Story Telling for Mothers
Interesting accounts were recently published in the Herald, Sun and other New York papers of Miss Georgene Faulkner’s story telling for mothers and children at the Waldorf-Astoria, New York and St. Mary’s Parish House, Brooklyn.
The story telling at the Waldorf-Astoria was given under the auspices of Mrs. William Rogers Chapman, President of the Rubenstein Musical Club, to an audience of fourteen hundred, of which about seven hundred were children.
Miss Faulkner, in Mother Goose attire, told the children Mother Goose stories, assisted by singers who presented ballads to accompany the stories. Much to the amusement of the children, Miss Faulkner would sometimes change the text of the Mother Goose rhymes, and the children were not backward about crying out corrections of these errors. Miss Faulkner would say:
“Jack and Jill went up the hill,
Like a dutiful son and daughter;
Now Jack is sick, and Jill is ill,
They did not boil the water.”
This would be greeted by a chorus of, “No, No, that isn’t the way it goes!” and other exclamations.
Later, Miss Faulkner, in German costume, told the fairy story of “Hansel and Gretel.”
The “Gingerbread Man,” otherwise known as “Johnny Cake” and “The Wee Bunnock,” gave more pleasure to the children than any other story, perhaps because it was accompanied by Gingerbread Men in neat boxes, which were given to the children as souvenirs of the occasion.
Through the courtesy of Mrs. Chapman and with the assistance of Mrs. Arthur Elliot Fish, one hundred crippled children, from the Industrial School for Crippled Children, participated in the delights of the “Mother Goose” matinee.
The story telling at St. Mary’s Parish House, was arranged primarily for mothers, under the auspices of Miss Mabel McKinney, Superintendent of the Kindergartens in the Borough of Brooklyn.
“What kind of a story,” said Miss Faulkner, “should the mother tell to her children? Any good interesting story will lend itself to the spoken narrative. Many mothers are so careless about what their children read —thinking that almost any book which they get from the library will answer the need. This is a great mistake. If the mother will only take care to direct the young mind into the right channels at the impressionable period she would lay a firm foundation on which to build the future life of the child. Not only are many books from Public Libraries pernicious, but from the Sunday-School Libraries as well. Many mothers make a practice of filling the minds of their little children with a hodge-podge of information, superstition, fear and other ideas which have had a bad effect upon the children’s mind. They think it makes little difference what they put into the child’s thought so long as it is a story. In reality it makes all the difference in the world.
“With the great storehouse of classical and folk-lore stories within easy reach; stories of brave deeds well done; of self-sacrifice; of love and duty and other high ideals, the mind of the child is easily guided into channels of right thinking, and if mothers only realized it more fully, it is in their power through the medium of these stories to fill the little mind with ideals, which will have a most important bearing through life in the development of character. Through the simple art of story telling the mother possesses the key to the hidden nature of the child if she could only be made to appreciate and understand the value of the story influence.”
The Story Tellers’ League at the Alabama Girls’ Technical Institute, Montevallo, is divided into chapters: The Poe Chapter; the Uncle Remus Chapter, and the Wyche Chapter. The Poe Chapter deals with the Edgar Allen Poe stories, Kipling, Hawthorne, and Irving, while the Uncle Remus Chapter deals with the Arabian Nights, Robin Hood, Uncle Remus, Folk and Fairy Tales. The Wyche Chapter deals with the Stories of King Arthur; the Opera stories—Magic Flute, Hansel and Gretel; the Beowulf Story, and Stories of Knighthood by J. H. Cox. The Chapters meet once a week separately, throughout the school year, and occasionally they have a joint meeting. The programme of the League as well as other societies in the school are published by the Institute, and may be had for the asking. The Story Tellers’ League, with its three chapters, has a combined membership of one hundred and twenty-five, making it one of the strongest organizations in the school. One Chapter of the League devotes time to the playing of folk games at the recreation hour, in the afternoon, on the lawn.