Constructive
Blocks: Anchor, 1-inch sizes; dominoes, checkers
Knife, modeling clay, sand, paints, paint book, small crayola
Weaving frame; small beads, raffia, reed
Scrap pictures; straws, pasteboard parquetry
Stencil blocks
Apparatus for making toys, as in previous period
Camera
Radiopticon
Stereoscope
Clock that can be taken apart
CHAPTER XVI
STORY-TELLING
Value of the Story. Story-telling is the true pedagogical method of instruction, and to some extent of education, in early childhood. The story has many values, spiritual and intellectual. The wise teacher will use it to (1) entertain, (2) enlarge the experience by giving pictures of other children, homes, lands, social and geographic situations which no one child could experience, (3) acquaint the child with world characters and literature, (4) increase the vocabulary and the use of language, (5) cultivate imagination and concentration, (6) portray the effects of wisdom or foolishness, (7) present ideals of life, (8) give inspiration, courage, faith, sympathy.
What to Choose. Stories should be selected that will give the greatest number of these values, and that are suited to the stage of development of the children to whom they are told. In this age of cheap printing and authorship, the mediocre is always at hand, and the most valuable must be searched for as precious jewels. Life is so brief that there is not time even for all of the best.
The best story must first be true, not necessarily in a realistic sense of having actually happened to a certain individual in a historical time and geographical location, but it must be true in expressing the eternal verities, the principles that govern the universe. This rules out the tale in which error or vice succeed, or in which brute strength conquers spiritual strength. In the “true” myth, fairy tale, or allegory, Right eventually triumphs as it actually does in the universe, although possibly long delayed; wrong is punished; error and ignorance bring their unhappy consequences; wisdom and skill conquer circumstances; and the forces of the universe (whether presented as natural forces or as gods, fairies, or Providence) assist those who strive for righteousness and to assist their fellows.
It must next be vital. No less vicious and undermining than the untrue story is the weak, sentimental, mawkish, dull, or mediocre tale. In the reaction against such, and for want of a guide, children of reading age resort to sensational, flamboyant, lurid tales found on any cheap stationer’s counters and even in respectable editions in these days. Other children unfortunately take to such pabulum temperamentally.
It must also be positive, not negative. Moreover, the grewsome, harrowing story, the hypocritical, the morbid, are equally a crime against childhood.
The story must be of interest to the children. It must, therefore, have action, dramatic quality, and for children under six, repetition, humor of situation, fun, brevity, rhythm.
How to Tell Stories. For the person who “cannot tell a story” as for the person who “cannot swim”, there is one essential: forget yourself and plunge in, and practice until you have gained confidence.