THE STORY TELLERS’ LEAGUE
ITS ORIGIN AND PURPOSE
In The World’s Work for July, 1908, was an editorial written from materials supplied by members of the National Story Tellers’ League. As it gave an account of the starting of the movement, we quote part of it here, answering thereby some of the queries that are constantly being received concerning the League. Further details on this subject will appear in subsequent numbers of this magazine. The editorial cited was as follows:
The Story Tellers’ League had its beginning during the summer of 1903 at the Summer School of the South, at the State University, Knoxville, Tenn. Out of the more than 2,000 teachers there, a group frequently met on the lawn at twilight to tell stories. These meetings had a serious purpose, but they were free and informal. The teachers sat on the grass, and each one told a story as she might feel disposed. Superintendent B. C. Gregory wrote subsequently:
“The Summer School left many a pretty photograph on my memory but the sweetest is that of the Story Tellers’ League. The fading twilight, the dreamy quiet of the hour, the overshadowing trees, the circle of faces, the repressed tone of voice of the story tellers appealed wonderfully to me.
“And the child, the being to whom the service was dedicated, was always in mind. When the darkness had fallen so that the form of the story teller was all but invisible, the effect was heightened. We always adjourned quietly as if we feared the gentle influences would vanish if we were noisy.”
The attendance at these meetings grew from dozens to hundreds and before the Summer School closed a formal organization had been effected. The purpose of the league was to discover in the world’s literature, in story, and in life the best stories for education and to tell them with love and sympathy for the children, and to bring together in story circles those who love to hear and tell a good story, the kindergartners, teachers, church workers, children’s librarians, and those whose hearts are afire with this work that they might impart its spirit to others.
Dr. G. Stanley Hall, speaking of the movement soon after it was organized said:
“Teachers and parents are prone to forget that the education of the race in a very significant sense began with story telling. Before writing there was only oral tradition. We are assured that some of the Indian story tellers carry in their memory not less than one hundred thousand lines of poetry. Some of them are dull and uninteresting through the day, but when the camp-fires are lighted and they begin to weave the wondrous charm of ‘once upon a time,’ they take their hearers captive and lead them as with the magic flute of the Piper of Hamlin. Stories live from the tongue to the ear and not on the long circuit from the eye to the fingers as reading and writing do. Therefore they are more vital. Stories pre-form moral choices because, if they are good, desert is always rewarded. Moreover, a good story brings the mind of the hearer into more unity than almost anything else. A vast number of persons and incidents are woven together all subject to one dominant interest. In these days of correlation and co-ordination of educational material, the value of this can readily be appreciated. Most, if not all, of the best of the oldest literature that is classic, such as the Vedas, the work of Homer, the Nibelungenlied, the King Arthur cycle, lived and moved and had their being as stories and were thus slowly shaped into their present effective form. Indeed, I almost think that if I were Plato’s wise tyrant and had to appoint teachers of the young, the first test, and if I could have but one, the only one to which I would subject candidates would be whether or not they could tell a good story; for this alone would test their sympathy and power of adaptation. There is a great possibility of development here, and in the few who are devoting themselves to it, as are the Story Tellers’ League, I not only wish but predict a a very high degree of help and service.”
Those who went out from the inspiration of those meetings were quick to seize upon its educational possibilities, and returning home organized their friends and pupils into local leagues for similar work and pleasure.
On visiting a Southern town the following winter, the Superintendent of the Schools declared that he had noticed a great improvement in the teaching of history and literature among his teachers, and he attributed it to a league that they had organized. During the winter they had made a study of Norse and Greek stories which they told around their firesides. Similar leagues sprang up in a number of towns in the South, and at Corinth, Miss., there was a junior league, composed of children of the 5th grade. One girl, who is now in the high school made her home the popular resort of the children of the neighborhood who came to hear her tell stories. She told the better class of stories too, in a spontaneous and creative way, as she would play games. The work has made her life a radiant one.