STORY-TELLING IN PLAYGROUNDS
BY MISS MAUDE SUMMERS
The playground movement is at its source. This is the time, therefore, to state the underlying principles and to formulate the ideals that shall guide in carrying the movement forward. In the end, the playground as a finished product should give beauty and perfection not only to the body of the child but also to the soul. It should include training in the three H’s of head, heart and hand, as well as training in the three R’s of reverence, respect and responsibility. No lesser ideal will satisfy those who see the possibilities of the playground in adding to the sum of child happiness and betterment. At present, in the playground the chief emphasis is placed upon the development of the body: the story reaches the Spiritual child.
The child learns in but one way by reproducing in his own activity the thing he wishes to be. By means of the imagination the child forms a mental picture which he holds in mind and strives to imitate. Therefore the most vital purpose of the story is to give high ideals which are reproduced in character. In consequence, it is of the utmost importance that the story for the child shall have at its heart a spiritual truth, or in other words that it shall have a right motive. This truth may be any one of the many virtues such as generosity; kindness, hospitality, courage, heroism, chivalry, etc. It should be worked out in terms of cause and effect according to the immutable law of literature, whether this be for the child or the adult. This is the law of compensation, which rewards the good, and retributive justice, which punishes the bad.
The comic supplement of the Sunday newspaper is lowering the standard of literary appreciation and debasing the morals of the children in this country. Here evil is aggrandized and emphasis is placed upon deceit, cunning and disrespect for gray hairs. This sheet teaches children to laugh when boys throw water from an upper window upon an apple woman, or outwit an infirm old man. Humor has its place in the literature of childhood and it would be well if gifted writers for children could be found capable of substituting genuine fun for the coarse, vulgar type now so prominent.
When story telling is an integral part of the playground, thoughtful men and women will give careful consideration to story lists which will be carefully compiled from the literature of every age and nation. America has undertaken the mighty problem of the fusion of races. The great national stories that have nourished these people will also nourish the individual child. In consequence folk stories, fairy tales, and hero stories should form a fundamental part of these story lists. These are universal stories which every girl and boy should know. The characters may vary with different ages and people but the fundamental truth is of the spirit, and will outlast the centuries.
Child study reveals the fact that there is the earlier period of childhood, and also the later period of childhood. The games suitable to the needs of the younger children are not adapted to those of the older ones. This same truth should be recognized in the selection of stories. Younger children require a different type of story from that chosen for the older ones. The mathematical axiom that the whole includes the parts explains the fact that the “Grown up” may enjoy and appreciate a child’s story if it is true to the principles of literary art. The young child, however, cannot comprehend the story for the adult since the content is beyond his range of experience. It is necessary, therefore to divide the children into groups based upon age and mental development in order to have success in the art of story telling.
The hours set apart for story-telling in the Playground will vary in different localities and will, of course, depend upon the environment and provision made for this aspect of the work. Two story hours a day, one in the morning, and one in the afternoon, might be a good average. In a small city in the middle West it was the custom of the Playground Director to take the youngest children apart about eleven o’clock each morning, to give them a glass of milk and a graham cracker. Immediately after the luncheon the children grouped themselves around the Director for a half hour or more of story telling. Meantime the older children carried on without supervision their regular sports and games in the playground. A second story hour might be set apart in the late afternoon for the older children. All who have tried it will testify to the refining influence of this quiet hour upon girls and boys.
In the municipal playgrounds which have been built in so many cities, large and small, there is always a house known as the Recreation Center. If the playground is in a noisy section of the city near railroads, elevated trains, or factories, the children should be taken into one of the rooms of this neighborhood house for the story hour. On the contrary, where there is no shelter a tent or one of the portable school houses now so frequently used could be provided to meet this need. Here a group of children could cluster to listen to the story. Travelers who have been in Japan tell us that it is not an unusual sight to see a booth within which a professional story-teller takes his place. Parents and children alike bring their pennies in payment and then gather about this TELLER OF TALES to listen to the best stories in Japanese literature. These are chosen with the greatest care and are told with beauty of diction, and with great emphasis placed upon purity of tone, in the use of language. We hear so much to-day of the American voice and its strident quality, that this story hour might have a far-reaching influence for good not only upon literary appreciation in regard to story contents, but also upon English conversation and the improvement of the American voice.