Keep-Well Stories for Little Folks

Professor of Hygiene and Sanitation, and Resident Physician Mississippi Normal College ILLUSTRATED BY PAULINE WRIGHT Sophie Newcomb College
PHILADELPHIA & LONDON J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY

COPYRIGHT, 1916. BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER, 1916 REPRINTED NOVEMBER 23, 1916 PRINTED BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY AT THE WASHINGTON SQUARE PRESS PHILADELPHIA, U. S. A.

The Author, in her work with young teachers, has frequently noted the great difficulty they seem to have in presenting hygienic facts to little children in a manner so attractive as to catch and hold their attention.
The child's mind dwells constantly in the realm of imagination; dry facts are too prosaic to enter this realm. The Land of Story Books is the most fascinating of all lands, and therefore the Author has endeavored to weave hygienic facts into stories that will appeal to the child's imagination. She believes the truths of hygienic living and habits in the stories will creep up on the blind side, so to speak, and impress themselves upon the young mind.
The child can appreciate only those hygienic facts which can be applied in every-day living: he has no interest in health as an end in itself. Furthermore, that instruction in hygiene which is given as an end in itself, and which does not reach beyond the school-room in its influence, is a failure. Therefore, that instruction in hygiene which is in line with the child's interest is also the instruction which is most effective.
The effort throughout has been to make scientific truths simple and concrete, and so captivating that the young pupil will at once find interest in them. The early years of child-life are the most impressionable; it is, therefore, especially important that we stress during these years that which means more to the conservation of life than any other one thing, viz., hygiene.
Lessons of personal cleanliness, the necessity for good food, fresh air and exercise are the truths which are the underlying principles of these stories. With these as suggestions, the teacher may easily develop further.