STORIES
Stories are the “spice” of childhood. The eager delight with which children beg for a story, and listen while it is told, is in itself a plea for stories, and the routine of lessons should be broken up by setting apart five or ten minutes between them for this pleasant exercise.
Use of Stories.—In the first place, story-telling may be made the means of helping the children to acquire familiarity with good English. We all know how limited is the child’s vocabulary, and how difficult it is for a child to express his thoughts. Sometimes when a fact is perfectly well known, the language is wanting in which he can express it.
Second, the child’s sympathy may be cultivated and developed by means of stories. He becomes intensely interested in the subject of the story, and for the time being almost lives the incident over again in his own little life.
A very little child was one day listening to a story about “A lazy boy who missed a school picnic because he was so slow in getting ready. The school children were all on board the steamer, the bell rang, the moorings were loosed, and away went the boat just as the late little boy came running down to the pier.”
The little listener followed the story intently up to this point, and then burst out, “Oh! Auntie, couldn’t they get a little row-boat and take him out to the steamer? I don’t like him to be left behind.”
Stories, then, enlist the sympathy of the child.
Third.—Story-telling strengthens the child’s power of imagination. But, be careful to develop the imagination in a right direction, and not to feed it with anything coarse or cruel.
Fourth.—The stories offer opportunity for inculcating moral truths and sometimes it is possible to teach by stories truths that would be difficult to teach in any other way.
Kinds of Stories.—(a) Stories of Real Life—of events which have actually happened, or would be likely to happen. It is in this kind of story that moral truths can be illustrated most frequently.
(b) Fairy Tales.—Some people object to fairy tales, but innocent fairy tales feed the imagination, and often point a moral. Stories of horror and cruelty should never be recounted. Children soon learn to take delight in this class of story, and as a consequence, their moral tone deteriorates. Such stories as “Bluebeard” have this effect, but “Cinderella,” “Sleeping Beauty,” and many others, show that right is victorious in the end, and cannot have any bad effect on the children.
(c) Stories of Nature.—Flowers, rocks, trees, and other objects in nature may be made the subject of pleasant stories, interesting as a fairy tale, and many important truths may be taught in this way. A story of the kind is given as an example.
(d) Stories for Very Little Ones.—These should be exceedingly simple. A dog, a kitten, a bird, anything that comes into the life of a little child, he is delighted to hear about. Many such stories are given in the chapters on Numbers and Reading, and others will suggest themselves to the teacher. They should all be told in baby language, i.e., in language that the child can comprehend. Pictures often suggest a story, which is all the more interesting for being thus illustrated.
The children should sometimes be encouraged to tell what they can remember of the story. In this way they learn to express themselves.
The Story-Teller. (a) We have said before that the language should be simple and easy to understand.
(b) The voice should be modulated, and the story-telling is much more effective when gesticulations are used. The flying of birds, the rustling of leaves, etc., should be accompanied by hand movements on the part of the Teacher.
(c) The story-teller should be in sympathy with the subject of the story, and also with the listeners, otherwise the interest will be lost.
(d) Just as pictures add interest to a story, so do illustrations on the blackboard and these should be frequently given. Sometimes the children may be allowed to draw for themselves objects which have been mentioned in the story.
The After-Effect of Stories.—It is well to remember that the child’s taste for reading is largely influenced by the class of stories told to him in early life, and in these days of plentiful, cheap literature, how important it is that the youthful mind should be trained to appreciate that which is good.
If a child has learned to gloat over horrible stories, he will gratify this morbid taste by reading ghastly tales as he grows older, and if, on the other hand, he has learned to love stories that are simple and pure, he will choose reading that is good and elevating.