A corresponding book of English verse might include something like the following:
THE WHOLE DUTY OF A CHILD
A child should always say what's true,
And speak when he is spoken to,
And behave mannerly at table—
At least so far as he is able.
Stevenson.
THE RAIN
The rain is raining all around,
It falls on field and tree,
It rains on the umbrella here
And on the ships at sea.
Stevenson.
THE COW
Thank you, pretty cow, that made
Pleasant milk to soak my bread,
Every day and every night
Warm and fresh and sweet and white.
Ann Taylor.
THE RAIN
The rain is raining all around,
Kittens to shelter fly,
But human folk wear over-shoes
To keep their hind-paws dry.
O. Herford.
FISHES
How very pleasant it must be
For little fishes in the sea!
They never learn to swim at all:
It came to them when they were small.
"Swim out like this," their mother cried,
"Straight through the water, foam and tide."
They waved their fins and writhed their scales,
And steered their little rudder tails.
Already they know what to do—
I wish that I could do it too!
Alice Farwell Brown.
THE LITTLE COCK SPARROW
A little cock-sparrow sat on a green tree,
And he chirruped, he chirruped, so merry was he;
A naughty boy came with his wee bow and arrow,
Determined to shoot this little cock-sparrow.
"This little cock-sparrow shall make me a stew,
And his giblets shall make me a little pie too."
"Oh, no!" said the sparrow, "I won't make a stew";
So he flapped his wings and away he flew.
Book of Knowledge.
THE TREE
What do we do when we plant the tree?
We plant the houses for you and me;
We plant the rafters, the shingle, the floors,
We plant the studding, the laths, the doors,
The beams and siding—all parts that be!
We plant the house when we plant the tree.
Henry Abbey.
THE LAMB
Little lamb, who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee,
Gave thee life and bade thee feed
By the stream and o'er the mead;
Gave thee clothing of delight,
Softest clothing woolly bright;
Gave thee such a tender voice,
Making all the vales rejoice?
Little lamb who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee?
W. Blake.
Let dogs delight to bark and bite,
For God hath made them so;
Let bears and lions growl and fight,
For 'tis their nature too.
But, children, you should never let
Such angry passions rise:
Your little hands were never made
To tear each others' eyes.
Watts.
The sunshine flickers through the lace
Of leaves above my head,
And kisses me upon the face
Like Mother before bed.
The wind comes stealing o'er the grass
To whisper pretty things;
And though I cannot see him pass
I feel his careful wings.
Stevenson.
After this preparation the children are able to "understand" what they read. All their difficulties in grasping the sentences and their most complicated constructions have been overcome. They have an insight into the grammatical form of language; and the construction of a sentence, as well as the meaning of the words in it, interests them. There has been created within them a fund of suppressed energy which will very soon break forth into intense activity. In fact, in our school, after these exercises the passion for reading began to show itself. The children wanted "reading, reading, more reading." We got together hastily a few books but never enough to satisfy the eagerness of the children. We found a surprising lack of reading for little children in Italian. The American system of opening special rooms in public libraries for the use of little readers seems to me an excellent thing.
But to take full advantage of this awakened enthusiasm for reading and to cultivate at the same time the art of reading aloud we must not neglect another element in reading: audition.
Audition
When the child has advanced to some extent in the exercises of interpretation, the teacher may begin reading aloud. This should be done as artistically as possible. We recommend for the training of teachers not only a considerable artistic education in general but special attention to the art of reading. One of the differences between the traditional teacher of the past and the teachers we should like to create is that the former used to speak of an "art of teaching," which consisted of various devices to make the child learn, in spite of itself, what the teacher wanted to teach. Our teachers, rather, should be cultivators of the fine arts. For in our method art is considered a means to life. It is beauty in all its forms which helps the inner man to grow. We have repeatedly emphasized that both in the environment at school and in the materials used, everything should be carefully considered in its artistic bearings, to provide ample room for development for all the phenomena of attention and persistence in work which are the secret keys of self-education. The Montessori teacher should be a cultivator of music, drawing and elocution, responsive to the harmony of things; she must, that is, have sufficient "good taste" to be able to lay out the school plant and keep it in condition; and sufficient delicacy of manner—the product of a sensitive nature—to be alive to all the manifestations of the child spirit.
In the matter of reading aloud the teacher has an important task to accomplish. We found the drawing hour best adapted for this work. It was our experience that it is easier to gain a hearing when the children are busy with something which does not require great concentration and which is not sustained by any particular inspiration. During the drawing lesson, in the placid silence which comes from work, and while the children are intent on their designs, the teacher may begin her reading aloud. It sometimes happens that the substance of what she reads will be sufficient to engage the interest of the whole school. But this is not always an easy task. It is more often the musical quality of the teacher's execution which will attract the little ones with a sense for art and bring them to that motionless attention which is the evidence of eager enjoyment. Possibly a really perfect reader might be able so to hold the whole group of children with some absorbing selection.
The readings we used were numerous and of great variety: fairy tales, short stories, anecdotes, novels, historical episodes. Specifically there were the tales of Andersen, some of the short stories of Capuana, the Cuore of De Amicis, episodes of the life of Jesus, Uncle Tom's Cabin, The Betrothed (I promessi sposi of Manzoni), Fabiola, stories from the Italian wars for independence (Nineteenth Century), Itard's Education of the Young Savage of Aveyron.
The Most Popular Books
In general the child will listen to anything that is really interesting. But certainly some surprises will be occasioned by our discovery that the children liked above everything else the readings on Italian history and the Education of the Savage of Aveyron. The phenomenon is sufficiently curious to merit further consideration. The history we used was not one commonly thought adapted to young readers. Quite the contrary: it was Pasquale de Luca's I Liberatori (Makers of Freedom, Bergamo, 1909), written to arouse a feeling of patriotism among the Italian emigrants of Argentina. The special feature of this publication is its contemporary documents reprinted in fac-simile. There are, for instance, telegrams, notices in cipher published on the walls of the towns on the eve of uprisings, commemorative medals, a receipt given by an executioner for whipping publicly an Italian patriot, etc. Patriotic songs are given with the music (these the children learned by heart, following the piano); there are also copious illustrations.