of Greek stories, both mythical and historical. The Story of the English (Guerber). American Book Co. A complete series of English history stories arranged chrono- logically, good for fifth and sixth grades. Tales of Chivalry (Rolfe). American Book Co. Good stories from Scott, mostly from Ivanhoe. Also the early life of Scott. Good for fifth and sixth grades. Boy's King Arthur (Lanier). Scribner's Sons. A very interesting story for boys and girls. A good library book ($2.00). The Story of Siegfried (Baldwin). Scribner's Sons. A full and attractive story of Siegfried's adventures. A good library book ($2.00). 340 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING Pioneer History Stories (McMurry). Three volumes. The Macmillan Co. Also for sixth year. Early pioneer stories of the Eastern states, of the Mississippi Valley, and of the Rocky Mountains. Open Sesame. Part II. Ginn & Co. A good collection of poems arranged in important classes. The story of the Greeks (Guerber). American Book Co. Leading stories of Greek myth and history. For fifth and sixth grades. The Story of Troy. American Book Co. A short narrative of the Trojan War. Story of the Odyssey (Church). The Macmillan Co. Library book for general reading. Simple. SIXTH GRADE i. BOOKS FOR REGULAR READING LESSONS The Sketch-Book (Irving). Ginn & Co.; American Book Co.; Maynard, Merrill, & Co. ; Macmillan Co. ; Houghton, Mif- flin, & Co. ; Educational Pub. Co. ; University Pub. Co. Rip Van Winkle and other American essays. One of the best books for sixth grade. Used also in fifth and seventh grades . The Courtship of Miles Standish (Longfellow). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. Excellent in many ways for sixth-grade children. A dramatized edition is also published. Used sometimes in seventh grade. The Christmas Carol (Dickens). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. ; Maynard, Merrill, & Co. ; Educational Publishing Co. Excellent as literature and for variety of style in class work. Used also in seventh grade. Hunting of the Deer (Warner). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. Including also How I Killed a Bear, and other admirable stories, in which the humor and sentiment are fine. Used also in seventh grade. Snow-Bound and Songs of Labor (Whittier). Houghton, Mif- flin, & Co. ; The Macmillan Co. LIST OF BOOKS 341 One of the best American poems for children. Used also in seventh and eighth grades. Coming of Arthur and Passing of Arthur. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. ; Maynard, Merrill, & Co. ; The Macmillan Co. In the fine, poetic style of Tennyson, but simple. Suited also for seventh grade. The Gentle Boy and Other Tales (Hawthorne). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. A pathetic story of the Quaker persecutions in New England. Tales of the White Hills and Sketches (Hawthorne). Hough- ton, Mifflin, & Co. The Great Stone Face in this series is one of the choicest stories for children in English. Plutarch's Alexander the Great. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. A good biography for children and serves well as an intro- duction to Plutarch. Grandfather's Chair (Hawthorne). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. The best stories we have of early and colonial New England history. Good also for seventh grade. Children's Hour, Paul Revere, and other poems (Longfellow). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. This contains also the Birds of Killingworth, and other of Longfellow's best short poems. Birds and Bees, Sharp Eyes, and other papers (Burroughs). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. Also for seventh grade. These are among the best of Burroughs's books for children. Classic in style and choice in matter. Hawthorne's Biographical Stories. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. Seven American Classics (Swinton). American Book Co. A good collection of American classics suited to this grade. Three Outdoor Papers (Higginson). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. Interesting studies of nature in choice style. Giles Corey (Longfellow). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. A drama of the Salem witchcraft, with directions for its representation on the stage. The Building of the Ship, The Masque of Pandora, and other poems (Longfellow) . Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. 34^ SPECIAL METHOD IN READING Excellent. The Masque of Pandora could be rendered in dramatic form by children. Also for seventh grade. Mabel Martin and other poems (Whittier) . Houghton, Mifflin, &Co. A choice collection of poems from Whittier. A good picture of New England life. Used also in seventh and eighth grades. Baby Bell, The Little Violinist, and other prose and verse (Aldrich). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. Very choice poems and stories. Open Sesame, Vol. II, and Vol. III. Ginn & Co. Poems and ballads. A collection well arranged for various school use, for reading, recitation, and memorizing. 2. SUPPLEMENTARY AND REFERENCE BOOKS Ten Great Events in History (Johonnot). D. Appleton & Co. Good collateral reading in this grade. Lanier's Froissart. Scribner's Sons. A fine story for library ($2.00). Child's History of England (Dickens). Hurst & Co. ; Hough- ton, Mifflin, & Co. ; American Book Co. A book much used. Should be in a school library. Tales from Shakespeare (Lamb). American Book Co. ; Mac- millan Co. ; Educational Publishing Co. ; D. C. Heath & Co. ; Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. Designed as an introduction to the plays of Shakespeare. Language and style superior. Used also in seventh grade. Pilgrim's Progress (Bunyan). Macmillan Co.; Ginn & Co.; Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. ; University Publishing Co. The famous old story which all children should read. A book for the library and the home. Story of Caesar (Clarke). American Book Co. Heroes and Patriots of the Revolution (Hart) . The Macmillan Co. Swiss Family Robinson. Ginn & Co. ; Educational Publishing Co. A library book for children. University Publishing Co. LIST OF BOOKS 343 Stories from Old English Poetry (Richardson). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. An excellent series of stories from Chaucer and others. Historical Tales, English (Morris). J. B. Lippincott. A good collection of English history stories. Selections from Irving. Sibley & Ducker. A variety of interesting selections from Irving's works. The Conquest of Mexico (Prescott). Maynard, Merrill, & Co. The story of Cortes and his adventures told by a master. William Tell (McMurry). Silver, Burdett, & Co. The drama of Schiller's Wilhelm Tell, translated into simple English. Adapted for representation. Source Book of American History (Hart). Macmillan Co. The parts bearing on the colonial history. Original sources, letters, etc. Story of a Bad Boy (Aldrich). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. A good narrative of boy life, humorous and entertaining. Lay of the Last Minstrel (Scott) . The Macmillan Co. ; Maynard, Merrill, & Co. ; Ginn & Co. ; Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. One of the best descriptions of the old minstrelsy. Suitable for sixth and seventh grades. Choice English Lyrics (Baldwin). Silver, Burdett, & Co. A great variety of choice poems, ballads, lyrics, and sonnets. Poetry of the Seasons (Lovejoy). Silver, Burdett, & Co. A choice collection of nature poems. Wilderness Ways (Long). Ginn & Co. An interesting study of wild animals, birds, etc. Famous Allegories (Baldwin). Silver, Burdett, & Co. A good selection for reference reading and for teachers. Rab and His Friends (Brown). Educational Publishing Co.; D. C. Heath & Co. ; Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. Interesting stories of dogs for children. Story of Oliver Twist (Dickens). D. Appleton & Co. Suitable for introducing children to Dickens. Undine (La Motte-Fouque'). Ginn & Co. Nine Worlds (Litchfield). Ginn & Co. 344 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING Hans Brinker, or the Silver Skates (Mary Mapes Dodge). Cen- tury Co. Don Quixote de la Mancha. Scribner's Sons ; Ginn & Co. Tales of a Traveller (Irving). American Book Co.; Maynard, Merrill, & Co. Various interesting stories of adventure. Pilgrims and Puritans (Moore). Ginn & Co. One of the best books on the early history of Plymouth and Boston. Very simple and well told. Stories from Waverley (Gassiot). The Macmillan Co. For reference reading. Stories from Scott. Golden Treasury of Songs and Lyrics (Palgrave). The Mac- millan Co. A collection of the best songs and lyrical poems. The Rose and the Ring (Thackeray). D. C. Heath & Co. SEVENTH GRADE i. BOOKS FOR REGULAR READING LESSONS Evangeline (Longfellow). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co.; The Mac- millan Co. ; The University Publishing Co. This has been much used in seventh and eighth grades. Sella, Thanatopsis, and Other Poems (Bryant). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. ; Maynard, Merrill, & Co. Some of Bryant's best poetic productions. Or eighth grade. Sohrab and Rustum (Arnold) . American Book Co. ; Hough- ton, Mifflin, & Co. ; Maynard & Merrill ; Werner School Book Co. ; The Macmillan Co. Style simple, but highly poetic. Used also in eighth grade. Cricket on the Hearth (Dickens). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co.; Maynard, Merrill, & Co. Enoch Arden, and The Lotus Eaters (Tennyson). Maynard, Merrill, & Co. ; Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. ; The Macmil- lan Co. ; University Publishing Co. Used in seventh and eighth grades and high schools. LIST OF BOOKS 345 Merchant of Venice (Shakespeare). American Book Co. ; Ginn &Co.; The Macmillan Co. ; D. C. Heath & Co. ; Hough- ton, Mifflin, & Co. ; Maynard & Merrill ; Educational Pub- lishing Co. ; University Publishing Co. The best of Shakespeare's for this grade. Parts of it are often presented in the schoolroom. Much liked by the children. Tales of a Grandfather (Scott). Ginn & Co. ; Educational Pub- lishing Co. ; University Publishing Co. Stories of Wallace, Bruce, Douglas, and other Scotch heroes. Should be read only in parts in class. Library book. Poems of Emerson. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. Historical and nature poems, with a good introduction. A smaller but important collection of poems for older children. The Cotter's Saturday night (Burns). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. ; Maynard, Merrill, and Co. Contains also Tam O'Shanter and other poems of Burns's best. Bunker Hill, Adams, and Jefferson (Webster). Houghton, Mif- flin, & Co. ; American Book Co. ; Maynard, Merrill, & Co. Historical, patriotic, and simple in style. The best of Web- ster's speeches for seventh and eighth grades. Poor Richard's Almanac (Franklin). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. This contains also interesting papers and letters by Franklin. The proverbs of Franklin are well deserving the study of children. Scudder's Life of Washington. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. Best life of Washington for grammar grades. Source Book of American History (Hart). The Macmillan Co. Excellent reading selections for sixth, seventh, and eighth grades. Grandmother's Story and Other Poems (Holmes). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. Some of Holmes's best patriotic and humorous poems. The Plant World (Vincent). D. Appleton & Co. A superior collection of extracts from great scientific writers. One of the best science readers for upper grades. 34^ SPECIAL METHOD IN READING Poetry of the Seasons (Lovejoy). Silver, Burdett, & Co. Good collection for reading and various uses. William Tell (McMurry). Silver, Burdett, & Co. Suitable for seventh-grade reading. A drama. Golden Treasury of Best Songs and Lyrical Poems (Palgrave). The Macmillan Co. 2. SUPPLEMENTARY AND REFERENCE BOOKS Rules of Conduct (Washington). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. Containing also his letters, farewell address, and other im- portant papers. Tales from Shakespeare (Lamb). American Book Co.; The Macmillan Co. May be used throughout the upper grades. Natural History of Selborne (White) . Ginn & Co. A famous old book, interesting both in style and content. One of the first books of real nature study. Letters (Chesterfield). Ginn & Co. ; Maynard, Merrill, & Co. ;. The Macmillan Co. Entertaining and unique. Valuable for reading extracts to the school. Plutarch's Lives. Ginn & Co. ; The Macmillan Co. ; Educa- tional Publishing Co. A book that all grammar school children should be encour- aged to read. The Two Great Retreats (Grote-Segur). Ginn & Co. Retreat of the ten thousand Greeks, and Napoleon's retreat from Russia. The Alhambra (Irving). Ginn & Co. ; Maynard, Merrill, & Co. ; The Macmillan Co. Most attractive descriptions and legends connected with the Alhambra. Peter Schlemihl (Chamisso). Ginn & Co. Picciola (Saintine). Ginn & Co. Hatim Tai (from the Persian). Ginn & Co. LIST OF BOOKS 347 Life of Nelson (Southey). Ginn & Co.; American Book Co. ; The Macmillan Co. Camps and Firesides of the Revolution (Hart). The Macmil- lan Co. Interesting source material. The Crofton Boys (Martineau). D. C. Heath & Co. Orations on Washington and Landing of the Pilgrims (Webster) . American Book Co. A few children may be encouraged to read these great speeches, among the best in our history. Somewhat difficult. Silas Marner (Eliot). The Macmillan Co.; Sibley & Ducker ; American Book Co. ; Ginn & Co. ; D. C. Heath & Co. ; Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. ; Educational Publishing Co. A good introduction for children to George Eliot's writings. Used in eighth grade and high school. Vicar of Wakefield (Goldsmith). Ginn& Co. ; American Book Co. ; D. C. Heath &Co. ; Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. ; The Macmillan Co. ; Maynard, Merrill, & Co. ; Univ. Pub. Co. One of the great books, permeated with Goldsmith's fine style and humor. Two Years Before the Mast (Dana). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. A book of real power for boys and girls. A Bunch of Herbs (Burroughs). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. Good nature study for pupils and teachers. Also for regular reading. Samuel Adams (Morse). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. One of the best of American biographies. One of the best descriptions of scenes in Boston just preceding the Revo- lution. Tom Brown's School Days (Hughes). The Macmillan Co. ; Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. ; Ginn & Co. ; Educational Pub- lishing Co. A story for boys. Vigorous and true to life. Last of the Mohicans (Cooper). The Macmillan Co. ; Maynard, Merrill, & Co. ; D. C. Heath & Co. ; Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. ; University Publishing Co. 34-8 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING A good book with which to introduce young people to Cooper's famous stories. Franklin's Autobiography. Ginn & Co. ; Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. ; Maynard, Merrill, & Co. ; American Book Co. ; The Macmillan Co. ; The Educational Publishing Co. A book that all young people should read. Valuable in many ways. Uncle Tom's Cabin (Stowe) . Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. A library book for home reading. From Colony to Commonwealth (Moore). Ginn & Co. Simple account of the early events of the Revolution about Boston. Stories from the Classic Literature of Many Nations (Palmer). The Macmillan Co. The Gold Bug and Other Tales (Poe). Houghton, Mif- flin, & Co. EIGHTH GRADE I. BOOKS FOR REGULAR READING LESSONS Vision of Sir Launfal (Lowell). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. ; The Macmillan Co. One of the best poems in English for school use. Julius Caesar (Shakespeare). American Book Co. ; The Mac- millan Co. ; Silver, Burdett, & Co. ; D. C. Heath & Co. ; Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. ; Maynard, Merrill, & Co. ; The Educational Publishing Co. ; University Publishing Co. Well suited for eighth grade study and presentation. Used also in high schools. Tales of a Wayside Inn (Longfellow). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. Bunker Hill, Adams, and Jefferson (Webster) . Houghton, Mif- flin, & Co. Roger de Coverley (Addison). The Macmillan Co. ; American Book Co. ; Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. ; The Educational Publishing Co. ; Silver, Burdett, & Co. ; Sibley & Ducker; D. C. Heath & Co. ; Maynard, Merrill, & Co. LIST OF BOOKS 349 An excellent study for children in eighth grade. Also used in high schools. In Bird Land (Keyser). A. C. McClurg & Co. A book adapted to awaken the children to a sympathetic observation of birds. Lady of the Lake (Scott). Maynard, Merrill, & Co. ; American Book Co. ; Ginn & Co. ; Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. ; The Macmillan Co. ; D. C. Heath & Co. ; The Educational Publishing Co. ; University Publishing Co. An attractive study. Somewhat difficult. Marmion (Scott). Ginn & Co. ; Maynard, Merrill, & Co. ; The Macmillan Co. ; The Educational Publishing Co. ; Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. ; American Book Co. A great historical picture, full of interest. The Great Debate (Hayne-Webster). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. ; Maynard, Merrill, & Co. A fine study of forensic debate. Incidentally a deeper ap- preciation of history. Somewhat difficult for eighth grade. A Bunch of Herbs (Burroughs). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. A very suggestive study of common plants, trees, weather, etc. Burke on Conciliation. Sibley & Ducker ; Ginn & Co. ; The Macmillan Co. ; Silver, Burdett, & Co. ; Houghton, Mif- flin, & Co. ; American Book Co. ; D. C. Heath & Co. ; Maynard, Merrill, & Co. Used also in high school. A great study both as literature and as history. One of the best studies in American history before the Revolution. The Gettysburg Speech (Lincoln). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. The inaugurals, an essay by Lowell on Lincoln and other papers. The Deserted Village, and The Traveller (Goldsmith). The Macmillan Co. ; Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. ; Maynard, Merrill, & Co. The best of Goldsmith's poems. Also shorter poems. Franklin's Autobiography. The Macmillan Co. ; Ginn & Co. ; Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. ; Maynard, Merrill, & Co. ; American Book Co. ; The Educational Publishing Co. Partly for class use and partly for reference reading. 350 SPECIAL METHOD IN READING Plutarch's Lives. Ginn & Co. ; The Educational Publishing Co. ; The Macmillan Co. A few for class reading. Others for reference. Translation of Homer's Odyssey (Palmer) . Houghton, Mifflin, &Co. Abraham Lincoln (Schurz). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. Two Great Retreats (Grote-Segur). Ginn & Co. Good sight reading, and for reference. Peter the Great (Motley). Maynard, Merrill, & Co. A very interesting essay in superior style. The Succession of Forest Trees, Wild Apples, and Sounds (Thoreau). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. A very attractive nature study. 2. SUPPLEMENTARY AND REFERENCE BOOKS Ruskin's Selections. Ginn & Co. ; The Macmillan Co. Longer selections from Ruskin. Excellent also for regular reading. My Hunt after the Captain, etc. (Holmes). Houghton, Mifflin, &Co. A very entertaining description of scenes during war times. Don Quixote (Cervantes). Ginn & Co. ; The Macmillan Co. ; Scribner's Sons. A book that children should be encouraged to read. Its satire and humor they should learn to appreciate. Ivanhoe (Scott). The Macmillan Co. ; Ginn & Co. ; American Book Co. ; Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. ; D. C. Heath & Co. The best introduction to Scott's novels, in connection with school studies. The Abbot (Scott). Ginn & Co. ; American Book Co. One of Scott's best stories. Yesterdays with Authors (James T. Fields). Houghton, Mifflin, &Co. Rob Roy, and Quentin Durward (Scott). Ginn & Co. ; Ameri- can Book Co. Good library books. LIST OF BOOKS 35 1 The House of Seven Gables (Hawthorne). Houghton, Mifflin, &Co. A New England story in Hawthorne's style. A good home study for children and teachers. The Boy's Browning. Dana, Estes, & Co. A good collection of the simpler poems adapted to younger readers. Tale of Two Cities (Dickens). Ginn & Co.; American Book Co. ; The Macmillan Co. Jean Valjean (from Les Mise'rables) . Ginn & Co. ; Educational Publishing Co. The Talisman (Scott). American Book Co. ; Ginn & Co. Treasure Island (Stevenson). Scribner's Sons. Life of Washington (Statesmen Series). Houghton, Mifflin, &Co. Life of Nelson (Southey). The Macmillan Co.; Ginn & Co.; American Book Co. The Foot-path Way (Torrey). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. One of the best books for cultivating an appreciation for nature. In Bird Land (Keyser). A. C. McClurg & Co. A very interesting bird study. The Old Manse, and A Few Mosses (Hawthorne). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. A pleasing account of the old house and its associations. News from the Birds (Keyser). D. Appleton & Co. Excellent study and observation. Peasant and Prince (Martineau). Ginn & Co. ; Univ. Pub. Co. An interesting narrative of French life just before the Revo- lution. A Book of Famous Verse (Repplier). Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. A superior collection of poems. Nature Pictures by American Poets (Marble). The Macmillan Co. Choice poems descriptive of nature. Seven British Classics. American Book Co. A good collection of English masterpieces. Adapted also for regular reading in seventh and eighth grades. A LIST OF BOOKS FOR TEACHERS Published by The Macmittan Company BAGLEY, William Chandler. Classroom Management : Its Principles and Technique. By William Chandler Bagley, Superintendent of the Training Department, State Normal School, Oswego, N.Y. Cloth. i2mo. xvii -\- 332 pages. $1.25 net. The Educative Process. Cloth. i2tno. xix -\- 338 pages . $1.25 net. BUTLER, Nicholas Murray. The Meaning of Education, and Other Essays and Addresses. By Nicholas Murray Butler, President of Colum- bia University. Cloth. i2mo. xii-\- 230 pages. $1.00 net. CHUBB, Percival. The Teaching of English. By Percival Chubb, Princi- pal of High School Department, Ethical Culture School, New York. Cloth. i2tno. xvii-\- 411 pages. $1.00 net. COLLAR, George, and CROOK, Charles W. School Management and Methods of Instruction. By George Collar and Charles W. Crook, London. Cloth. i2mo. viii-\- 336 pages. $1.00 net. CRONSON, Bernard. Methods in Elementary School Studies. By Bernard Cronson, A.B., Ph.D., Principal of Public School No. 3, Borough of Manhattan, City of New York. Cloth. i2tno. 167 pages. $1.23 net. Pupil Self -Government. Cloth. i2mo. ix + ioy pages. $.gonet. CUBBERLEY. Syllabus of Lectures on the History of Education. With Selected Bibliographies and Suggested Readings. By Ellwood P. Cub- berley, Associate Professor of Education, Leland Stanford Junior Univer- sity. Second Edition, revised and enlarged. In two parts. Part /, v + I2g pages, $ 1.50 net ; Part II, xv+ 361 pages, $ 1.30 net. Complete in one volume, $ 2.00 net. DE GARMO, Charles. Interest and Education. By Charles De Garmo, Professor of the Science and Art of Education in Cornell University. Cloth. i2mo. xvii + 230 pages. $1.00 net. The Principles of Secondary Education. Vol. I, Studies. Cloth. i2mo. xii-\- 299 pages. $1.23 net. Vol. II, Processes of Instruction, xii + 200 pages. $ 1.00 net. Vol. Ill, Processes of Instruction. In press. DEXTER, Edwin Grant. A History of Education in the United States. By Edwin Grant Dexter, Professor of Education in the University of Illinois.. Cloth, xxi + 663 pages. 8vo. $ 2.00 net. DUTTON, Samuel T. Social Phases of Education in the School and the Home. By Samuel T. Dutton, Superintendent of the Horace Mann Schools, New York. Cloth. i2mo. ix + 239 pages. $1.23 net DUTTON & SNEDDEN. The Administration of Public Education in the United States. By Samuel Train Dutton, A.M., and David Snedden, Ph.D. With an Introduction by Nicholas Murray Butler, Ph.D., LL.D. Cloth, viii -\- 393 pages . Bibliography. Index. i2mo. $1.73 net. A LIST OF BOOKS FOR TEACHERS — Continued FITCH, Sir Joshua. Educational Aims and Methods. Lectures and Ad- dresses by Sir Joshua Fitch, late Her Majesty's Inspector of Training Colleges. Cloth. xii-\- 448 pages. i2mo. $1.25 net. Lectures on Teaching. Cloth, xiii+393 pages. i6mo. $1.00 net. GILMAN, Mary L. Seat Work and Industrial Occupations. A Practical Course for Primary Grades. By Mary L. Gilman, Principal of the Clay School, Minneapolis, Minn., and Elizabeth L. Williams, Principal of the Holmes School, Minneapolis, Minn. Fully illustrated. Cloth. 141 pages. Square i2tno. $.50 net. GANONG, William F. The Teaching Botanist. A Manual of Informa- tion upon Botanical Instruction, together with Outlines and Directions for a Comprehensive Elementary Course. By William F. Ganong, Ph.D., Professor of Botany in Smith College. Cloth. i2tno. xi -f- 270 pages. $1.10 net. HALLECK, Reuben Post. The Education of the Central Nervous System. A Study of Foundations, especially of Sensory and Motor Training. By Reuben Post Halleck, M.A. (Yale) . Cloth. i2tno. xii + 258 pages. $1.00 net. HANUS, Paul H. A Modern School. By Paul H. Hanus, Professor of the History and Art of Teaching in Harvard University. Cloth. i2mo. x -{-306 pages. $1.25 net. Educational Aims and Educational Values. By Paul H. Hanus. Cloth. i2mo. vii + 221 pages. $1.00 net. HERBART, John Frederick. Outlines of Educational Doctrine. By John Frederick Herbart. Translated by Alex. F. Lange, Associate Professor of English and Scandinavian Philology and Dean of the Faculty of the College of Letters, University of California. Annotated by Charles De Garmo, Professor of the Science and Art of Education, Cornell University. Cloth. Large i2mo. xi-\- 334 pages. $1.25 net. HERRICK, Cheesman A. The Meaning and Practice of Commercial Edu- cation. By Cheesman A. Herrick, Ph.D., Director of School of Com- merce, Philadelphia Central High School. Cloth, xv + 378 pages . i2tno. $1.25 net. HORNE, Herman Harrell. The Philosophy of Education. By Herman Harrell Home, Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Pedagogy in Dart- mouth College. Cloth. 8vo. xvii-\- 295 pages. $1.50 net. The Psychological Principles of Education. By Herman Harrell Home. Cloth. i2tno. xiii-\- 435 pages. $1.75 net. HUEY, Edmund B. The Psychology and Pedagogy of Reading. By Pro- fessor Edmund B. Huey, of the Western University of Pennsylvania. Cloth. i2mo. xvi+ 469 pages. $1.40 net. KILPATRICK, Van Evrie. Departmental Teaching in Elementary Schools. By Van Evrie Kilpatrick. Cloth. i2mo. xiii-\- 130 pages. i6mo. $.60 net. A LIST OF BOOKS FOR TEACHERS— Continued KIRKPATRICK, Edwin A. Fundamentals of Child Study. By Professor Edwin A. Kirkpatrick, Principal of State Normal School, Fitchburg, Mass. Cloth. i2mo. xxi-\- 384 pages. $1.25 net. MAJOR, David R. First Steps in Mental Growth. A Series of Studies in the Psychology of Infancy. By David R. Major, Professor of Education in the Ohio State University. Cloth, xiv -f- 360 pages, i2mo. $1.25 net. THE McMURRY SERIES Each , dothf t 2mo. General Method. The Elements of General Method. By Charles A. McMurry. 3 2 3 pages. $.90 net. The Method of the Recitation. By Charles A. McMurry and Frank M. McMurry, Professor of the Theory and Practice of Teaching, Teachers College, Columbia University. xi-\- 329 pages. $.90 net. Special Method. By Charles A. McMurry. Special Method in Primary Reading and Oral Work with Stories. vii + 103 pages. $ .60 net. Special Method in the Reading of English Classics. vi + 254 pages. $ .75 net. Special Method in Language in the Eight Grades. viii + 192 pages. $.70 net. Course of Study in the Eight Grades. Vol.1. Grades I to IV. vii + 236 pages. $.75 net. Vol.11. Grades Vto VIII. v-\- 226 pages. $.75 net. Special Method in History. vii + 291 pages. $.75 net. — - Special Method in Arithmetic. vii -f 225 pages. $.70 net. Special Method in Geography. xi + 217 pages. $.70 net. Special Method in Elementary Science. ix + 275 pages. $.75 net. Nature Study Lessons for Primary Grades. By Mrs. Lida B. McMurry, with an Introduction by Charles A. McMurry. xi + pipages. $.60 net. MONROE, Paul. A Brief Course in the History of Education. By Paul Monroe, Ph.D., Professor in the History of Education, Teachers College, Columbia University. Cloth. 8vo. xviii + 409 pages : $i.2j net. A Text-book in the History of Education. Cloth, xxiii + 277 pages. i2mo. $1.90 net. A Source Book of the History of Education. For the Greek and Roman Period. Cloth. xiii-\- 515 pages. 8vo. $2.25 net. O'SHEA, M. V. Dynamic Factors in Education. By M. V. O'Shea, Pro- fessor of the Science and Art of Education, University of Wisconsin. Cloth. i2mo. xiii-\- 320 pages. $1.25 net. Linguistic Development and Education. Cloth. i2mo. xvii + 347 pages. $1.25 net. A LIST OF BOOKS FOR TEACHERS— Continued PARK, Joseph C. Educational Woodworking for Home and School. By Joseph C. Park, State Normal and Training School, Oswego, N.Y. Cloth. j2tno. xiii-\- 316 pages, illus. $1.00 net. PERRY, Arthur C. The Management of a City School. By Arthur C. Perry, Jr., Ph.D., Principal of Public School No. 85, Brooklyn, N.Y. Cloth. i2mo. viii+ 350 pages. $1.23 net. ROWE, Stuart H. The Physical Nature of the Child. By Dr. Stuart H. Rowe, Professor of Psychology and the History of Education, Training School for Teachers, Brooklyn, N.Y. Cloth. i2tno. vi -f- 211 pages. $.90 net. ROYCE, Josiah. Outlines of Psychology. An Elementary Treatise with some Practical Applications. By Josiah Royce, Professor of the History of Philosophy in Harvard University. Cloth. i2tno. xxvii-\- 392 pages. $1.00 net. SHAW, Edward R. School Hygiene. By the late Edward R. Shaw. Cloth. vii-\- 255 pages. i2mo. $1.00 net. SMITH, David E. The Teaching of Elementary Mathematics. By David E. Smith, Professor of Mathematics, Teachers College, Columbia Uni- versity. Cloth, xv +312 pages. i2mo. $1.00 net. SNEDDEN and ALLEN . School Reports and School Efficiency . By David S. Snedden, Ph.D., and William H. Allen, Ph.D. For the New York Committee on Physical Welfare of School Children. Cloth. i2mo. xi -\- 183 pages. $1.50 net. VANDEWALKER, Nina C. The Kindergarten in American Education. By Nina C. Vandewalker, Director of Kindergarten Training Department, Milwaukee State Normal School. Cloth. xiii-\- 274 pages. Portr., index, i2mo. $1.23 net. WARNER, Francis. The Study of Children and Their School Training. By Francis Warner. Cloth, xix + 264 pages. i2mo. $1.00 net. WINTERBURN AND BARR. Methods in Teaching. Being the Stockton Methods in Elementary Schools. By Mrs. Rosa V. Winterburn, of Los Angeles, and James A. Barr, Superintendent of Schools at Stockton, Cal. Cloth. xii+ 355 pages. i2tno. $1.25 net. THE MACMILLAN COMPANY FUBLISHEBS, 64-66 FIFTH AVENTTE, NEW YOEK UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY BERKELEY Return to desk from which borrowed. This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. JUL I LD 21-100m-9,'48(B399sl6)476 VB 35239 THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA UBRARY