Educating by Story-Telling / Showing the Value of Story-Telling as an Educational Tool for the Use of All Workers with Children

by Mrs. Katherine Dunlap Cather

Millet: Feeding the Hens; Feeding Her Birds; The First Step; Feeding the Nestlings.

Luca della Robbia: Singing Boys; Trumpeters and Dancing Boys; Dancing Boys with Cymbals; Children Dancing to Fife and Tambor; Madonna, Child, and Saints.

Rubens: Portrait of his Wife and Children; The Holy Family; Infant Christ, St. John, and Angels; The Virgin under an Apple Tree; The Adoration of the Magi.

Children of the intermediate period enjoy the works of the great landscape painters, Claude Lorrain, Corot, Breton, and others who portrayed the woods and fields, especially when they know something of the childhood of these men. In this period, too, they should become better acquainted with some of the artists they have already met. Add to the interest previously created in Raphael by taking up such works as “Madonna of the Fish,” “Madonna of the Well,” and “Madonna of the Diadem.” In telling the story of his life use Ouida’s beautiful tale, “The Child of Urbino,” which is so exquisitely told that there is nothing lovelier in literature. Show the children his portrait of himself, his “St. Catherine,” “St. Cecilia,” “St. John in the Desert,” “Peter and John at the Beautiful Gate,” and “The Miraculous Draught of Fishes.”

Add to the interest already created in Rubens by taking up his “Portrait of Himself,” “The Flight of Lot,” and the paintings illustrating the life of Maria de’ Medici.

Pictures representing the Crucifixion, the Descent from the Cross, and the Entombment, no matter how glorious they may be as works of art, should not be presented to children. They are too highly religious for children’s understanding, and the tragedy portrayed in them should not enter into childhood. The Madonnas and Holy Families may be used freely, because they portray dear and familiar characters and are saturated with an atmosphere of happiness that gladdens the child.

The following list will aid those who are not connoisseurs:

Artists and Paintings for Children of the Intermediate Period

Jules Breton: Song of the Lark; The Gleaners; The Reapers; The Weeders; The Recall of the Gleaners; Blessing the Wheat; The Vintagers; The End of Labor.

Jacques: The Sheepfold; Pasturage in the Forest; Shepherd and Sheep.