Read Ebook: The Story in Primary Instruction: Sixteen Stories and How to Use Them by Allison Samuel B Samuel Buell Perdue H Avis Hannah Avis

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But, in addition to their imaginative character and their closeness to nature, these race products have still a third element of the utmost value for use as material for primary instruction. While they "enforce no moral" they tell "a story, and the moral in solution with the story." Each tale is a narration without comment. The ethical teaching involved is in the most concrete form. It is not set out and emphasized, but lies wrapped up in the movement of the narrative itself and awaits the exercise of the child's ethical judgment.

Viewed from our ethical standpoint, folklore does not always come up to the highest standard. There are objectionable features in many tales. In this respect they reflect the uncritical and even crude morals of the time. While this is true of some of the tales, in many the ethical teaching is pure, lofty and wholesome, and furnishes an element greatly needed in our primary schools. We have here held up for esteem and veneration these virtues of head and heart and action that lie at the base of a happy, considerate and industrious home life. Baseness, cruelty, ingratitude, and laziness are brought home to the individual in their consequences. The corresponding virtues are shown in their true relation to happiness and well being. This may not be the highest form of ethical activity, but it is the only kind of ethical teaching on a level with child thought. The morality of the stories is set forth in the concrete as a principle of action found valuable in the race's history.

THE LEGENDARY AND THE MYTHOLOGICAL THE CHILD'S NATURAL FOOD.

Even to casual observation there is close correspondence between child nature and the characteristics of the early literature of the race. Children are wholly in the imaginative on mythical level of thought. They are immersed in the sensuous. They refuse to be bound by the hard matter of fact. They will away and claim the world as their own through which to roam on the unfettered wing of fancy. They claim freedom to construct their own world and to people it with creatures of their own fabrication, independent of the shackles of time and space.

The child also feels himself a part of nature, not as something standing over against it. The separation has not yet come. He ascribes an equal and like personality to animate and inanimate objects. He is at home among animals and plants. There is spontaneous interest in all phases of nature, and inborn love for her creatures; and as to the ethical element, the child is not without points of contact for it. He is born with social impulses. He is not only to be a social creature, but is one at all stages of development. He is nothing if not social. The fiction of original, independent individuality which must be thrown off, given up, or eradicated before becoming a social being, is fast giving way to the natural or organic theories of social origin and growth. The very impulses which are sometimes cited to show the natural depravity of childhood are the vigorous reaching out of his nature toward a participation in the social life.

Thus there can be little doubt as to the fitness of legendary and mythological material for the needs of the child. It is his natural food. It fits in with his forms of thought--is in obvious relation to them. It meets the needs of activities already functioning. It discloses a world in which he can be at home. It falls in with his interpretation of this world, while the simple social life therein depicted appeals to his interest.

HOW ARE WE TO DISCRIMINATE AS TO MATERIAL TO BE SELECTED?

If this position is granted, how then, out of the vast richness of the material, are particular selections to be made? What principles should govern in our choice? As already hinted there are degrees of value, for purposes of instruction, in the immense treasury of folklore, myth and fable. It will be readily conceded that what is known as folklore has qualities rendering it of greatest value, for the first years of school life. It is simple and direct. Its conception of the world is that of pure naturalism. The formal myth and fable belong to later stages of mental development. The fable, too, has the objection of being explicitly didactic in its enforcement of the moral.

NARRATIVES SELECTED AND THE BASIS OF SELECTION.

THE FOUR STORY GROUPS.

THE PROBLEM OF CORRELATION.

The two chief problems of educational practice concern the selection and the arrangement or organization of the educative material. The problem of the organization of the subject-matter is spoken of as Correlation or Concentration. Any proposal silent on this point would not be adequate to the best school thought or practice of the hour.

The main contention over this question hinges on what subject should be taken as a center around which other lines of instruction should be gathered. Against the proposition to use the historical or culture-historical material as such a center objections can easily be raised. It will be granted that it does not offer an ideal point of departure for all the activities of even the primary school. It will be granted further that such a center is not the true center of the social life. It is liable to over-emphasize the purely intellectual side of instruction at the expense of the volitional phases, and it cannot be a center for the correlation of number.

But mathematics and literature do not correlate. Arithmetic and formal science have arisen in dealing with the practical problems of industrial processes. They are forms which industrial processes have taken on. There are some reasonable objections to the correlation of what is called "Construction Work" with this literature material.

But, on the whole, the narrative, or story, offers, under present conditions, the only practicable center for correlation in the first school year. Especially since, at this period, formal number work and science proper are at their minimum. For the language arts,--reading, writing, spelling, exercises in oral speech,--it is the natural medium. The aesthetic arts,--drawing and music--and even construction work, can be correlated here without undue violence to instruction as an organic unity. This material, too, furnishes at least a point of departure for what is known as nature study. It will find abundant inspiration in the animals, plants, and natural objects alluded to.

From what has been said, it will be seen that the stories are to be used as a medium of instruction, not just told and enjoyed. They are to be regarded as subject-matter to be assimilated and expressed. They provide a content by means of which the various school arts may reverse their usual direction and become, so to speak, centrifugal--the spontaneous outflowing of the self.

Merely telling the story does not exhaust its possibilities. It should be made a means for the exercise of the entire round of childish activities. Unless the understanding is enlarged, the sympathies widened, the ethical sense deepened, and steady advance made in all lines of technique, the teacher will miss the true aim.

SUGGESTIONS.

The manner or method of presenting and using the material is based largely on Herbart's "Formal Steps." Though an effort has been made to get away from their rigidity, no teacher can afford to become hampered by the requirements of a too rigid system or a too formal method of instruction. Yet there must always be a consciousness of what meets the demands of educative instruction. Apperception, or learning, takes place under certain conditions only. These conditions must be met.

THE TREATMENT.

It is not the intention to give a list of set questions whose form and order are to be rigidly followed. It is difficult to fix upon the precise point where such questions cease to be helpful and suggestive and begin to trench on the legitimate province of the teacher. In order to avoid this unpardonable sin, the treatment of some of the stories has been elaborated quite fully, to show the work entire as it has been given to children; while that of others has been outlined, noting only the main points to be brought out and leaving the form of presentation largely to the teacher's individuality.

Nothing can take the place of originality and spontaneity. If a fixed program is followed, the main purpose of the work will be missed and the interest for both teacher and children will evaporate. In the treatment of the two elements, the ethical and the nature material have been separated from each other and from the other parts. This is for the purpose of emphasizing them in the teacher's mind. The plan need not be followed in the actual work. Questions and explanations may be introduced into the narration if care be taken that the interruption does not break the thread of the story.

There has been no attempt to divide the subject into lessons. However, the preparation, the narration, and the deepening should, in most cases, be all that is undertaken in one period of fifteen minutes. This is as long as young children should be kept to one exercise. If this is done in the morning session, the reproduction and the other exercises could come in the afternoon session.

REPRODUCTION.

A child learns to talk fluently and with correctness by talking. Oral speech should come before written speech. If the pupil can talk in good English with ease there will not be much trouble with written expression. To this end there should be much time given to oral reproduction by the children. Even the most backward child should be encouraged to attempt it. There will be a strong temptation to allow the brilliant story tellers to do most of the reproducing. Each child should be thrown wholly on his own responsibility. Let him tell what he can in his own way and reserve corrections until he is done. The story itself should be kept fluid. It should not be allowed to crystallize into set phrases on the part of either teacher or children. Great liberty should be allowed in reproduction, so that freshness and spontaneity may never be lacking. The reproduction may immediately follow the deepening process or be reserved for a separate period. It should be given from the beginning frequently.

THE PREPARATION.

It is well to give the aim or purpose of the story first. This may be in the form of a brief outline giving the general direction which the story is to take. Some such hint seems a pedagogical necessity. Nothing is so tiresome to an adult, even, as to listen to a discourse whose aim and purpose are not apparent. And then the movement as a whole should be in the mind of the children from the first.

It is in accordance with sound pedagogy to bring to the foreground of consciousness the ideas already possessed by the children, and known to be related to what is to be presented. The new is learned or understood by the old. That which has been once assimilated enters into and modifies old concepts; these in turn classify the new material and reduce it to order and unity. It is therefore important that, before a story is told, the related ideas be brought forward ready for use by means of a few well directed questions. In many cases the proper result may be attained by suggesting a difficulty or problem for the children to solve.

THE NARRATION.

After the preparation follows the story. It should be given in short divisions. Each such division should be as far as possible a dramatic unity, subordinate of course to the main one.

The story should be told, not read. Every primary teacher should be a story teller. Anyone that has felt the deep, enthusiastic response of children to a story well told will feel amply repaid for any effort to cultivate the art of story telling. On this point few suggestions can be given. The main elements of good story telling are intrinsically connected with the emotional and spiritual endowments. A genuine appreciation of child-nature must be combined with a lively and emotional manner of expression.

THE DEEPENING.

It is wise in most cases to question on the main points of the narration. This fixes them in the children's minds so that reproduction of the story will more readily follow. The amount of such questioning must be determined by the needs of the class. Only the main points should be dwelt upon. With young children details should be avoided.

THE NATURE-MATERIAL.

The best way to widen the experience of children is to bring them into actual contact with things. But, as organized and carried on at present, the school can do very little of this first-hand teaching. However, at school age, such is the activity of childhood, most children have a considerable body of nature experience which can be used as interpretative concepts for new and similar material. Careful teaching will always aim to discover what experience the individual members of a class have had in order that inadequate ideas may be strengthened and given greater detail. This may be done by some child's telling his experience, by the teacher giving the information--using descriptions, pictures or drawings,--or finally by proper questioning.

Starting from what is already known, a skillful teacher can build up an idea, though of course more or less indefinite, of the object or process that is comparatively unknown. Questioning can never do more than bring into explicitness what is really in the mind in a vague way. Yet, when we consider that the possibilities of all science and, in fact, of all knowledge, are implicit in the experiences of the normal child of school age, it is seen that the use of questions as an educative means is practically unlimited and that it should not be neglected even in the primary grades.

There is in the stories an abundance of nature-material and of material bearing on industrial occupations and processes that may serve, when properly used, as an excellent basis for mental growth in these directions. In making sure that ideas along these lines are clear, a foundation is being laid for a more vital grasping of geographical instruction later on.

The old object-lesson was an effort in this direction, but its formality and isolation killed it. It is not the purpose to recommend formal object lessons. The main purpose should be to see that the allusions to natural objects and to industrial occupations and processes are understood. And if they are not, to bring them into adequate clearness by proper instruction.

THE ETHICAL MATERIAL.

There is a wide difference, so far as method is concerned, between setting forth the moral to a tale in an explicit way and allowing children to express their judgments upon concrete facts of conduct. The latter is all that should be attempted. In the reaction from formal moral instruction there is danger of going to the other extreme and neglecting it entirely.

READING.

The teaching of the mechanics of reading concerns itself with affixing visual images of words to the auditory vocabulary already possessed by the child. As this is a purely formal process, having little educative value in itself, the judicious teacher will welcome any suggestion toward minimizing routine drill. Instead of attempting to fix the visual form of each word, she will limit the formal instruction to giving the child a capability of deciphering new words for himself, that is, of translating them into motor images of articulation. Instruction that does not give to the child this capability is wasting time and misdirecting energy.

In order to have facility in the mastering of new words, it is necessary that there be a knowledge of the vocal value of the letters and an acquaintance with the groups into which words may be separated according to similarity of sound. Thus daily short drills upon the purely formal side seems a necessity. This should be done in a separate exercise, however.

At the same time this formal process should not be wholly divorced from the thought side. The learner should be able to grasp quickly the meaning the sentence conveys as a whole, and to give it natural expression. To make this connection between the two elements as close as possible, the sentences to be given visual form should be taken from the children themselves. These can be written on the board, or printed in large type on Manila sheets , or in ordinary type on slips to be given to the children.

The possession by the class of the common subject-matter which the stories supply, renders this plan feasible and always full of interest. Knowledge of the content will reinforce the recognition of words and sentences and thus make progress in acquiring a visual vocabulary rapid and, in part, unconscious. Moreover, the anticipation of the meaning of what is about to be read will result in a natural expression of it. If the child has even a provisional grasp of the meaning of the whole sentence before attempting to read it, the expression will largely take care of itself. Until the comprehension of the meaning is instantaneous, there should always be a preliminary study of the sentence to be read, so that the thought as a whole may at least be foreshadowed in the mind of the child.

In this way there is a vital relation between reading as a formal process and that which is read. This obviates the necessity of using isolated and unfamiliar topics as well as those having no value in themselves. From the first the reading matter should have value for the child--be related to his stage of thought and to his dominant interests.

DRAWING, ETC.

The stories are an excellent source from which to draw material for expression in the various aesthetic exercises--drawing, paper cutting, modeling clay, or dramatization. Whatever the form, it should be the spontaneous portrayal of the child's own imagery. However crude the product may be, if it is a genuine attempt at such expression, it has the essential element of an aesthetic creation and should have our respect as such. With a very little instruction in putting on sky and ground, in representing distance, progress will be rapid.

Drawing should be in a color medium, and be a daily exercise. Paper-cutting is of absorbing interest to children and is a form of school art that rapidly gives definiteness to the images of natural objects. It brings out a high degree of manual dexterity and offers almost as wide a scope for individual composition as drawing.

These exercises, not needing the teacher's immediate direction, can take the place of the many forms of meaningless "busy work" that a misdirected ingenuity has devised for the purpose of keeping children "still."

DRAMATIZATION.

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