III. Summary
During childhood, boys and girls pass through three periods in the evolution of the dramatic instinct. Little children imitate people and animals in real situations, endeavoring to mirror the world as they understand it. Beginning at about the thirdyear, they commence to create a play-self living in a play-world, and this power of making illusions, as the expression of the hunger to realize life to its fullest extent, lasts as long as people live.
From six to nine children are eagerly becoming acquainted with the world outside the home. The dramatic impulse is then expressed in the imitation of every occupation and custom known to them. The developing tendency to construct aids the dramatic play.
Parallel with this, perhaps at about the tenth year, comes the period when they begin to take pleasure in impersonating dramatic ideas to an audience. This expression of the instinct tends to fade away after adolescence.
The dramatic instinct is of great educational value. It helps the child to realize his world and organize his thinking. He remembers best what he has learned dramatically. It enlarges his experiences and enables him to put himself, both by knowledge and sympathy, in the other man’s place. It is an important factor in mastering literature and history and in becoming familiar with the spirit of other races. It is extremely useful in developing resourcefulness, and the capacity for meeting novel situations. It carries interest and enthusiasm into all school subjects and helps shape the child’s ideals for the future.
The dramatic instinct has a great moral value. It gives a wholesome outlet to a child’s energies; it develops unselfishness; it creates a sympathetic imagination; and it gives a child the opportunity to understand moral issues by having imitative experiences of them.
The dramatic instinct has great inspirational value. It carries fancy through life, is the only possible door to romance for many, and furnishes through hero-worship, the strongest possible incentives to keep noble ideals.
The final intent of the dramatic instinct is that it should minister to fullness of life.
We remember howPollyanna, by finding something glad in every circumstance, succeeded not only in glorifying, but in actually transforming an existence that promised to be cheerless. This is what the dramatic instinct may do for us. Not only does it conjure up illusions in which it is charming to live, but it is so dynamic that it actually tends to change circumstances and helps reshape the world according to our dreams. The stodgy soul without vision squats in the midst of literal realities, but “the dreamer lives forever.”
[2]Books recommended in this pamphlet may be secured through the publishers of the pamphlet.The principal sources for this monograph are as follows:Studies of Childhood.James Sully.Contains an excellent chapter upon “The Age of Imagination.”Child’s Play.Robert Louis Stevenson.A wonderfully incisive little study of the imaginative play of childhood from his “Virginibus Puerisque.”The Children’s Educational Theatre.Alice Minnie Herts.Contains an excellent series of chapters upon the dramatic instinct.The Individual in the Making.E. A. Kirkpatrick.Gives full recognition to imagination at each stage of the child’s development.Your Child To-day and To-morrow.Mrs. Zidonie M. Gruenberg.A good chapter on imagination.The Normal Child and Primary Education.Arnold L. and Beatrice Chandler Gesell.Contains an excellent chapter on “Dramatic Expression,” showing how to utilize this instinct with children up to six years of age.Problems of Dramatic Play.Mrs. Howard S. Braucher.A pamphlet emphasizing the value of this instinct and giving lists of story-plays and dramas for children.The Spirit of Youth and City Streets.Jane Addams.A plea for the drama in the development of child life.Play in Education.Joseph Lee.An excellent characterization of childhood, with special reference to the dramatic instinct in Chapters XVII to XXI.Education by Plays and Games.George E. Johnson.Contains a list of dramatic games characteristic of each period of childhood.Psychology of Childhood.Norsworthy and Whitley.Contains many good suggestions upon the development and value of dramatic expression.The Development of a Dramatic Element in Education.Anne Throop Craig.A suggestive article in The Pedagogical Seminary for March, 1908.
[2]Books recommended in this pamphlet may be secured through the publishers of the pamphlet.The principal sources for this monograph are as follows:Studies of Childhood.James Sully.Contains an excellent chapter upon “The Age of Imagination.”Child’s Play.Robert Louis Stevenson.A wonderfully incisive little study of the imaginative play of childhood from his “Virginibus Puerisque.”The Children’s Educational Theatre.Alice Minnie Herts.Contains an excellent series of chapters upon the dramatic instinct.The Individual in the Making.E. A. Kirkpatrick.Gives full recognition to imagination at each stage of the child’s development.Your Child To-day and To-morrow.Mrs. Zidonie M. Gruenberg.A good chapter on imagination.The Normal Child and Primary Education.Arnold L. and Beatrice Chandler Gesell.Contains an excellent chapter on “Dramatic Expression,” showing how to utilize this instinct with children up to six years of age.Problems of Dramatic Play.Mrs. Howard S. Braucher.A pamphlet emphasizing the value of this instinct and giving lists of story-plays and dramas for children.The Spirit of Youth and City Streets.Jane Addams.A plea for the drama in the development of child life.Play in Education.Joseph Lee.An excellent characterization of childhood, with special reference to the dramatic instinct in Chapters XVII to XXI.Education by Plays and Games.George E. Johnson.Contains a list of dramatic games characteristic of each period of childhood.Psychology of Childhood.Norsworthy and Whitley.Contains many good suggestions upon the development and value of dramatic expression.The Development of a Dramatic Element in Education.Anne Throop Craig.A suggestive article in The Pedagogical Seminary for March, 1908.
[2]Books recommended in this pamphlet may be secured through the publishers of the pamphlet.
[2]Books recommended in this pamphlet may be secured through the publishers of the pamphlet.
The principal sources for this monograph are as follows:
Studies of Childhood.James Sully.
Contains an excellent chapter upon “The Age of Imagination.”
Child’s Play.Robert Louis Stevenson.
A wonderfully incisive little study of the imaginative play of childhood from his “Virginibus Puerisque.”
The Children’s Educational Theatre.Alice Minnie Herts.
Contains an excellent series of chapters upon the dramatic instinct.
The Individual in the Making.E. A. Kirkpatrick.
Gives full recognition to imagination at each stage of the child’s development.
Your Child To-day and To-morrow.Mrs. Zidonie M. Gruenberg.
A good chapter on imagination.
The Normal Child and Primary Education.Arnold L. and Beatrice Chandler Gesell.
Contains an excellent chapter on “Dramatic Expression,” showing how to utilize this instinct with children up to six years of age.
Problems of Dramatic Play.Mrs. Howard S. Braucher.
A pamphlet emphasizing the value of this instinct and giving lists of story-plays and dramas for children.
The Spirit of Youth and City Streets.Jane Addams.
A plea for the drama in the development of child life.
Play in Education.Joseph Lee.
An excellent characterization of childhood, with special reference to the dramatic instinct in Chapters XVII to XXI.
Education by Plays and Games.George E. Johnson.
Contains a list of dramatic games characteristic of each period of childhood.
Psychology of Childhood.Norsworthy and Whitley.
Contains many good suggestions upon the development and value of dramatic expression.
The Development of a Dramatic Element in Education.Anne Throop Craig.
A suggestive article in The Pedagogical Seminary for March, 1908.