Part 28 (1/2)
”What books would you advise your pupils to read?” asked Mac
”In their proper sequence_Comic Cuts, Deadwood dick, John Bull, Answers, Pearson's Weekly, Boy's Own Paper, Scout, Treasure Island, King Solo, The Call of the Wild, The Invisible Man,_ practically anything of Jack London, Rider Haggard, Conan Doyle, Kipling”
”And serious literature?”
”All literature is serious, Mac”
”I mean Dr Johnson, Swift, Bunyan, Milton, Dryden, and that lot,” said Mac
I smiled
”Mac, I want you to answer this question: have you read Boswell's _Life of Johnson_?”
”Extracts,” he admitted aardly
”Bunyan's _Life and Death of Mr Baditica_?”
”Er--no”
”Swift's _Tale of a Tub_?”
”No”
I sighed
”Would you like to read them?” I asked
”I don't think they would interest me,” he admitted
”Then in heaven's name, why expect children to have any interest in them? If these classics weren't shoved down children's throats the adult population of this country would be sitting of an evening reading and enjoying Milton instead of _John Bull_”
Mac would not have this
”Children ood style,” he said
”Style be blowed!” I cried ”The only way to get a style is by writing Mac, I should cut out all the lectures about Chaucer and Spenser and Shakespeare, and let the children write during the English periodif I had periods, which I wouldn't I don't want style from kiddies; I want to see them create in their oay If they are free to create they will form their own style”
In a conversation one always has a tendency to overstate a case, and as the argu cal style I love a book written in fine style, but I refuse to iantic protest Thus the son of praying parents often turns out to be a scoffer I had a good instance of the danger of superiirls of fifteen, sixteen, and seventeen years of age For one period a e all wrote five minute essays, and then we read theirl used the word ”beastly” in a serious essay, and we all protested against it Then one day the head-master decided that they should write essays for him He set a serious subject--The Function of Authority, I think it was--and then he went over their books with a blue pencil and corrected their spelling and style
Three days later lish period ca round the fire
”Hullo!” I said, ”aren't you going to write?”