CHAUTAUQUA YOUNG FOLKS’ READING UNION.
1. There are few forces more powerful in the shaping of character than those which spring from reading. Robinson Crusoe has sent thousands of boys to sea, and other books less wholesome have sent thousands to prison; many a youth has been inspired to noble aims and a useful life by the help of a good book. A distinguished scientist says that a single book which fell into his hands during boyhood gave him “a twist toward science.”
2. It is not a question whether our young people will read or not, for nearly all of them do read. The question is whether they shall read a helpful or a harmful literature, for every book and paper belongs to either one class or the other. There is but one way to keep out the harmful, and that is to supply the helpful. At a public conference on the subject of literature for young people one speaker said, “I find that when I keep the table in my own house well covered with good papers for young people my children have no desire for a low class of story-papers.” A shelf of good, interesting books for young people will save them from depraved taste in reading.
3. One difficulty in the way of supplying the home with good literature is that parents are too busy. To provide a pure and healthful course of reading, and with it the impulse to follow it, the Chautauqua Young Folks’ Reading Union has been established. This is an outgrowth of the Chautauqua movement, which aims to promote popular education for every grade and every age, and is the peculiar adaptation of the Chautauqua Course to young people. It takes in the main the same subjects as those of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle, and fits them to the needs of the young, so that while the older people are pursuing one course of reading, the boys and girls, from twelve years, and upward, may read in the same lines and on the same themes. The course includes history, science, literature, travel, household matters, “ways to do things,” etc., mainly in short articles, which can be easily read. It can be accomplished in less than two hours of each week, for as many years as the student chooses to follow it, for each year’s reading is complete in itself.
4. The Readings of the Chautauqua Young Folks’ Reading Union are of two kinds, Serial and in Books. The Serial Readings are contained in a monthly supplement to Wide Awake, a magazine for young people which stands at the head of its class in literature. This supplement is also published as a separate periodical, called the Chautauqua Young Folks’ Journal. The Book Readings consist generally of three standard books adapted for young people. With the course are furnished to enrolled members the “Outline Memoranda,” or questions for examination, not a severe test of knowledge of the Readings, but suggestive, and calling forth the thoughts and opinions of the reader.
5. The Course may be taken by individuals, each reading by himself, or by a number reading together and meeting in a Local Club or Circle. Such a Club may be organized by the teacher of a school among the scholars, and will furnish pleasant and elevating enjoyment, as well as training in composition, debating, observation, etc., by its exercises. The members may read papers of their own writing upon the subjects of the course, may present questions, may look at pictures of objects and places referred to, and may witness simple experiments in science, and may also have social recreation at its meetings. [For plans of organization and management of a Local Club, send for the handbook.]
6. All that is requisite for membership is to send name and address, with ten cents in postage stamps, to the Secretary, Miss Kate F. Kimball, Plainfield, N. J. Wide Awake contains much besides the readings—serial stories, short stories, illustrated articles, and poems—while the Chautauqua Young Folks’ Journal contains but little besides the readings. Besides one of the magazines, the three books cost $1.70. [For the Course of the coming year see next page.]
7. Every enrolled member receives free of cost a Certificate of Membership. It is an albertype, with a symbolic picture embodying the light-bearing spirit of the Union, and is suited to framing for the home. For each year’s reading a seal is given, which is to be affixed to the certificate. Thus the engraving will show by its seals the years of the member’s reading.