Part 1 (1/2)

The Art of the Story-Teller

by Marie L Shedlock

PREFACE

Some day we shall have a science of education comparable to the science of medicine; but even when that day arrives the art of education will still reuide of all wise teachers The laws that regulate our physical and mental development will be reduced to order; but the ieneration to play its way into possession of all that is best in life will still have to be interpreted for us by the artists ith the wisdom of years, have not lost the direct vision of children

Soland Her fine sense of literary and dramatic values, her power in sympathetic interpretation, always restrained within the li of educational values, based on a wide experience of teaching, all

She was equally at ho of wit and wisdom in Daudet, the folk lore philosophy of Grinant human appeal of Hans Christian Andersen

Then she caht us the difference between the nightingale that sings in the tree tops and the artificial bird that goes with a spring Cities like New York, Boston, Pittsburgh and Chicago listened and heard, if sometimes indistinctly, the notes of universal appeal, and children saw the Arabian Nights co to the appeals of her friends in Aether in this little book such observations and suggestions on story-telling as can be put in words Those who have the artist's spirit will find their sense of values quickened by her words, and they will be led to escape soreatest artists fall And even those who tell stories with their estions born of wide experience and extended study which well go far towardsless mechanical To those who know, the book is a revelation of the intimate relation between a child's instincts and the finished art of dra echoes of reality

Earl Barnes

INTRODUCTION

Story-telling is almost the oldest art in the world--the first conscious form of literary communication In the East it still survives, and it is not an unco to see a crowd at a street corner held by the sirowing interest in this ancient art, and we may yet live to see the renaissance of the troubadours and the minstrels whose appeal will then rival that of the mob orator or itinerant politician

One of the surest signs of a belief in the educational power of the story is its introduction into the curriculue and the classes of the elementary and secondary schools It is just at the ti unhampered by accumulation of facts, that stories appeal most vividly and are retained for all time

It is to be hoped that soroups only by experts who have devoted special tireat fallacy to suppose that the syste destroys the spontaneity of narrative After a long experience, I find the exact converse to be true, namely, that it is only when one has overcoo” in the dramatic interest of the story

By the expert story-teller I do not ly enough, has become associated in the mind of the public with persons who beat their breast, tear their hair, and declai-roobear of social gatherings The difference between the stilted reciter and the simple story-teller is perhaps best illustrated by an episode in Hans Christian Andersen's iale and the artificial Nightingale have been bidden by the E a duet at a Court function The duet turns out ale is singing his one solo for the thirty-third tireen wood--a true artist, instinctively choosing his right atue--in trying to soothe the outraged feelings of the courtiers, says, ”Because, you see, Ladies and Gentlehtingale you never can tell what you will hear, but in the artificial nightingale everything is decided beforehand So it is, and so it must remain It cannot be otherwise”

And as in the case of the two nightingales, so it is with the stilted reciter and the si ”how the tunes go”; the other is anxious to conceal the art

Si, but (and her the coale breaks down) it is a si in self-control, andthe difficulties which beset the presentation

I do not mean that there are not born story-tellers who _could_ hold an audience without preparation, but they are so rare in nueneral consideration, for this work is dedicated to the average story-tellers anxious to make the best use of their dramatic ability, and it is to them that I presenta story to a group of children--that is, if they wish for the far-reaching effects I shall speak of later on Only the preparation must be of a much less stereotyped nature than that by which the ordinary reciters are trained for their career

Soo, when I was in America, I was asked to put into the for stories A sudden inspiration seizedhours to be spent in the British Museuton and the Public Library in Boston--and this is the only portion of the dream which has been realized I planned an elaborate schenificent (ifto discover by long and patient researches what species of lullaby were crooned by Egyptian mothers to their babes, and ere the ele assyrian nursemaids which were the prototypes of ”Little Jack Horner,” ”dickory, dickory Dock”

and other nursery classics I intended to follow up the study of these ancient docu what progress we hadmodern nations

But there came to me suddenly one day the remembrance of a scene from Racine's ”Plaideurs,” in which the counsel for the defence, eager to sho fundains his speech: ”Before the Creation of the World”--And the Judge (with a touch of weariness teests:

”Let us pass on to the Deluge”

And thus I, too, have passed on to the Deluge I have abandoned an account of the origin and past of stories which at best would only have displayed a little recently acquired book knowledge When I thought of the number of scholars who could treat this part of the question infinitely better than h the task is more hu for our generation of parents and teachers

My objects in urging the use of stories in the education of children are at least fivefold: