Part 4 (2/2)

The lover does her bidding in order to vindicate his character as a brave knight One boy after hearing the story at once states his conteht's acquiescence, which he declares to be unworthy

”But,” says the teacher, ”you see he really did it to show the lady how foolish she was” The answer of the boy su to show: ”There was no sense in _his_ being sillier than _she_ was, to show her _she_ was silly”

If the boy had stopped there, we ination or romance, but his next re person he was, for he added: ”Now, if _she_ had fallen in, and he had leapt after her to rescue her, that would have been splendid and of soht, as adults, question the last part of the boy's statement, but this is pure cynicism and fortunately does not enter into the child's calculations

In my own personal experience, and I have told this story often in the Gerh schools in England, I have never found one girl who sympathized with the lady or who failed to appreciate the poetic justice nified renunciation of the knight

Chesterton defines sentimentality as ”a ta about certain e and beautiful expression”

I would strongly urge upon young teachers to revise, by this definition, some of the stories they have included in their repertories, and see whether they would stand the test or not

4 _Stories containing strong sensational episodes_ The danger of this kind of story is all the greater because ht in it and some crave for it in the abstract, but fear it in the concrete[15]

An affectionate aunt, on one occasion, anxious to curry favor with a four-year-old nepheas taxing her iination to find a story suitable for his tender years She was greatly startled when he suddenly said, in aa small boy” This was so remote from her own choice of subject that she hesitated at first, but co to the conclusion that as the child had chosen the situation he would feel no terror in the working up of its details, she aup to the final catastrophe But just as she reached the great dramatic moment, the child raised his hands in terror and said: ”Oh! Auntie, don't let the bear really eat the boy!”

”Don't you know,” said an i to a mild adventure story considered suitable to his years, ”that I don't take any interest in the story until the decks are dripping with gore?” Here we have no opportunity of deciding whether or not the actual description de than the listener had realized

Here is a poe a child's taste for sensational things:

A e, and he asked me What name was upon this place, and said he Was never here before He told a Lot of stories to me too His nose was flat

I asked him how it happened, and he said, The first -spike one day, but he was dead, And a jolly job too, but he'd have gone a long way to have killed hi in one ear, and the other was bit off by a crocodile, bedad, That's what he said: He taught me how to chew

He was a real nice man He liked me too

The taste that is fed by the sensational contents of the newspapers and the dramatic excitement of street life, and soraph, is so much stimulated that the interest in normal stories is difficult to rouse I will not here dwell on the deleterious effects of over-dramatic stimulation, which has been known to lead to cri of too est a cure when the in has said:

”Let us be realistic, by alltoo realistic Avoid the shuddering tale of 'the wicked boy who stoned the birds,' lest some hearer should be inspired to try the dreadful experiment and see if it really does kill”

I must emphasize the fact, however, that it is only the excess of this dramatic element which I deplore A certain as to the positive side of the subject, and I shall deal with it later on

5 _Stories presenting matters quite outside the plane of a child's interests, unless they are wrapped in ht to teach us to avoid stories which contain too much _allusion_ to norant

But judging from the written stories of today, supposed to be for children, it is still a matter of difficulty to realize that this for a joke, the appreciation of which depends solely on a special and ”inside” knowledge, is always bewildering and fatal to sustained draret that so very few people have sufficiently clear remembrance of their own childhood to help them to understand the taste and point of view of the _nore in the ”Brownies,” by Mrs Ewing, which illustrates the confusion created in the child mind by a facetious allusion in a dramatic moment which needed a one astray, one little child exclai-Horse's nose has turned up in the oven!”

”It couldn't,” remarks a tiresome, facetious doctor, far more anxious to be funny than to sympathized with the child, ”it was the purest Grecian, rownup people this is an excellent joke, but for a child has not yet become acquainted with these Grecian [16]

6 _Stories which appeal to fear or priggishness_ This is a class of story which scarcely counts today and against which the teacher does not need a warning, but I wish toallusion to these stories, partly to round off my subject and partly to show that we have made some improvement in choice of subject