The Memphis League belongs to the National Story Tellers’ League, and sent delegates to the Annual Convention held at Knoxville, Tenn., in July 1908. Last year’s work was devoted principally to stories for primary and intermediate grades. We will proceed along the same line this year, giving more attention to stories suitable for higher grade children.
The executive committee is, at present, working on the year book for 1908-9. On October 7, we held our first meeting.
The League is yet in its infancy, but it has gained a popularity most remarkable for so young an organization. It is recognized as a very powerful instrument for accomplishing good and its influence is felt far beyond the city in which it thrives. Our year books have been sent, by request, to many parts of the country and we are ready to give what help we can, by way of suggestions, to aid others in forming leagues. The power of story-telling is limitless. Story work stands to the children for what books, poetry, drama, sermon and art are to the adult. The child should be constantly in touch with the best in Literature,—stories within his comprehension, stories that may be woven into his experiences, that will arouse his emotions and lead him to a spontaneous expression of his ideas.
To this end the Story Tellers’ League is seeking to develop splendid story tellers of its grown-up members so that they may reach and help the little child. Truly it has a noble ambition; for, as Philip Brooks says, “He who helps a child helps humanity with a distinctness, with an immediateness which no other help given to human creatures in any other stage of their human life can possibly give again.”
REPORTS FROM LEAGUES IN SUMMER SCHOOLS
THE WOOSTER (OHIO) SCHOOL
Four summers ago the writer called a meeting in one of the rooms of Taylor Hall—one of the University buildings used by the Summer School.
A tentative organization was formed and meetings held until permanent organization was effected. The meetings were then held in the evening on the campus in front of Kanke Hall or the Memorial Chapel. A Kindergartner was also engaged by the management of the school to tell stories for a day or two. Each summer since a similar arrangement has been made and now a regular story-hour in the Model School is planned for in addition to weekly meetings of the League. This meets on the Library steps Saturday evenings at 6:30. Old familiar college and folk songs are sung, then the story-teller or story-tellers tell their stories, other songs follow and then all go home happier and better.
The story hour is an event here—several times within the past ten summers five or six hundred listeners were seated in a circle round the story-teller and we may safely predict that the League has a permanent place in the Summer School program. Commercial reasons, if no other, will compel it.