(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.
(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.
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 representation is among the best means of awakening interest and producing freedom and self-forgetfulness.
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 prepared 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 paraphrasemay 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 giving to the class the content of the printed page. Often it is best to face the class.
22. The teacher should occasionally read a passage 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 passage.
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 concert, is necessary.
25. Use ingenuity by indirect methods to overcome nasality, stuttering, nervously rapid reading, slovenly and careless expression, monotone, and singsong.
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 particularaim, 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.
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 dispositions receptive of the best educational influences. The duties and experiences of their daily work predispose 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 castaway 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 purposeinto history which lies deeper than the facts, it sifts out the wheat from the chaff, casts aside the superficial 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 idealizes 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 Revolution. 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 individual, social, and national well-being.
If the teacher is to interpret history to school children, he must learn to grasp what is essentialand 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 understand the general 'history' of a particular time unless we know something of the thought that stirred its most subtle thinkers, and interpreted and made articulate 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 history, 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, perhaps the only, teacher of English history, to women especially. For it seems to me that it is principally bythe help of such an extended literary course that we can cultivate a just and enlarged taste which will connect 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 gentlemanly 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 nearlyakin 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 accustomed 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 appreciation for many forms of life under widely differingconditions 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 common 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 involuntary utterances, and the power to express with certainty the meaning of these signs, as determined byexperience 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 belief, 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 portray with the greatest accuracy (a few apparent violations 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 preëminent degree is true to a marked extent of all the great novelists and poets.
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 refinement of thought and manner from the social circles with which they mingle, and it is, of course, a smiling fortune that has placed a teacher's early life in a happy and cultured atmosphere, where the social sympathies and graces are absorbed almost unconsciously. 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 truestandards of worth with which to measure all things. It contains within itself the refining elements, the æsthetic and ethical ideals, and, best of all, it portrays 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 ordinary life as it surrounds him; who does not constantly 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 getting 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 absorption 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 expanding to the conception of larger things. Speaking of the ancient drama at Athens, Shelley says,"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 conditions and forces of the outer world. The teacher whose inner life is teeming with these rich sympathies and potent ideals will react with greater prudence 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 legislature; 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."
"To see oursels as ithers see us."
Even the schoolmaster finds an occasional apt description of himself in literature which it is ofteninteresting and entertaining for him to ponder. One of the most familiar is that of Goldsmith in "The Deserted Village":—
"Beside yon straggling fence that skirts the wayWith blossomed 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 learn'd to traceThe 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 soundAmaz'd the gazing rustics ranged around;And still they gaz'd, and still the wonder grewThat one small head could carry all he knew."
"Beside yon straggling fence that skirts the wayWith blossomed 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 learn'd to traceThe 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 soundAmaz'd the gazing rustics ranged around;And still they gaz'd, and still the wonder grewThat one small head could carry all he knew."
A like entertainment and suggestion of what the schoolmaster may be, as seen by others, are furnished by Irving's Ichabod Crane. William Shenstone's description of the schoolmistress and the school near two hundred years ago in his native village, is very diverting. Charles Dickens's description 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 compilation from many sources, the literature bearing directly upon the schoolmaster. Even the comic representations and caricatures are valuable in calling 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 teacher's 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 influences have laid a sound basis of moral habits are these sufficient reserves for the exigencies of teaching. The moral nature of the teacher needs constant stimulus to upward growing, and the children need examples, ideal illustrations, life and blood impersonations 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 novelists 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 ofthe King," and Browning's "Saul." This suggests a fruitful line of studies for every teacher.
Among modern essayists, Emerson, Carlyle, Ruskin, and Matthew Arnold stand preëminent, 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 resonant 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 important culture effects in it. The deepest religious incentives are touched, nature in her myriad phases is observed with the eye of the poet and scientist, and the æsthetic 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.
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 knowledge and the literature of power is like the difference 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 intensity of thought it spontaneously calls forth. Textbooks 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 history, 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,"
"The murmuring pines and the hemlocks,"
or the echo of the hunter's horn,—
"The deep-mouthed bloodhound's heavy bayResounded up the rocky way,And faint, from farther distance borne,Were heard the clanging hoof and horn."
"The deep-mouthed bloodhound's heavy bayResounded up the rocky way,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 fountains 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 subjects. 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 incisive. 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 itwill 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. Shakespeare's idea of jealousy is not a definition, not a formula, but Othello. Those books which have enthralled the world, like "Robinson Crusoe," "Pilgrim'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 living form of knowledge, is characteristic of all greatwriters 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 infusion 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 teaching 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 upfrom the deep, his fancy discovers in the shell a resemblance 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!"
"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!"
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 distinguished from the literature of knowledge (supplementary readers, pure science, information books, etc.). The lives and works of our best writers contain 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 children 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 suitthe 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 important 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. Children 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 determine what stories to use and just where each belongs,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 thechildhood 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 products 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 expression 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 precipitate 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 foundation of that interest all men feel in Greek history, letters, 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 student interprets the age of chivalry by his own age of chivalry, and the days of maritime adventure and circumnavigation by quite parallel miniature experiences of his own. To the sacred history of the world, he hasthe 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 choicest 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? Mostpeople, 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 childhood is perhaps the best key to the spirit and disposition 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 memories 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 hasprima facieevidence 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 disregards 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. Ithas 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 companionship. 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 feelThe beauty and the joy within their reach;Home and home loves and the beatitudesOf nature free to all."
"Invites the eye to see and heart to feelThe beauty and the joy within their reach;Home and home loves and the beatitudesOf 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. Psychology, 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 forprimary instruction, she can do nothing so well calculated to bring herselfen rapportwith 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 sympathies, 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 Irvingare 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 farcical, 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 profitableness of classics to the teacher. They show a deep perspective into the spirit and inner workings of history. The social life and insight developed by the study of literature give tact and judgment to understand and respect the many-sided individualities found in every school. The teacher's own moral and æsthetic and religious ideals are constantly lifted and strengthened by the study of classics. Such readingis 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 doorway 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 appreciative perception of children's needs. It is the best kind of child study.
A few of the books which are suggestive, and illustrate 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. (Fleming H. Revell Co.)George Willis Cooke. Poets and Problems. (Houghton, Mifflin, & 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. (Bohn's Libraries.)Ruskin's Sesame and Lilies, and Seven Lamps of Architecture.Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Book and Heart. (Harper & Brothers.)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.)
Newell Dwight Hillis. Great Books and Life Teachers. (Fleming H. Revell Co.)
George Willis Cooke. Poets and Problems. (Houghton, Mifflin, & 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. (Bohn's Libraries.)
Ruskin's Sesame and Lilies, and Seven Lamps of Architecture.
Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Book and Heart. (Harper & Brothers.)
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.)
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.
1. The books apportioned to each grade or year are divided into three series. The first series is carefully selected to serve as regular reading-books for that grade. Almost without exception they are complete 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 collateral 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 masterpieces of literature, but of a secondary rank as prose renderings of the great poems, myths, and stories of other languages, also American and European history stories. These materials are well adapted for the reference studies and home readings of children. 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.
The third series consists of books for teachers, including great works of literature, history, and science, which will enrich the teacher's knowledge and contribute to a broader enthusiasm and culture. The writings of some of the great essayists, as Ruskin, Carlyle, Emerson, Kingsley, Motley, Lowell, Huxley, Macaulay, and others, are peculiarly fit to broaden the teacher's horizon and ennoble his purpose. Some of the best poems and novels suitable for advanced study are mentioned. There are also books which deal in a comprehensive and critical, but sympathetic, way with important literary topics, as the myths and great epics, the age of chivalry, and the lives of the most eminent writers. Some of the best works of biography and history are also suggested for teachers, and a number of the best professional and pedagogical books for teachers, dealing with literature, reading, and child study.
2. This list of books is of course tentative. There are other literary works as good, perhaps, but not a few difficulties stand in the way of the best selection. A few of the best materials are scattered in books not available for school purposes. Some of the finest of our longer classics have not been tested much in school use. There is, however, an abundance of choice English works, complete, well printed and bound, in cheap, schoolbook form. The chief difficulty, after all, is in selecting and arranging the best of an abundant and varied collection of excellent literature. This inspiring problem lies but partly solved at the threshold of every teacher's work. It requires extensive knowledge of literature and experience inits use in classes. A masterpiece may be read in several grades, and teachers will differ in judging its true place. Schools and classes differ also in their capacity and previous preparation for classic readings, so that no course of reading will fit all schools, or, perhaps, any two schools. Many principals will prefer to use the books one or two grades lower, or higher, than here indicated. Every teacher should use such a list according to his best individual judgment as based upon the needs of his school. This list was discussed and partly made out in conference with a number of experienced superintendents, and much variety of opinion was expressed as to the best grade for the use of a number of the selections.
3. The books chosen for each grade are designed to be a suitable combination of prose and poetry, of short and long selections from history, science, and letters. Variety in subject-matter and style is required in each grade, although certain strong individual characteristics are expected to appear in the literature of each year's work. Many of the shorter poems fit in well with longer masterpieces in prose and verse. Some of the epics, myths, and historical episodes are told in both prose and verse. The children may well meet and study them in both forms. If from four to six larger masterpieces could be read each year, and these could bring out the style and quality of so many authors, if a number of suitableshorter pieces could be read and related to the former, the many-sided influence of literature would prove each year effective. Literature is the broadest of all subjects, both as a basis of culture and for the unification of the varied studies. It touches every phase of experience and knowledge along its higher levels, and overlooks the whole field of life from the standpoint of the seer and poet. The classic readings should aim at the completeness, variety, and elevation of thought which literature alone can give. Every year's literature should open the gates to meadow and woodland, to park and fruitful fields, into rich and shaded valleys, and up to free and sunny hilltops and mountains.
4. The list of books for each year includes two or three books of miscellaneous collections of classics in prose and verse. Many of the selections are short and some fragmentary. Such are the three volumes of "Open Sesame," the "Golden Treasury of Songs and Lyrics," "Children's Treasury of English Song," and "Book of Golden Deeds." In each of the books named is found a variety of material suited perhaps to two or three grades. In most of the books just named it is not intended in our plan that all the selections should be read through in succession. It will be better for the teacher to select from those collections such choice poems, stories, etc., as will enrich and supplement the longer classics, and give that added variety so needful. Many of the finest poems inour language are short, and should not be omitted from our school course. They should be read and some of them memorized by the children. It would be well if the teacher had in each grade one or two sets of such books of choice miscellaneous materials from which to select occasional reading. The regular readers used by the children would consist of the longer masterpieces, which would be supplemented by the shorter selections. In this way greater unity and variety might be achieved within the limits of each grade.
5. Information books and supplementary readers in history, geography, and natural science have been excluded, in the main, from our lists. The test of literary excellence has been applied to most of the books chosen. De Quincey's distinction between the literature of knowledge and that of power is our line of demarkation. It seems to us probable that the future will call for a still more stringent adherence to this principle of selection. Information readers are good and necessary in their place in geography, history, and natural science; but they are not good enough to take the place of classics in reading lessons. The only exceptions to the rule of classics are the prose renderings of the old classics, as the "Story of the Odyssey," and the biographical stories from history. Both these have so much of interest and stimulus for the young that they seem to harmonize with our plan. But criticism may yet expose their inadequacy.
It is our plan, in brief, to limit the reading work mainly to the choice masterpieces of the best authors, and to render these studies as fruitful as possible in spiritual power. If supplementary readings are used at all, let them be those which will strengthen the influence of the classics.
It has been our plan to collect in the Special Method Books devoted to geography, history, and natural science, a full list of the supplementary readers and information books in those subjects.
6. In our list, however, is included quite a number of classic renderings of science and nature topics. Such are "Wake Robin," "Birds and Bees," "A Hunting of the Deer," etc., "Sharp Eyes" etc., "Succession of Forest Trees," "Up and Down the Brooks," "Water Babies," "The Foot-path Way," "Madam How and Lady Why," "Wilderness Ways," "In Bird Land," and many others.
These books, however, belong to the literature of power. They look at nature through the eyes of poet and artist and enthusiast. They are not cold, matter-of-fact delineations. They unfold the æsthetic and human side of nature, the divinity of flower and tree. These books are the communings of the soul with nature, and are closely related in spirit to the poems of nature in Bryant, Wordsworth, Tennyson, and other poets. There has been a chasm between them and our text-books in science which needs bridging over. Now that science is beginning to betaught objectively, experimentally, and inductively, there will be much less of a hiatus at this stage, because there is so much that is powerfully stimulating in nature study.
7. Some books are named twice in the lists, first as books of reference, or in the teacher's lists, and in a later grade for the use of children in regular reading. We have been especially careful in selecting appropriate books in the first list for each grade adapted to the age of the children. These books for regular reading must be used by every child, so that they should be fitted to the average ability. The reference books for collateral reading in the second series of each grade may be more difficult in some cases, as they will be used, in part, only by the stronger pupils.
There are certain groups of kindred books, like the Greek myths, that are distributed through three or more grades. It is not expected that any child will use all of these books, as several of them may deal with the same story, like the "Iliad" or "Odyssey." It seemed best to include all the important renderings of these stories, and leave the teacher to choose among them for his class.
8. To give more specific aid to teachers, most of the books are briefly described, and some notion of their special worth and fitness indicated. It is hoped that these short descriptions will be of considerable help to young teachers in making selections for their classes.
9. Many of the best and most commonly used books are published by several companies. In such cases the names of the different publishers are indicated in connection with each book.
10. By an examination of these lists the teacher of any grade will discover that, in order to teach well, she must be acquainted with the books used in one or two grades, both above and below her own. All the chief groups of books in literature run through three or four grades, and the teacher in any grade needs to get a comprehensive view of the important groups of books used in her classes. In addition to this, the books recommended for teachers give a still more definite and comprehensive grasp of large classes of literary material. The books recommended for teachers could be indefinitely extended, but it is hoped that enough are mentioned to give definiteness to their wider studies, and to serve as an introduction to some of the larger fields of literature, science, and history.
11. There are certain peculiar difficulties connected with the reading of longer classics which are much less frequently met with in the usual school readers. These difficulties are of such a real and serious kind that many teachers are apt to be discouraged before success is attained. Complete classics like Webster's speeches, "Julius Cæsar," "Snow-Bound," "Marmion," and "Evangeline" have been regarded as too long and difficult for school purposes. We havefound, however, that the greater length, if rightly utilized, only intensifies the effect of a masterpiece. The chief objection is the greater language difficulty (hard and unusual words, proper names, etc.) of the longer classics. This is a real obstacle and must be fairly met. It is impossible to grade down the language and thought of a great writer. It is necessary to bring the class up to his level rather than bring him down to theirs. This requires time and skill and perseverance on the teacher's part, and labor and thought in the children. It may require a week or a month to get a class well under way in "Lady of the Lake," "King of the Golden River," or the "Sketch-Book." But when well done it is a conquest of no mean importance. The language, style, and characteristics of the author are strange and difficult. The scales must drop from children's eyes before they will appreciate Ruskin or Tennyson or Emerson. The wings of fancy, the æsthetic sense, do not unfold in a single day. But if these initial difficulties can be overcome, we shall emerge soon into the sunlight of interest and success. It takes a degree of faith in good things and patience under difficulties to attain success in classic readings. Even when the teacher thinks he is doing fairly well, the parents sometimes say the work is too hard and the verbal difficulties too great. Generally, however, parents are satisfied when children work hard and are interested.
Again, children whose reading in the lower gradeshas been of the information order lack the imaginative power that is essential to the grasp and enjoyment of any masterpiece. The sleeping or dulled fancy must be awakened. The power to image things, so natural to the poet, must be aroused and exercised. The lack of training in vivid and poetic thought in early years is sure to make itself felt in deficient and languid thought and feeling in the higher grades. But we cannot afford to give up the struggle. We may be forced to begin lower down in the series of books, but anything less than a classic is not fit for the children.
12. The leading publishing houses are now competing vigorously in bringing out the best complete classics in cheap, durable, well-printed form for school use. In our list the names of the publishers are given. Most of the companies can be addressed in Boston, Chicago, New York, or San Francisco. Most of the books bound in boards or cloth range in price from twenty-five to fifty cents. The pamphlet editions are from ten to fifteen cents. The larger books of miscellaneous collections and some of the science classics range from seventy-five cents to a dollar and a quarter. A few of the books are priced as high as two dollars.
13. Before final publication, the following lists of books have been submitted to the criticism of a number of able superintendents and to the leading publishing houses. In consequence considerable changesand additions have been made. The chief criticism offered was that the books, in a number of cases, are too difficult for the grades indicated. To meet this objection a few changes were made, while in several cases books are described as suitable for two or three grades.
For the sake of quick and easy reference in finding any book, an alphabetical list of the titles of all the books is given at the close, and the page indicated where each book may be found in the descriptive list.
1. BOOKS FOR REGULAR READING LESSONS
Hawthorne's Wonder Book. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co.; Educational Publishing 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 by some to it.
Stories from the Arabian Nights. Houghton, Mifflin, & 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 extensively used for reading as yet.
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, Mifflin, & 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 throughout 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.
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 Household Tales. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co.
Four Great Americans (Baldwin). Werner School Book Co.
Hans Andersen Tales. The Macmillan Co.
Squirrels and Other Fur-Bearers (Burroughs). Houghton, Mifflin, & 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 Ramée). Ginn & Co.
The Nürnberg Stove and other good stories. Good for home reading and for school work.
The Nürnberg Stove. Maynard, Merrill, & Co.; Houghton, Mifflin, & Co.
Gods and Heroes (Francillon). Ginn & Co.
Suitable to late fourth and fifth grades for collateral reading. 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.
A good collection of the older, simpler ballads. These ballads 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 Macmillan 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 Macmillan Co.; Educational Publishing Co.
Very suitable for home and family reading. Younger children enjoy it much. Entertaining.
Jackanapes, 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. Interesting for supplementary reading.
Stories of American Life and Adventure (Eggleston). American Book Co.