u- SAN FRANCISCO STATE NORMAL SCHOOL BULLETIN No. 5 (New Series) AN ELEMENTARY COURSE OF STUDY IN LITERATURE By ALLISON WARE Supervisor of the Teachine of Literature, Sin Francisco State Normal School SAN TRANCISCO STATE NORMAL SCHOOL COURSES OL STUDY Some six years ago the members of the Faculty of the State Normal School at San Francisco undertook the issuance of Bulletins of Method for the teaching of the various subjects which they supervised. These Bulletins were primarily issued as Courses of Study for the Normal Elementary School in which the normal students are trained as teachers, but, later, larger editions were published for the use of the public schools. Up to the time of the great disaster of April 18, 1906, twelve Bulletins had been issued. The fire, however, destroyed the entire stock and even our library copies. We are now beginning the publication of revised editions of these Courses of Study. The following courses are now ready for distribution : No. 1 (new series). A Course of Study in Primary Language, and Handbook to the State Series Text. By Effie B. McFadden. Price, postpaid, 30 cents. No. 2 (new series). A Course of Study in Primary Arithmetic, and Handbook to the State Series Text. By David R. Jones. Price, postpaid, 30 cents. No. 3 (new series). A Course of Study for the Teaching of Reading to Beginners, and Handbook to the State Series Primer and First Reader. By Alma M. Patterson. Price, postpaid, SO cents. No. 4 (new series). A Course of Study in Map Geography. By Allison Ware. Price, postpaid, 30 cents. No. 5 (new sei-ies). A course of Study in Literature for Grammar Grades. By Allison Ware. Price, postpaid, SO cents. The following courses are in preparation : A Course of Study in Grammar, and Plandbook to accompany the States Series Text. By Frederic Burk. A Course of Study in History, and Handbook to the State Series Advanced Text. By Archibald B. Anderson, Supervisor of the Teaching of History. A Course of Study for the Teaching of Reading, and Handbook to the State Series Second and Third Readers. By Alma M. Patterson, Supervisor of the Teaching of Reading. A Course of Study in Language for Grammar Grades. By Effie B. McFadden, Super- visor of the Teaching of Language. SAN FRANC15CO 5TATL NORMAL SCHOOL BULLETIN No. 5 (New Series) AN LLLMLNTARY COUR5L OF 5TUDY IN LITLRATURL FOR GRAMMAR GRADES By ALLISON WARE. II Supervisor of the Teaching of Literature, San Francisco State Normal School SACRAME.NTO W. W. SHANNON Superintendent of State Printing 1908 \L|B1iAKY of OON'JKESS i wo Copies rtt^ur^. APR 23 1908 t/i3» A- 50(0. I Copyright, 1908 By Allison Ware V TABLE OF CONTENTS. Pages. LITERATURE IN THE GRAMMAR SCHOOLS 5-26 The Content of Our Present Literature Courses 5-0 Prevailing ^Methods q.j Alleged Results of Our Literature Work 7-8 Results as Shown by Testing Our Graduates 8-9 The Real Ends of School Literature 10-12 Sound and Unsound Content 12-16 Sir Roger de Coverley Papers, a Typically Bad: Case 12-13 The Dangers of the "Type Method" in Literature 14-15 Some Methods to be Avoided 16 Form Analysis : the Bane of Present ]Metiiods 16-18 The Influence of the Latin Tradition on Methods 18-li) The Influence of Scholarship on Methods 19 Some Fictions of Pedagogy 19-20 The Influence of Book Making on Content and Method 20 Appreciation, the Aim of Sound Method 21 The Teacher as Story-Teller 21-22 The Teacher as Interpreter 22-28 Class Activity in Literature 2.3-24 Memory Work in Literature 24 Literary Knowledge and the Cumxlative Review 24-25 Which Shall It Be ? 25-26 HORATIUS AT THE BRIDGE 27.34 RIP VAN WINKLE .3.5-41 THE SONG OF HIAWATHA 42.58 EVANGELINE .59-64 IVANHOE (i.5-74 SNOW-BOUND 7.-)-S4 MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY S.5-91 ENOCH ARDEN 92-99 GOOD READING HABITS 100-103 AN LLLMLNTARY COUR5L OF 5TUDY. LITERATURE. IN THL GRAMMAR SCHOOL. In comparison with arithmetic, grammar, language work, and other sub- jects, the grammar grade literature course has received but scanty construct- ive attention in the last few years. Many subjects have been, at least partially, clarified as to their purposes, content, and method; but this has been allowed to remain tangled and obscure. This is not fair to the sub- ject ; nor is it fair to the school-supporting public whose faith in the efficacy of teacherdom should move all teachers to the most earnest scrutiny in forming courses of study. Worst of all, it is not fair to the boys and girls. To their development our schools miLSit minister. Their welfare demands the most scrupulous care in the selection of what our schools should teach. And if all this were not ground for a careful overhauling of the course in litera- ture, a new portent appears to stimulate the luidertaking : there is a strong and growing discontent with our school work in literature. To what end is it designed ■ On what rational basis is its system of method founded ? Why do we find in this latter day that many of our boys,— school boys,— hate to read and our girls become perverts in reading? Why are the great poems and stories of the race less well known by school graduates than they were fifty years ago? Why is the appreciation of poetry becoming a cult for a caste rather than a joyful experience for all? These questions in various forms may no longer be denied,— if for no better reason than because of their importunity. It is a fair and pertinent business, therefore, to pause for a moment in the making of courses of study in literature and to examine the state of that subject as it now reveals itself in our schools. TRADITIONAL CONTENT OF THE LITERATURE COURSE. At the present time, literature under that name is generally found in the seventh and eighth grades. During these years certain poems' and prose selections are introduced with an object apparently different from that pursued in framing the reading course of the lower grades. Among the selections commonly found in the work of the seventh and eighth grades are the following: Evangeline, Miles StancHsli, Hiawatha, The Merchant of Venice, Ivanhoe, Snow-hound, Rip Van Winkle, The Legend of Sleepy (5) Holloiv, The Lady of the Lake, Julius Caesar, The Vision of Sir Launfal, Eohin Hood, Enoch Arden, The Christmas Carol, Sir Roger de Coverley, Tales from Shakespeare, The Man Witltout a Country, Silas Marner, The Great Stone Face, Translations of the Iliad and Odyssey, and The Alhamhra. One of these per half year is the usual arrang'ement. Many a course in literature is. therefore, based upon four of such longer masterpieces, some- times with shorter selections for cursory treatment sandwiched in. Not one of a score of courses of study examined by the writer in connec- tion with this work contains one fourth as many long selections as have been named. Why this is so will be seen from an examination of the methods and aims employed in teaching the subject, and the effects it produeas may be determined by an inspection of the products of our schools. TRADITIONAL METHOD: THE STUDY OF THE AUTHOR 's LIFE. The methods generally in use are based on what has been called the principle of "intensive study." A composite sketch of the procedure seems to be something like this: First, the life of the author is studied. This is regularly done as a sort of sacrifice to the shades of the writer, and shows little or no discrimination in method, or thought as to educational results. Generally the author's life is a string of barren details poorly put together in the introduction or the notes of the text, or served cold from some biographical dictionary. In such case the child learns when the author was born, whether his father M^as a preacher or not, whence he inherited his artistic temperament, how old he was when he wrote his first poem, what a certain Great ]\Ian once said to him when he was a little boy, or what he as a Great Man once said to some little boy, whether when he was in school he liked arithmetic or not, how at one time he was editor of this or that long-since defunct magazine, and how at last he was decently shelved at some university or in the United States diplomatic service, or, horrible v/arning, drank himself to death. There is no attempt to make a story out of the stuff' thus presented. Indeed, nine times out of ten it is not fit to make a story. It does not. and its very nature can not, thrill or delight or exalt or stimulate the hearts of the hearers. No emotional excita- tion accompanies its daily two-page dole. Nor, on the other hand, are the biographical facts presented in themselves worth remembering. Here and there may be some scrap of knowledge about some writer that the child might actually meet and use in life. But that goes into the hash with the rest, and is with the rest first loathed and then forgotten. The amount of biographical trash that is served up to children in the grammar and high schools under the head of literature is only conceivable to one who remem- bers what an amount of it he has forgotten. The best thing that can be said of it is that one recovers rapidly from it. (6) A STUDY OP LANGUAGE FORMS AND MORAL PLATITUDES. After the author has been propitiated, the masterpiece is taken up and the intensive work is on in earnest. In the first place, the children have the selection as a readino- lesson. This is the first principle of method to appeal to the teacher because the work is made an unmarked or at best but vaguely set off continuation of the formal work in reading-. Besides, tradi- tion has sanctioned the method and it is easy to apply it. Composition then claims its share of the spoils. One passage nuist be paraphrased: another is to be condensed: a certain description is to be reproduced. Next, if it be poetry, the versification is attacked, the rhyme and meter classified, analyzed, and dwelled upon. Odd and misshapen sentences are selected for grammar exercises and diagramming. Hard words are threshed out, derivations are determined, allusions are chased to the back of the book and finally caught. Figures of speech are harried about. Gems are .selected for memorization. The child is told to learn,— ''Silently, one by one, in the infinite meadows of heaven Blossomed the lovely stars, the forget-me-nots of the angels," because it is a good example of a metaphor. ^leanwhile, moral lessons have been diligently brought from hiding and exploited ; it seems to be assumed that literature is a text-book of didactic morality. ALLEGED VS. ACTUAL RESULTS OF LITER.VTITRE TEACHING. The first teacher you meet will tell you what all this is supposed to do for the pupil. You will be told trippingly that this work in literature gives the pupil the culture that conies from contact with our master-writers : that it inspires in him a love for good books ; that it purifies his heart, fires his imag'ination, develops his better nature, and molds his character. Most of us have said this often enough in one way or another. But the actual results are not to be proved by our making this fiuent boast, however honest w^e may be in it, but rather in careful examination of our products,— the boys and girls who pass through the literature course. This is the evidence upon which the merits of the work nuist be judged. A TYPICAL RESULT. The story is told of a boy who was preparing his literature lesson while his little sister, who had glanced over his shoulder at the poem before him,— Gray's Elegy,— went about repeating to herself the line, "The curfew tolls the knell of parting day," "The curfew tolls the knell of parting day." After she had said this over and over some half-dozen times the distracted brother turned sharply and said, ' ' Why do you go around repeating that fool line? It almost drives me crazy." The girl, in wonder, replied, "Why, don't you like it? I think it's beautiful. It sounds so fine. Just listen, 'The curfew tolls the knell of parting day.' I like it." "Like it!" snorted the brother, ' ' You just wait until you get into the eighth grade and hear the teacher say, 'What does curfew mean? What does knell mean? (7) What does parting day mean? Johnnie, scan that line! Then you won't like it an}» more. You '11 hate it. ' ' And the pity of it is that he is right. She and hundreds of others have come to hate it, or at best to remain untouched bj"- its appeal. WHAT LITERATURE HAS AND HAS NOT DONE FOR OUR GRADUATES. The writer has recently had some experience with grammar and high school graduates of something more than average common sense and culture and has been interested in getting their versions of the purposes of litera- ture in the schools and the result secured from school literature by the pupil. In a majority of cases the cry was first voiced that the main pur- pose of the work is to hunt down the meaning of allusions. It has l)een agreed by whole classes of these graduates from the literature courses of our grammar and high schools that there is but little reason for putting the Charge of the Light Brigade into a course in literature, because the the only thing to study about in it is the single allusion to ' ' Cossacks ' ' ! Another prevalent notion advanced by them is that literature is a means of learning something about authors. No claim was made by these educated young people that the}* remembered anything of much consequence of all this biographical matter; but the learning of it was no small slice of their school work in literature. On a par in importance was the idea that litera- ture is the study of language forms. All agreed that figures of speech, versification, sentence structure, derivation of words, and all the rest of it, had been made much of when the work was done; although no one could remember of 'having made any use of such knowledge after the last exami- nation was passed. In fact, no one seemed to have very much of it left to use, or to feel any keen embarrassment due to its absence. Some said that paraphrasing, descriptive writing, retelling, etc., was an important part of their work, and that drill in composition was one of the principal results attained by them. Moral lessons were also referred to as an important object. Then proceeding on another tack, lists of the world-known, world-loved stories and poems have been read to these graduates of our literature classes to see how far their literary tastes had actually and unconsciously led them into the culture and knowledge nearest the heart of the subject. The result was interesting, not to say shocking. Few knew anything about the story of Damon and Pythias. No one knew the story of the sword of Damocles. Thermopylae and Marathon were confused echoes from the ancient history class. Joan of Arc lived as a badly blurred name. The Gordian Knot was a meaningless phrase. The question was asked one class, ' ' How many have read some of Tennyson's poems?" Some hands were raised, many brows were contracted, and a look of uncertainty wandered around the room. "I mean the Idyls of the King, In Memoriam, The Brook, The Charge of the Light Brigade, etc.," was prompted. All hands were raised. "Outside of school and school requirements — just for fun?" the question concluded. All hands dropped but two, — raised in half-ashamed confession. And this among a score of rather superior products of our schools. (8) WANTED: A LOVE OF GOOD BOOKS. There is a common cry that boys do not like school literature, and it seems to be pretty well founded. Is it because they do not thrill to any of the good or brave or beautiful things which the best men have done or thought? It is a common cry that children about to graduate from our grammar schools do not like to read. Is it because human feelings have become blunted in this degenerate age, and no longer respond to the stimuli that have moved the race for lo. these many years? The writer knows a family of seven grown children, all of them fairly well educated in the public schools of this State. Three of them like to read. One developed well-grooved tastes before he went to school ; another got his cue from the first by way of companionship and imitation ; and the third grew into a some- what tardy reading habit through the temptation of fireside stories, well- filled book shelves current literature in loads, — and the abounding grace of God. Nearly every other day the principal of any large grammar school meets a parent whose boy is troublesome and tired of school. Four times out of five that boy doesn't like to read. It is an interesting coincidence. ' PROMISES UNFULFILLED. It is plain statement of fact that not one of the glib promises which we are prone to make so abundantly for our school work in literature is being commonly fulfilled. Our pupils are not grasping the ideals and assuming the emotional attitudes embodied in the selections treated. They are not developing a love for good books. They are not receiving their birthright of appreciation for the lore of their race. They are getting just what we give them : some increase in the power of oral reading unaccompanied by a love for it; a knowledge of a mass of idle gossip concerning authors' lives, unconnected Avith any culture demand set by the world and hopelessly evanescent; and some insight into the complexities involved in the technical analysis of language forms, — an insight painful and purposeless in its acquisition and hardly to be maintained until the final examination is over. A BARTERED BIRTHRIGHT. All this is the logical price that we must pay for what we are doing in literature. Figs have not yet been gathered from thistles ; — but the course of study has ingeniously grafted thistles onto fig trees and gathered a bountiful crop. Children with the normal healthy appetites of their unfolding emotional life have asked for bread ; and we have handed them a stone. They have clamored for meat ; and we have passed them a serpent. Being intelligent, the}^ do not raise their plates for second helping. Then we marvel, at the decreasing popular interest in poetry, bewail the decay of the old-time love for the literarj- heritage of the race, — and cry anathemas against the sordid commercial age in which our lines have fallen ! The times are all right and so are the children ; but in so far as our schools could do it the literary birthright of our boys and girls has been bartered for a mess of pottage. It is high time for us to ask whether we are content with the results of this transaction. (9) THE TRUE PURPOSES OF SCHOOL LITERATURE. In the first place, what should we set up as the objective, the end to be attained, in teaching literature? There are several ways of answering this question. One is merely to repeat what we have heard, the time-worn phrases of the craft, — "character building," "lofty ideals," "insight into the beauties of our language," "appreciation of the author's life," "trained imagination." But such a statement leaves us holding to promises whose fulfillment we have been unable to perform. Another way to formulate the purpose of school literature is to claim for its teaching every desirable result that the generosity of our hearts can dictate. This has been done so freely in the recent past for other subjects that it might seem only fair to let literature make its boast along with the rest. But what we might wish to draw from literature and what literatiire is really adapted to yield are very different things. Surely it becomes school folk, who hold the confidence of the people, to be conservative and sound in every promise. Our hopes and wishes are not a safe guide. A third way is open. We may see what values the subject should yield by noting carefully the values it always has yielded to the generations of men. What has literature proved itself able to do? These things above all others it has done : It has lifted the individual from the routine of his limited personal experience and has given him participation in all that the greatest have done, or known, or felt. It has solidified for nations their national lore, and has given races their traditions. It has crystallized and preserved a wonderful series of mental and emotional attitudes. It has given us social standards. ^loreover it has kept the individual with his nation, loyal to his race, in touch with his social standards, by giving him the viewpoint of his fellows, — by bringing him within the scope of that which has molded his fellows. And at all times it has been a source of pleasure. Ever since men have been men the bard and story-teller have been chief among entertainers. Let us imagine a man cut off from the literature that is current in the world about him. Supi^ose that he has never by literary proxy fought at Tliermopyla^, or held the Tiber bridge, or stood for knightly honor with the heroes of Arthur, or forced a charter from King John, or suffered and rejoiced wdth the JNIerchant of Venice, or felt the call when the poet said, "There is a pleasure in the pathless Avood," and "The moon doth with delight look round her when the heavens are bare"; — suppose, in short, that he has never enjoyed and felt the meaning of the myths and legends, poems, stories, and inspired interpretations that live in the hearts of those aliout him, — what sort of a creature would such a one be ? Suppose, further, tliat he is endowed with all else that education can supply : still he is far from being a man in fellowship with his kind. He has "varied from the kindly race of men." He is a thing apart, an outcast and a lonely thing, unsocial unhuman, a product of his own feeble class with environment, emotionally the result of his own paltry experiences. To prevent such a condition is the function of literature. Its chief service is to give the individual the experience of those emotions, the possession of (lot those mental attitudes which come from an appreciation of the literature current in his social world. He must be broug-ht into touch with the char- acters, situations, problems, and issues that literature has presented to his kind. The wealth of story and story appreciation that has been stored up through the centuries for the race must be opened for him. WILL-O '-THE-WIgP OB.JECTS. Some are not content to stop here and acknowledge that a sufficient pur- po.se has been found. They would set up the teaching of literature as the machinery for making writers. Or they declare that the school has done its duty only when literary appreciations have led to moral conduct. In order to square our promises by performance, let us stand on the solid ground of what the subject can do, and what when given half a chance it does do, than to depend on any frail hope as to what we may fondly hope it should do or might do. If an intelligent teacher were asked by a parent. "Can you give my boy, — an ordinary normal boy, under ordinary normal conditions, — a love for the works of Shakespeare and an appreciation of the world's best known, most used literature?" she would not be deceiving herself or him to say, "Yes, I can. Give me the boy, and don't bother me with a course of study that puts everything- before literary appreciation, and I'll give the boy a love for the world's best stories." But if the parent were not satisfied therewith and asked in addition,— "Then will you not, also, teach him to write such plays as Shakespeare wrote, or at least something or other that the world will love and hold to?" — the teacher, being intelligent, and not being in the business of taking money and children under false pretenses, should say, "No, I can't do it. If I could, I would resign the teaching of school and take to running the universe." Any ordinary teacher can lead any ordinary boy to admire the heroism of Leonidas or the civic virtue of the Consul Brutus; — attitudes of feeling that place him at one on these points with the rest of the world. But she would have to remodel his ancestry, reconstruct his home life, direct his doings and his diet, supervise his vital functioning, control the operation of his seven senses, and then at just the right psychological moment create exactly the right situation in order to make him fight like Leonidas, or serve the state as did the first Roman Consul. Life conduct is the resultant of a complex- ity of forces over which the school has but a limited control. There is no school formula in literature or any other subjects that will make the pupil truthful, or kind, or self-reliant, or honest, in the situations that later years may bring forth. BY-PRODUCTS. Yet for those wiio would shrink from believing this, — a fact commonly attested in the experiences of every one, — there is still some comfort. Our emotional experiences and our mental attitudes that we gain from litera- ture are factors in the complex of causes that determines conduct. The boy who admires the fidelity of Evangeline may not be faithful in a much (11) less trj'ing- situation ; yet his admiration for the ideal love of the heroine has set np a tension toward the right. Public opinion, too, is a very po"wer- ful factor in shaping individual conduct. If our literature could lead to a crystallization of strong community feeling on the subject of family aifeetion or civic duty, a force would be established powerful enough to direct the actions of the individual in the specific situations involved. But when all is said and done the direct, positive end of literature is pure appre- ciation of the stories to which the world clings. What by-products may come from this, what far distant, untraced consequences may arise, are not practical objects toward w^hich to aim. They will take care of themr selves if we but teach literature so as to draw from it its real and palpable values. OBJECTS MUST BE ATTAINABLE AS WELL AS DESIRABLE. Let us be content, therefore, to see literature do what it always has done in the education of the feelings and in yielding the main supply of the cul- ture of the race. Otherwise in trying to get from it results that are specu- lative and remote we will throw away the substance in grasping at the shadow. It has been said that some of the best mines in Nevada have been promoted and overcapitalized until they have become the wildest of wild- cats. Gold is in these mines,— loads of it; but when the prospective investor has asked what he could get by putting in his savings, the pro- moter instead of showing that the dividends would pay for a modest house and lot in the suburbs, has dazzled him with visions of a palace on Fifth Avenue and a steam yacht on the ^Mediterranean. In our el^'orts to get something good out of literature we must not be guilty of overcapitaliza- tion, or of exploiting the wrong leads. Values are before us, well worth the winning, — tangible values, demonstrably within our grasp, — if we but square our work to attain them. There is so much for the teacher of literature to do which should be and can be done,— and that in most schools is not being done,— that there is no time to follow every hue and cry promis- ing the speculative dividends of frenzied pedagogy. THE CONTENT OF THE COURSE OF STUDY IN LITERATURE. How can the true ends of literature be attained? In other words, how can the school boy be given friendly acquaintance with the literature that has become common property 1 First of all the course of study must consist of the right selections and enough of them. In both respects our present courses in literature are generally lacking. SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY, A TYPICALLY BAD CASE. Of late years the Sir Roger de Coverley Papers have crept into a number of courses of study in literature. These essays on the social life of an English country gentleman of the early eighteenth century had a limited vogue in their da}' in the coffee clubs and among literary epicures and their following of satellites. Since then the specialist in English literature has been busy upon them. He has discovered that they have a ''place" in the (12) development of English prose. He has noted, presumably with joy, that they are written in a curious style, somewhat pompons, not to say clumsy, according to modern standards. He has found them to be full of quaint words and odd constructions and to yield innumerable allusions to events and conditions that have been generally forgotten for over a hundred years. All this offers a wide range for study, a chance for fine smackings of appreciations, and gives the specialist great joy. Naturally he has found the papers interesting, just as a paleontologist finds an odd bone or a per- plexing fossil a source of interest. It is of the things nearest his heart. All this is well enough. But the scholars and those who watch them in order to grasp the better at an affectation of scholarshij) have not been con- tent with this. They have put the essays into the public schools so that little children may get the rare delights which the specialists have experienced in ransacking them. This is a generous but a strange proceeding. Stranso when one remembei*s that five generations of Americans have steadily refused to have anything to do with Roger de Coverley Essays outside of school hours. Strange indeed when one considers the fact that these papers deal in a superficial way with the social conventions of a special day and land and have no pressing claim on the hearts of those living in a different day and land. And doubly strange when it is seen that the only possible interest such literature may have is addi'essed to the specialist or the con- noisseur in literature, among whose numbers not one in a thousand gram- mar school children will ever be found. And all this is bad. It is bad because it has resulted in teaching that has been without educational result; because in its very nature it has not been a selection of material for literature work that is adapted to yield values to the everyday American of average education. Moreover, it is only a type case of many other improper selections, and an illustration of the special interests that sway in directing the schoolroom method of treat- ing still other subjects which, if well presented, might yield values. THE world's appreciation, A SOUND BASIS FOR SELECTION. Some one will say, "Whose word is to be taken 3s to the suitability of this or that selection for school work in literature if the scholar is not to lead? Who else has the wisdom to decide? If the specialist is at fault no one is able to stand before the county board and out of the depths of his own judgment make safe answer." Fortunately, there is no need to appeal to any one. The great mass of cultured, well-read Americans have decided. They have clung to the story of William Tell. They are intimate with Hercules and his exploits. They are still on friendly terms wtih Robin Hood and King Arthur and Ivanhoe. On the other hand, they have placed The Great Stone Face on a top shelf; they have forgotton that there ever was such a poem as Comus; and they have never of their free will known or cared about Sir Roger de Coverley. These latter works may make ever so strong an appeal to the specialist in literature, but they show no hold on the general interest of our fellows ; and this in spite of their bolstering and nursing in courses of study in literature. (13) This fact, plainly evidenced by any investigation into the matter but probably self-evident to all, has come about through the operation of a well-known natural law, the law of the survival of the fittest. In the affec- tions of the generations the fittest has not meant the selection that offers the best occasion for allusion hunting, or style analysis, or discussion of place in literary history, or special tang for favored palates. But the race has chosen as fittest to live in its affections those stories, poems, and inter- pretations that have proved themselves to appeal to the fundamental human feelings and that have aroused through their situations the loves and the hates and the admirations that stand typical of the heart of 'the people. It is of this literature, proved fittest to move our hearts by the token that it has moved the hearts of our fellows, that we should build up our grammar school course of study. Through it the boy can be brought to his own in the literary birthright of his generation. It is the only means whereby he may experience the emotional experiences, the appreciations of specific situations, characters, and motives that literature has yielded to those who form his social unit. THE COURSE SHOULD CONTAIN MANY SELECTIONS. It is not sufficient, however, that the course of study should consist of right selections. It must contain enough right selections. One swallow does not make the spring, nor will one poem in the literature class develop an appreciation for poetry. Reading tastes are not formed over night or through one literary experience. They are the product of long and varied contact with literature. The absence of this breadth of literary contact is one of the fundamental weaknesses in our present course of study. There is another vital consideration that should urge us to increase the number of selections given for study in the school. The purpose of the work is to give the child acquaintance with the literary lore that is found current in the broader life about him. Plainly this can not be done by introducing him to merely a small fragment of this lore. He will not have a familiar acquaintance with Horatius because he has met Leonidas. Snoiv-hound will nOt give him the emotional attitudes that are conmion among his fellows from their appreciation of Evangeline. The child must be brought into direct intimate touch with as many specific characters and situations in literature as are necessary in order to give him what the world about him possesses. In this way he will be brought to have his share in the staple culture of his race. DANGERS OF THE ' ' TYPE METHOD."' It has been urged in this connection that a few literary types, thoroughly presented, will serve to give general appreciation. Without commenting here on the dangers lurking in the common ideas about 'thorough pre- sentation," it may be pointed out that this is just what our schools are doing and that the results show no signs of a general literary appreciation among our graduates. The literary type idea is dangerous because it seeks to maintain a fundamental error in our schools and to ground that (14) error upon a pedagogical theory. It does not note the palpable facts that habits of reading, like other habits, are the result of many experiences ; that the child must grow to a mature literary taste through many contacts with literature; that the type selected may not be individually a selection that has any part in the world culture in literature and hence may offer the pupil no help in securing his share of that culture ; and that the scheme has long been tried and found wanting. A WIDE LITERARY CONTENT, THROUGHOUT THE GRADES. The subject matter of a literature course that is set fair for results should consist of a great many selections suitable for all the grades. In the primary grades this has been provided for far better than in the grammar grades. The story hour still has its place in most primary departments. It is sometimes being supplemented by the chalk-talk and the many excellent story readers. In the best primary departments well-worn myths, legends, fables, and children's stories are receiving increasing emphasis. But the grammar grades have never claimed their share. Not less than half a hundred selections should form the grammar grade literature course. These selections should be chosen from the literature that has been and is a vital part of the culture and knowledge of the world. They should be such as constitute the core of the literary experiences of the mass of educated people. Many of them (e. g., Hercules stories; William Tell: Evangeline :) may very well be second-time-over presentations of stories first told to children down in the primary grades. It is an error to suppose that children do not profit by a second contact with the best literature and that they do not enjoy the second encounter. A good story is never hackneyed and stale. A great story has layer on layer of meaning in it. It is this underlying vitality and richness that is at the bottom when a story lives through the centuries. No primary grade child can rise to a full appreciation of the Trojan AVar. He may admire the courage of Achilles and delight in the spectacle of the wooden horse; but he will not feel the depth of motives that governed Protesilaus in his sacrifice, nor can he appreciate the pathos and the heroic devotion that vibrate through the incident of Hector parting from his wife and baby at the city's gate. Literature that arouses the deepest and strongest of human emotions is a recurring source of enjoyment. Like the best music and the great picture it has reserves of value. We see more in it and love it more each time we meet it. SUPPLEMENTARY READING FOR PLEASURE. Besides the considerable number of selections that should constitute the class work in grammar grade literature, a wide range of supplementary reading should be insured so as to lead the pupil into reading habits. First, should be aroused an appreciation of the stories treated in class. Then should come exercise of the tastes thus w^hetted in the reading of good books for pleasure's sake. This is the second step in the fixing of good reading habits. The material thus to be used by the pupils in outside (15) reading should be selected with considerable latitude. Any book not positively harmful in its effects is admissible. There are, therefore, two classes of material to be used in connection with grammar school work. First,— the material that forms the basis for class work. This should be selected from the literature that has become a part of our race culture, and it Should consist of as many selections as possible. Second,- — the material that is used as a basis for supplementary reading. This should consist in large part of standard, current books; but no title is to be excluded unless it contains a menace to the welfare of the child. At all times the adaptability of the selections to the appreciations of children must be assured. METHODS IN LITERATURE. But even with clear and worthy ends in view and with a content wisely chosen the work in literature may still be of no avail. Unwise methods may still defeat the attainment of the true ends of the course of study. It is safe, indeed, to say that the grammar school work in literature could never be fully worth while as long as present methods continue, no matter how carefully the course might be planned. Let us see what the situation is and where improvement may be made. PREVAILING METHODS. The commonly accepted method of teaching literature has been described already and a detailed review is not necessary here. Besides, most of us remember it as it was applied to, and later by, ourselves. Its principal characteristics are as follows: 1. The author's life is studied. 2. Analysis of diction, derivation of words, study of sentence structure, diagramming of obscure passages, and examination of elements of para- graph structure are later taken up. 3. Allusion hunting, note grinding, and glossary thumbing are an important aspect of the work. 4. Written paraphrases and other composition exercises accompany the study. 5. The principles of versification are considered. 6. Figures of speech are defined and classified. 7. Memory selections are forced upon unresponsive minds. 8. The text comes before the class in the form of an oral reading lesson. FORM ANALYSIS, TH!E BANE OF PRESENT METHODS. A mere enumeration of these aspects of our present method is enough to show the state of affairs that our school literature is in. Not one of the lines of study indicated is adapted to bring out the literary values for the attainment of which the work is framed. The general fault is that the emphasis has been placed on the forms of literature rather than on its content. 11: is assumed that if a pupil knows a simile from a metaphor he (16) is then and there in a state fit to appreciate the beauty of both ; that if he can name the kind of versification he is reading then he will feel its charm. It has been forgotten that literature is in the first instance something to enjoy, to respond to emotionally, that its characters and situations are the center of it all. It has been lost sight of that the form does not exist as an object of study, save to the specialist, but as a medium through which the beauty and charm of the content may be shown forth. We have given the bare forms, the husks of literature, to the children and have forgotten about the kernel. In every old story and in every poem that has lived in the appreciations of mankind there is something to arouse emotional response. There are fascinating situations for us to participate in, there are beautiful scenes for us to see, there are brave deeds and wise decisions for us to do and make. To these kernels of the subject all method in literature must lead if it be well founded. LITERARY APPRECIATION, CHILLED BY TRADITIONAL METHODS. There is no intention here to disparage oral reading, composition work, and such study of language forms as may be reasonable. But they are not ends in literature teaching and they must be taught in courses of which they may be made the proper goals. We do not read a novel to learn how to read or to become skilled in classifying figures of speech or to afi^ord us the delights of allusion hunting. We read it because it gives us imaginary introduction to interesting people, and because through its pages we enter into experiences which we enjoy. What would you think if you were asked to treat the next novel you read according to the grammar school formula for studying Ivanhoe? Imagine the situation for a moment. First, you are compelled to study a dry four-page sketch of the author's life. To satisfy our comparison this sketch must not be an appreciation or an inter- pretation of his life,— that would be enough of an infliction, — but it must be a series of chronicled facts largely attached to dates. Upon your knowl- edge of these facts and dates you are then compelled to pass a quiz. Thereafter, the text of the novel is placed before you. Its beauty and charm are made manifest by oral reading, one paragraph at a time and each in a different style and voice,— and each voice belonging to a different boy or girl of twelve or fourteen years of age. Sometimes you have your turn at a paragraph, standing while you read in an easy and appreciative posture : heels together, chest thrown out, book fourteen inches from your eyes. At the end of each paragraph, yours included, every one joins in help- ful suggestion concerning (1) whether or not the reader raised his eyes at different places, (2) whether he modulated his voice according to right standards, (3) whether he mispronounced this or that word, (4) whether he is able to pick out the subject of the paragraph, (n) whether his toes were turned in or out. When criticism of the reading is over,^ and the paragraph, if it be an ugly one, may be read two or three times before it is finally polished off,— an interlocutor stands ready to test 2— BUL. .5 (17) you and the other readers on a variety of matters touching it : Is such and such a sentence too long? Why is the exclamation point used after ' ' Ah ' ' in the fourth line ? Give the seven rules concerning the exclamation point. Give the definition of "tempestuous." Name a synonym for it. What is a synonym? Name another synonym. Explain the derivation of "diverting." Are there any figures of speech in the paragraph? What figure is found in the third sentence? Define personification? What is the difference between a personification and a metaphor? What is the antecedent of "it" in line ten? Diagram the sentence. Explain the allu- sion to Patagonia, in line thirteen. What does the paragraph tell you con- cerning the author's own life? Does the last sentence make j'ou joyful or sad? What words in it are suggestive of sadness? Give the content of the paragraph in your own words. What does the paragraph teach you concerning respect for your elders ? Express the subject of the paragraph in one sentence. And so on. for each paragraph in the meager daily dole. How would you like to supply this method to your next novel or maga,- zine story? Would such a method arouse your appreciations, stimulate your emotions, and give to you the delight that comes from real immersion in a story ? Would you, in all candor, have anything to do with literature if you had to approach it through such an ordeal? There is no wonder that children hate "literature" when they are introduced to it through methods that would chill the zeal of an appreciative adult reader. The truth is that under such conditions they have really never tasted literature at all ; they have simply been stuffed on its husks. ORIGIN OF PREVAIUNG METHOD IN LITERATURE. Why did such thumbscrew-and-rack methods ever come into use ? There seem to be several influences inspiring and directing the system. INFLUENCE OF THE LATIN TRADITION ON METHOD. In the first place, historical influences in the form of age-old traditions have been at work. At the time our modern schools were starting their courses of study every modern language of western Europe was under the ban of scholarship and without the pale of the school. In that day every one who boasted a yearning for culture assumed to deny as far as possible the very existence of his mother tongue. Classical Latin was the heart of education. Its study was largely a study of language forms. Its scholar- ship was not thought to be the scholarship of the world but of a favored class. Later on, beginning in the latter part of the eighteenth century, a variety of factors gradually forced the mother tongue into the class room. At once the standards of the traditional classic were applied to it. Indeed, a strong argument for its admission was that it could be made subject to the same sort of study that had been devoted to the Latin. A grammar was run for it in ill-fitting Latin molds ; a category of its figures was made ; its poetry was analyzed and found to yield principles of versification; its (18) diction was made reputable by being interpreted in terms of Latin deriva- tion; classical allusions,^ — common enough in the English of that day, — still further enhanced the possibilities of exploitation in the school. And so our present-day school work concerning the race language was set on its way under the influences of the methodology^ of the classics. INFLUENCE OF SCHOLARSHIP ON METHOD. The study of English was thus given its early caste by the traditional objects and the ideals of the study of the language forms of Latin. Since then the hand of the scholar has been busy with it. The study of the English proved a rich digging. It soon became a field for research and exploitation by a new cult of scholars. As the researches grew deeper, the accumulation of knowledge concerning the language grew to imposing bulk. It had a history ; its grammar was full of delightful questions for discussion ; its words were derived not only from Latin, but from half a dozen inter- mediate and ultimate sources ; there were rules governing their pronuncia- tion ; rules, too, for its sentence-making and paragraphing. Without much delay the scholar proved that, as a field for the study of language, English could be made quite as formal and almost as respectable as Latin. Under this showing its stock rose and the common schools of our country invested heartily in it. Now a curious fact should be observed at this point : the scholars, who, through their excellent system of division of labor, gathered together and organized the vast mass of knowledge now extant concerning the language, did not stop to inquire how much or just what of all this aggregate wisdom should be instilled into the minds of boys and girls who were not preparing for special research work in English but who merely wished a general adjustment to the demands of life. Perhaps it was not the business of the scholars to warn the public that nine-tenths of what they knew was only of value to the specialist ; or it may be that they were stirred by the taunts and stimulated by the example of their brothers in the field of Latin; or possibly, being very busy men, they never thought much about it; but the fact is that as their research advanced, in like ratio and in the same direction grew the study of the English language forms in the public schools. The standard of pure scholarship, which in plain terms is merely the study of a subject for the subject's sake, thus came to direct the growth of the common school course in literature, — whose standard should have })een the study of the subject for the boys' and girls' sake. FICTIONS OF PEDAGOGY. When the law finds itself in a logical cul-de-sac it invents what is called a fiction of law and thus manages to maintain a serious face on the situation. When the scholars of English and the scholars of pedagogy found that they were giving a nation's children a course in English that seemed to many to be as purposeless in selection of material and almost as void in real efficiency as the narrow Latin course had been, thej^ also took refuge in a (19) fiction, — a fiction of pedagogy. They did not invent it, — in fact they were largely invented by it, — but they modified and adapted and decorated and bedecked it, and commended it to the admiration of the world. This fiction declared that the orderly study of grammar, syntax, rhetoric, prosody, and language forms in general, along the line on which scholars had organized them, gave general strength to the mind, cogency to the judgment, keenness to the observation, retentiveness to the memory; that it was, in short, a quick way to insure the full and general efficienc}' of all the mental processes. Other and minor fictions, equally pleasing, have been invented from time to time as their need became manifest: (1) that the study of grammar teaches children to speak and write correct English ; (2) that a study of derivations is the best way of learning what words mean ; (3) that a correct and fluent style of speech is the result of possessing much organized wisdom on the subject of sentence structure and style; (4) that an ability to classify figures of speech gives its possessor a peculiar power to appreciate such figures; (5) that the study of an author's life is a necessary prerequisite to one who wishes to understand what the author has written; (6) that a knowledge of good literature is the surest way to moral living. Thus each new cul-de-sac in our present school course in English has been labeled a gateway to something worth having; while the whole course has been advertised as a means to a useful and happy life. The authors of these fictions and their present disciples have not observed that the fictions were merely fictions ; that they had adopted and modified a theory that Latin had proved unsound ; that the given means consistently failed to produce the promised results; that they were confusing the education of a specialist in English with the education in English that might be of value to a nation ; that the theory of their fictions was founded on a psychology long since threadbare and outworn. "With the scholar as a scholar no one has any fault to find. As a research man and more especially as one who may apply new-found knowledge to useful ends he is an important element in our civilization. But when he sets the abstract standards of his scholarship as the basis for organizing the content and methods of grammar school work in literature it is time for us to stop and ask him just what that work will be worth to the children who are not going to be specialists in the field of English. And the time has passed when fictions of pedagogy will be accepted as answers. INFLUENCE OP BOOK-MAKING ON CONTENT AND METHOD. A third influence has arisen to perpetuate the traditional method and content of our school work in literature. The literature text-maker and the text-publisher know that the classics of our language can not be subjected to copyright control. Improvements, therefore, are introduced in the form of introductions, biographical sketches, foot-notes, glossaries, indexes, ap- pendixes, and all the other attributes of the present day texts. Upon the publication thus adorned a propriety right and a propriety profit may be maintained. Error has thus been capitalized and made to pay dividends to the book-maker. (20) The answer to the question, how did the curious present-day methods in literature come into such common use, has only been roughly outlined in the above. A fuller answer would take us too far from the scope of this work. But the opportunity for inquiry is a tempting one ; the field is rich with diverting situations. Into it some satirist may yet be tempted to enter, to the inextinguishable merriment of future generations. HOW MAY LITERARY APPRECIATION BE SECURED ? Our energies should be directly concerned with the more practical and desperate problem: What can we do to make the method of the grammar school course in literature one that will yield to the children the intrinsic values of its content? The answer is not far to seek: We should keep those intrinsic values constantly before our eyes and should shape our method with singleness of effort for their attainment. We should remember that the work is to lead the children to understand and enjoy the literature that their race has understood and enjoyed. We must keep this high aim clear from cross purposes and other ends by recognizing that the method in the course of study should strike straight toward it as a definite, specific result. THE TEACHER AS STORY-TELLER. To be more precise, the child must be introduced to the story in such a way that it claims his appreciations. First, then, the story should be told to him by the teacher. Through her telling, its situations may be made clear. Many of the stories, indeed, have no standard masterpiece form suitable for presentation. The stories of Hercules, The Trojan War, Marathon and Thermopylse, William Tell, Alfred the Great, Joan of Arc, and Damon and Pythias are examples of this class. The teacher should have access to reading sufficient to saturate herself with the spirit and meaning of each. She should see just what situations are adapted to arouse class appreciations. She should know in advance what emotional responses her class work should create. And then, the preparation being adequate, she should tell the story to the class for all that it is worth. The same method should be used in most cases in presenting a poem or a story that has been done into masterpiece form by some author. In the case of such selections as Ivanhoe, Evangeline, and Hiawatha the teacher will find this story-telling to be the surest avenue to the interests and awakening tastes of the children. In other instances, such as Rip Van Winkle and Snow- hound, the teacher should merely introduce the selection with a general introduction as to its content and nature, put in such a way as to arouse anticipatory interest. Some poems and prose selections should, of course, be placed before the children in text form, generally, as has been observed, after the content has been well presented by the teacher. Through this a new charm will be thrown over the content, new lights and shades of mean- ing will be brought out, and the pupil will learn to appreciate the subtle flavors that are found in a good story well written. It may well be observed at this point that there is no one way by which (21) all school literature should be taken up. Each story has its own details of method and there are several distinct lines of more general procedure. The treatment of selections included in this bulletin has been, therefore, an application of such method to each as its nature demands, and such, as classroom results have shown to be most effective. THE TEACHER AS INTERPRETER. This is the fundamental idea' of all the various methods that have been found effective : the teacher should be the interpreter, the medium through which the spirit of the story reaches the class. She should use the text, supplementary pictures, chalk and blackboard, and all the accesories that may help her in the work. But the accessories must keep to their proper place : they must always be recognized as means and not as ends in the work of interpreting a good story. Two general objections have been urged against this practice. One objection is to the effect that the average teacher can not tell a story. The other is that no teacher can tell a story as well as the author of a masterpiece has told it. Both charges at first sight may seem to be correct, but neither when subjected to analysis is found to contain truth pertinent to the issue. Power in story-telling is a natural attribute existing in varying degrees in all of us. To be sure, false practices will inhibit its expression and may in time cause it to atrophy. The teacher who has spent twenty years conducting books-closed quizzes may have some difficulty in calling up an expression of her neglected power of story-telling. But even in her case it can generally be done with some effort. In the case of the teacher who has maintained the strength of her instinctive story-telling impulse by using it, as well as in the case of the young teacher who has not destroyed this aspect of her human nature by false practices, there is no danger of failure in the work. But how, it is asked, can even a reasonably good story-teller present the selection in as effective a form as the great poet or story-writer? The answer is to be found in the fact that the teacher is dealing with children whose appreciation of belles-lettres has not begun to grow. The merest amateur can tell the story of Macbeth to an eighth grade class so as to arouse a far deeper appreciation of the tragedy than would be awakened if the immortal text itself were placed in the hands of the pupils. She will be able to make any of the ^Esop's Fables many fold as effective in the primary school than the brief, pithy text can make it. She can give to twelve- and fourteen-year-old children a keener insight into the motives, issues, and situations of the Trojan War than the best translator of Homer could possibly convey. And in all such cases she will really be leading up to and paving the way for the later adult appreciations through which our world-known masterpieces will be opened to the minds and hearts of the children as they develop. It is true that to the adult whose tastes have been developed by long and friendly touch mth good books the story-teller must give place to the story-writer and the poet. But to say that this is true in the case of grammar school children is to assume that they are (22) already equipped with full-fledged power of literary appreciation. This is no less than to say that the children already have that which we are bending our energies to give them, and which under present conditions we have been unable to give them in eight years of school work. No child springs at once or by inspiration into a love for books. It is, therefore, the purpose of the teacher as a story-teller to start him right in his develop- ment; to give him the heart of the storj- or the poem, to make its great characters and situations live in his imagination ; to break down the barrier set by the form of the masterpiece; and thus to put him in the way whereby he may attain at length to the new values and richer flavors which the masterpiece may hold. PRESENTATION OF THE TEXT. In cases where the masterpiece is of such a character as to warrant its presentation to the class in text form this should be done after the content has been fully and graphically presented by the teacher, or, in some cases, after a brief introductory explanation of its purport has been made. The text should then be read by the teacher to the class, not hy pupils in rotation. This gives the author a decent chance to have his message delivered. It is absolutely essential if appreciation of the beauty and force of the selection is to be brought home to the children. As this point has been touched upon in discussing the state of our present method, it need not be amplified here. It should be remembered that the omission of class oral reading in literature need not mean the omission of any part of the necessary oral reading work of the pupils. It does mean that the teaching of oral reading can not be well done or even attempted during the literature hour without defeating the ends for whose attainment the hour was presumably devoted. Teach oral reading as much as you please and to the attainment of such proficiency as may be desired. But don't try to teach it while your principal aim is to touch the hearts of children by opening them to the emotional call of some rare old story. CLASS ACTIVITY IN LITERATURE. The pupils should follow the teacher's reading with their texts, in eases where they are to be supplied with texts. Thus they are brought into direct touch with the form of the masterpieces so considered. But neither at this stage of the presentation nor in the earlier stage of the narration by the teacher should they be inactive. In every turn of the story, in almost every sentence of the text, lies an opportunity' for a stimulating question, and a quickening answer from the class. Discussions of motives, conclusions as to probable results, expression of hopes and feelings, shrewd forecasting of the next step, answers to semi-rhetorical questions,- — all these and a score of other opportunities will be ready at the teacher's hand and will serve to keep at white heat the interest of the class. It should be remembered that a passive class is emotionally and mentally an unproductive class when compared with a group of children whose hands flash into the air and whose bodies are ever ready to start from their seats. (23) By means of this cooperative class activity the teacher will attain several results that should be present if the best work is to be done : (1) A marked degree of mental alertness will accompany the progress of the work. (2) The emotional reactions of the children will be made deeper and more intense. (3) It will be impossible unconsciously to fail to make some point clear or to dwell too long upon other points. (4) It will mean not only a richer but a more lasting appreciation of the selection by the class. (5) It will afford a perfect measure of just what the class is really getting from the work. It must not be understood that this class activity is to be a product of the formal books-closed quiz method. It should never be a bar to the progress of the interpretations or take the form of a check to the- unfolding meaning of the selection. It should lead on to new points, quicken new feelings, establish new associations, arouse fresh and constructive ideas. In this phase of the work the highest usefulness of the teacher as interpreter and inspirer of interpretation will be found. Through it the power of a great and fascinating art may be developed by her and given expression. MEMORY WORK IN LITERATURE. Nothing should be prescribed for memorization before the beauty of its expression has made a successful appeal to the hearts of the pupils. It will be found, naturally enough if the work is well done, that the class will appreciate most keenly the fragments and selections that have won their way into the memories of the rest of mankind. Expression of this special appreciation should be induced (never compelled) from time to time and especially when the selection is finished. Memorization may then be asked of those parts recei\ang general class consent as worth remembering, and the process will then have become an almost involuntary reaction of the beauty of the lines. LITERARY KNOWLEDGE AND THE CUMULATIVE REVIEW. It is no secret that the graduates of many of our literature classes are almost as deficient in their knowledge of commonly current literary fact as they are free from true literary appreciation. Graduates of our schools do not know who wrote IvanJioe or when that hero lived or w^hat a knight was. They have forgotten that Evangeline came from Acadia and that Horatius was a Roman and lived a long time ago. They do not remember that Snow-hoimd was written of life on a New England farm. They get the story of Damon and Pythias mixed up with the story of the sword of Damocles, — if, haply, they know anything about either. Nor may we ever be sure of permanent accuracy on these and a host of similar staple literary facts by one presentation of the stories and selections involving them, no matter how skillfully that presentation may be made. Something (24) special should be done, therefore, to insure the permanence in the pupil's memory of such literary knowledge as Mali prove of value to him. This may be done in the following- manner : When all the work of interpreting a selection has been completed the teacher should hold a brisk review of the various scraps of knowledge concerning it which are worth holding in mind. These should be brought up for further review at the beginning of each period in literature, and to them should be added the facts selected as worth retaining in mind when each successive selection is finished. The review thus becomes cumulative and systematic, and the literary knowledge that it wishes to make hard and fast in the pupil's memory is thus conserved. For two reasons a special portion of each period should be formally given over to this work. First, so as to insure its being sj^stematically done ; for without system the idea will come to naught. Second, so as to set this work of reviewing and fixing the facts Avorth permanent memorization as far from the regular method in literature as possible. The teacher should keep in mind the fact that the cumulative review work and its method should have no part in the presentation and interpretation of the selection ; that it is not a method of teaching literature, but merely a very formal device for tacking down for permanent possession a few facts which have already been presented and illuminated in the regular work of the literature hour. Each of the selections treated in this bulletin is followed by a list of such literary facts involved in it as should be wrapped up in the cumula- tive review. The cumulative review questions of the first selection must not be dropped as the content of the review grows. They should come up regularly for recall until the whole course is finished. This will keep the review work truly cumulative and will insure its efficiency in establish- ing in the pupil's mind a useful and permanent fund of literary facts. Five minutes at the beginning of each period of literature work will be adec[uate time for holding the review drill in the case of classes which have iiad only a few selections to contribute facts to their reviews. A PRACTICABLE, NOT AN IDEAL COURSE. The selections whose treatment has been outlined in the following pages are not presented as an ideal course of study in literature. Some of them should not be in the grammar school at all, and at least twenty other selections equal in value to the best among them should be taken up with similar thoroughness if the course is to be all that it should be. The aim of the following work has been rather to formulate the nucleus of a course out of materials now in use which will yield substantial even if not ideal values. WHICH SHALL IT BE ? The selections chosen are not new in our grammar schools. All of them have been widely used for years. In some schools they have been painful ordeals through which dull-eyed classes have been goaded. In such schools (25) the teacher's work has been drudgery and her lot a bitter one. To her there has not come the joy of seeing- the emotional life of her pupils unfold under the influence of the work. She has never enteri'd with them into the rich land of promise that lies so near at hand. In other schools and under wise courses of study these selections have yielded values that will ahvays live in the awakened hearts of the children. In such schools the teacher's work has been a delight and a blessing, and this not only to the class but to herself. To her has come the teacher's reward; for she has seen the lives of her pupils enriched and knows that she had a share in it. In her literature class have been no dull eyes. No dreary hours profitless and without hope of profit have been endured. Instead, she has led her children into a noble company where they have met the best that men have done and thought and felt. It is with the hope that this may be more commonly and more abundantly realized,— to the end that our boys and girls may more fully share the rich literary inheritance that has been prepared for them,— that this bulletin has been set in order. (•^<-.) HORATIU5 AT THL BRIDGL. General Remarks and Sug-g-estions. This story deserves a place in the grammar grade course in literature for the following reasons : 1. It is known by all commonly well educated people. 2. It goes far toward giving useful ideas concerning old Roman ideals of conduct and the times in which they flourished. 3. It is constantly referred to by w^ay of allusion and stock figures of speech. 4. It is a stimulus arousing a number of desirable emotions. Among these may be instanced: admiration of Horatius for his willingness to sacrifice home and safety and even life if necessary for the safety of his city: admiration for the loyalty of the hero to his daily duty, the task of keeping the bridge; a desire to see every one love the state as Horatius d^d : a feeling that service rendered to the state makes for true worth and leads to true fame. 5. Its situations are simple and intensely dramatic and so are especially adapted to the appreciations of children. 6. Children may be led easily and naturally to assume the emotional attitudes called forth by those situations. Loyalty to home and city, hatred of cowards, admiration for physical bravery in the fight and in the feat of strength and skill, exultation in the triumph of one patriot over many enemies, — these primitive reactions are strong and early active in every one and their experience comes unforced to boys and girls who hear the story well presented. 7. There is nothing so fit as a ringing, swinging ballad to lead boys and girls into an enjoyment of poetic forms, and no form of poetry so easy for the teacher to read with feeling. Long ago the race first rose to an appre- ciation of poetry by the lilt and cadence and sturdy pulse of the ballad melody, and experience proves the same process a most natural one in developing the appreciations of children. Preparation and Presentation. The story of Horatius should be preceded by the following legends: Komulus and Remus ; The Tarquins and their expulsion from Rome ; The Judgment of the Consul Brutus. References to the above : Guerber: Story of the Eomans; pp. 22-27; 58-81. Haaren and Poland : Famous Men of Borne; pp. 9-63. Plutarch's Lives: Romulus. • 27) First, tell the stoiy of Romulus and Remus: how they were exposed to die ; how they were saved by the wolf ; how they grew up as sturdy moun- tain shepherds; and how, finally, they founded the city of Rome. Then a word should be said of the Tarquin kings: how they ruled in Rome until the people arose and drove them out because of their tyranny. Next, sketch the story of the Consul Brutus : hoAv he was the first magis- trate chosen by the people to rule and protect them after the Tarquins were driven out ; how his two sons, dearly loved by their father, became traitors to their city and plotted to let the Tarquins and their forces in; how the plot was discovered and the two young traitors brought to trial; and how the stem old Roman father as judge set aside his love for his boys because of his love for the state and condemned them to death. This in itself is a tale well worth the time of a full lesson, for it has taken a place in the staple culture of our time. But beyond that- by far is its educational worth in bringing the class to feel the full force of Brutus 's high devotion to state. The decision that he made every one must make in some degree; and the standards of life to-day demand, as they did in the day of Brutas, that the common welfare shall be held more sacred than family and per- sonal interests. If the teacher can draw the old Roman holding court seated in his high seat, surrounded with lictors and guards; if she can show what passed through liLs mind as his two boys were dragged before him, surrounded by witnesses who proved them to be the deadly enemies of the city and the welfare of all its citizens; how he thought, first of their child- hood and training and of his plans for them, and then thought of the hard- won freedom of the city and the laws that were made to preserve it ;— if the teacher can make the scene real, even down to the flagstones, the axes of the lictors, the appeals for mercy from all sides, and finally the grim lines on the consul's face as he thought of the fate of his state hanging in the bal- ance;— if this can be done, and done properly, the judgment may well l)e left to the class. Put the class in Brutus 's place and let them return the verdict under the guidance of questions and illustration. This story will then have been no mere tale, but a personal experience with them, and they will have taken the emotional attitude that civilized society demands of them. The legends of Romulus and Remus, the Tarquins and their expulsion, and the judgment of Brutus, should take up two full lesson units. They are worth telling for their own sake and at the same time they lay the scene, give the cue, and strengthen the motives for the action that follows, — the story of Horatius at the Bridge. In presenting the story of Horatius the preceding events should be brought down to the opening action of the poem in which Porsena plans to restore the Tarquins to power. Then the teacher should tell the story, closely following but not referring- to or reading from the ballad. The following situations should be emphasized : 1. The plans of Porsena : Here should be drawn the anger of that prince over the fate of the Tarquins, the summoning of his forces, and the favora- (28) ble predictions of his prophets. It will not do to tell this or any part of the story in a dull or slipshod way. Porsena should be set out as a brave prince, ruler of a rich land, and friend of the Tarquins. This friendship and the danger he felt from his southern rival, Rome, are ample motives for his resolution. The gathering of the forces should not be blown over in a sentence, such as, ' ' And so he ordered all his lords, and friends, and soldiers to meet together on a day." Such a statement means to the class a scant tithe of what is meant by a spirited description of how the messenger was summoned, given his orders (in direct discourse), and rode forth to watch- tower and stronghold, mountain village and valley, farms, — and of how lords and soldiers, tradesmen and farmers, dropped their work, seized their arms, and hurried to the great camp outside of Clusium. Neither should the favorable prophecy of the prophets be dismissed with a mere feeble mention. Make it a picture : Porsena in his royal robes, attended by brave lords from all over the country, sits in the council hall to hear the word that means so much to him as it is pronounced by the thirty wise old men. Describe the ancient prophets as your mind sees them, per- haps in black robes, each carrying a sacred scroll covered with strange characters. While the details suggested here are probably of as little importance as any involved in the remaining situations of the story, they have been set forth to illustrate this point,— a flat, bald, diluted statement of a situation will never suffice. Each miLst be detailed and exploited in proportion to its significance in the story. Much must be left to the teacher in this, both because of the limitations of space and because no two imaginations construct scenes in just the same v/a.y. 2. The fear at Rome and the flight of the country people into the city r Take the details as given in the poem and put especial spirit into the vivid scene of the refugees pouring in through the city gate. 3. The terrifying advance of the Tuscan host : ' ' The line of burning villages";— "Every hour some horseman came with tidings of dismay"; — "Nor house nor fence nor dovecote";— "Astur hath stormed Janicu- lum";— "The bridge must straight go down";— each of these is the cue for a mental picture, and each should be explained to the extent of its meaning. Through the vivid presentation of crisp details and with the help of other details suggested by the poem and by imagination each pupil becomes in fancy an eyewitness of the terror of the Romans and the destruc- tion wrought by the Tuscans. Here should be introduced a chart or map showing the city walls, the river, the bridge with a narrow pass at its farther end, Janiculum the fortress outpost beyond the river, the coast line, and Clusium. It should be drawn as the teacher talks, each place revealing itself on the map when referred to in the story and hence when under the stress of immediate importance. ■4. How Horatius and his two companions stepped forth to hold the bridge : The teacher should be constantly on the watch to keep the class in the telling by suggestion and discussion, -and here is an excellent occa- sion for vigorous class activity. (20) First when it is seen that tlie Tuscans will be over the bridge before it can be torn down, the question arises, ' ' What was to be done ? How could the city be saved?" Perhaps no one will see the correct answer; but each will have some plan or other, or at least something to say about the hope- lessness of all plans. Then when Horatius offers to solve the desperate problem, we have the natural questions, ' ' Why did he wish to take such a risk ? " " What would probably happen to him?" "What would be the loss if he were killed?" (His own life and the happiness of his wife and child.) "What could be ■gained by his act?" Don't leave out the detail that he was the regular keeper of the gate, whose duty it was to guard it well. Here is one of the mere handful of great devotions to public duty that the race has produced and clung to in memory, and the value of the story will largely depend upon its dramatic presentation and upon the class making the choice, standing the test, with Horatias. When he asks who will stand with him at the bridge's head, let the class see the full meaning of his appeal. — death and service to the state on one hand, safety and selfish prudence on the other. And then let them say whether or not volunteers would be found for the work, and what sort of men such volunteers Avould be if, peradventure, some were to be found. 5. How the dauntless three held l)aek the host : The teacher should follow the stirring account in the poem in each of the several duels to be described. When Sextus appears and plans to attack, the teacher should tell w^hat needs to be known about him : that he was a son of Tarquin, cruel and selfish; that he had been before his expulsion from the city the cause of the death of one of the most beautiful and most respected women of Eome; and that the Romans hated him more than any other in the host. His conduct throughout should be shown as that of a cowardly, cruel wretch, willing to bring about no end of suffering for his own advancement. 6. Horatius left alone : This situation is heightened by the explanation that the hero was not thinking of the pulling down of the bridge and of the ending of his own danger, but only of the duty that lay before him. Bring out without fail the vain desire of Herminius and Lartius to recross the river again to help him in his need. 7. The safe return of Horatius and the joy of the people: What was he to do when left alone before the enemy? This is the question that brings to its climax the situation of Horatius alone before the army of Porsena with a raging river behind him. Let the class answer it. Why not surrender? Why not destroy himself? Why not stand and fight it out? His bold resolution to swim back to safety and the details of its execution may well be based on a liberal paraphrase of the poem. Of course he bore back his armor, for to a Roman no disgrace was keener than to lose sword and shield to the enemy. (Why?) Here Lars Porsena is seen as a thorough sportsman and a great-hearted enemy. Ask the class how Lars Porsena felt when he saw the bridge fall. Then develop, by questions, the generous admiration he felt for Horatius struggling with tlie flood for his life. (30) The joy of the people and the rewards heaped upon Horatius conclude the story. Most of all bring out the fact that a fair name was not the least of the rewards : that his name stood as a motto and as a moral to his nation. When through telling the story stir up class interest in the questions : 1. How do you like the story? Why? 2. What sort of people were the Romans? How do you know? 3. What was the bravest act in the whole story ? (It makes little difference whether the resolution of Horatius or some lesser deed is decided upon. The point desired is to strengthen the admiration of the class for sound conduct by getting an expression in its favor.) 4. Why did Horatius take such a desperate chance? If the tale is well told there will be no need to do more than to throw out suggestions and hints in order to keep the class keenly alive through the telling and in the discussion of interest points afterwards. This telling of the story will take two lesson units. At its conclusion the class will be interested in its train of events. Then is the time to introduce them to the poem in which the story becomes thrice stirring. There seems to be a common notion that children hate to hear a story twice and that to tell a tale first and then give it to the youngsters in poetic form would be to kill all interest and to incite the class to rebellion. With some stories this is true; like shallow wells they are easily sucked dry. Such stories come and go at each groan of the printing press, and no one is much the better or worse for them. But the stories that last ana that hold fast root in the deepest emotions of the race, yield their charm not once but many times to our affections ; and like good music grow better and richer with each repetition. Besides, it is more than possible that children who have been stuffed on the husks of literary forms and the analytical siftings of English critics; who know definitions for seven kinds of figures of speech ; who can classify fourteen kinds of versification : who know the age at which Macaulay read Latin, and who have worn their books to limp tatterdom in the home-study hunt for allusions, — it is more than possible that such children will be glad to turn fi*om this blood-drying work, even at the cost of hearing a good story twice. It is not only more than possible, it is a positive certainty. Not only will they be glad to hear it twice, but even twenty times at proper intervals, if it lie a story of the first water. And such a one certainly is the story of Horatius. It is not a hothouse story, raised and sheltered from the world "s cold blasts ; nor a school-made masterpiece : neither has it been coddled, bolstered and scien- tifically reared into some sort of rare ripe popularity by analysts or critics or learned specialists. It has lived because it has a good grip on the hearts of people, — common people who sleep well o' nights without knowing much about the difference between end-stopped and carried-over verses, and who go softly through life without knowing the philologic pedigree of the words they say or read. Once the teacher has made the story clear, once its scenes have become real, its motives and acts vivid, there will be no murmur from the children when the presentation of the poem, which is simply the (31) tale interpreted by a master and set to rhythm, is made to follow the telling of the story. It is easy to prove this in any class room. But no such proof is required by any one who thinks about the proposition for the second time. Such a one will remember how much richer and fuller of meaning all first-class, able-to-survive, narrative poetry is when the plot of the story in its setting is first known. Rohin Hood Ballads, Sheridan's Ride, Columbus, The "Revenge" are of this type, and illustrations common to our experience might be multiplied almost indefinitely. Not only a second time but even a third and a fourth and a tenth time do we read them with unfolding understanding. It is this unfolding understanding in a thing so rich with meaning or so charged with feeling as to hold reserves of pleasure for us, that gives the deepening interest and makes for the story a place among those that live. Another consideration, however, is quite sufficient to place the teacher who wishes results to first tell the story of Horatius as a story and then present it as a poem. All normal children have potentialities of poetic appreciation, but no child springs at once into a full-fledged exercise of it. Even the simplest poetry is full of odd words, curious twists and turns in sentence structure, unusual constructions, and the new and confusing emphasis of rhythm. Besides, in the finished product of poets we have a wealth of imagery, a looseness of construction, and a latitude of word applications to which our tastes must gradually grow. It is well, therefore, to start the pupil in the development of his poetic appreciation with the momentum guaranteed him by an interest in and a knowledge of what the poem is about. With this done through a skillful telling of the story, it remains for the teacher to make the poetic setting of the tale yield its values in making strong and deep and clear the appreciation of the hearers. After the telling of the story the poem should be read to the class. But this does not mean that it should be read through without a pause. On the other hand, the teacher should stop and interpret at almost every comma. If it is worth being read it is worth being understood, and it will not be understood without this interpretation. All in all, the interpretations will take far more time than the reading. This is especially true as so much of it will be in the form of leading questions thrown out to the class. Keep the class alive with living questions. This is not only a test of their interest, but it is also a generator of it. When an interpretation or appreciative comment has been gained from the class by a series of wedge questions, it is often necessary to read again the part interpreted. So, also, it is frequently desirable after such an interruption to drop back to the last break in the poem to re-read all that intervenes. Thus the process of reading the poem is in reality a reading and re-reading, accompanying a constant running fire of parenthetical interpretations, explanations, illus- trations, and comments drawn from the class. The reading should weave back and forth through and through it all, thus giving narrative unity to the story and poetic beauty to its expression. This particular poem is in parts simply swamped with references. Do (32) not permit the children to look up any of them. Such as the class can help clear up under the suggestion of shrewd questioning should be thus brought out, and the rest should be explained forthwith by the teacher. Many of them are of use only in giving cumulative strength to some general impression. Those found in series in stanzas four to eight, and twenty-three, are of this sort and may be explained as a class. Thus, after reading stanza twenty -three, the teacher might say. ''Who are all these people?" "Yes, they are friends of Lars Porsena ; — and now you see they are ready to do what? Yes. to fight for him and to conquer Rome. See how many they were and how the Romans were able to recognize them.'' Then re-read the stanzas again so as to emphasize their excellent qualities of form. The teacher should remember in reading this poem that it is a ballad, and that the swinging and ringing quality of its versification must be brought out in her presentation of it. It may be bad form for members of "Browning Clubs" to repeat or read poetry in a sing-song cadence; just as it may be in bad taste for a gourmet to dine on roast beef and browned potatoes; — but the boy and girl have nothing in common with tastes so delicately developed. Unless some generous acknowledgment is made to the rhythm, poetry becomes to them nothing more than hard and unnatural prose. Why is it then that in all our schools a general hue and cry is raised when a pupil dares to put the natural beat of the music of the poetry into his oral expression of it? The writer, for one, does not know, but he strongly suspects that it is the combined work of the specialist in elocu- tion and the specialist in literary analysis. The former through long years of practice has developed an art that is lusty enough to unhorse and trample into the dust the art of the poet author ; and the latter has developed such wisdom as leads him to see the teaching and study of poetry as an out- pouring of erudition concerning poetic forms, rather than a thing to sway and move and charm us. It takes us a long time to get educated clean aw^ay from a love for an expression of the melody in verse, and when we do, perhaps even a short time before Ave do, it is wise for us to quit trying to make poetry pleasing to children. Memory Work. When the poem has been finished, stimulate class expression as to which of its stanzas are the most beautiful. Then require the memorization of those parts, (not to exceed twenty lines,) thus selected by the pupils. Care should be taken, of course, to guide this selection so that it will be well made. Cumulative Review. 1. What city is said to have been founded by Romulus and Remus. 2. Who were the Tarquin kings ? 3. How did the Consul Brutus show his love for the state ? 4. Briefly tell the story of Horatius at the Bridge. 3— bx:l.5 (33) 5. Why do we admire Horatius'/ 6. What poem has been written about this brave act of Horatius, and by whom was it written ? 7. Give from memory such selections from the poem as you like best. Fop the Pupils to Read. (See chapter entitled "Good Reading Habits," p. 100.) Other Well-known Works of Macaulay: Battle of Lake Begillns. Virginia. (Both of these, together with Horatius, are to be found in Macaulay 's Lays of Ancient Rome.) General Reading: Yonge: A Book of Golden Deeds. Baldwin : An American Book of Golden Deeds. Mabie: Heroes Every Child Shoidd Know. Radford: King Arthur and His Knights. (34) RIP VAN WINKLL. General Remarks and Suggestions. Kip Van Winkle is a name familiar to all of us. We have heard the story, met allusions based upon it, seen pictures illustrating scenes from it, and some more fortunate than the rest may even have seen Joe Jefferson acting in the title role. The personality of Rip has become real to us, — almost as real as to his old cronies and the \allage children, and almost as well liked by us as hy them. The story therefore deserves a place in a literature course that has proposed to bring the pupil into touch with the literature that has gained a firm hold on the affections of the great mass of people of conmion culture. Not only as a story should the pupils meet the legend, but as a masterpiece as well. Washington Irving has made the tale one of our best short stories and his name has become inseparably connected with it. It is a double appreciation for the story and for Irving 's excellent expression of it that the teacher should develop in her pupils ; and this is the whole object of the presence of this title in the course of stud3^ It may be well to emphasize the fact that the work is not to be made i\ formal or analytical study of literary fornl. Thousands of people live happily with a respectable working knowledge and hearty appreciation of the adventures of Rip Van Winkle, without knowing whether its diction is characterized by Anglo-Saxon or Latin derivatives, and without inquiry as to the exact principles upon which the author has founded his paragraphs. The language class is the place to teach whatever the pupils need to know of figures of speech, rhetorical devices, ordinances of sentence structure, and all else that may be demanded by standards of utility or tradition in the line of analysis of literary form. In the literature class should be the work of winning the pupils to a rich appreciation of the story as a good story: of giving them friendly touch with its characters, contact with its situations, and sheer delight in it as a good thing to be well enjoyed. Rip Van Winkle should not be made a grindstone for pointing moral lessons. Indeed, to be the basis of homily the story should either work out a regeneration of Rip or else bring him to some fit punishment for his weaknesses. As a matter of fact it does neither. On the other hand, it is much to be feared that a large share of our pleasure in it is due to the fact that we see in the shiftless Dutch colonist a well and wisely berated phase of our own natures; — a phase that does us no credit and wins for itself no admiration, but which gives us no little pleasure and which we are secretly glad to see triumphant in the person and exploits of the hero of our tale. So in the light of the ethical standards of these busy days, when energy and devotion to duty and clearness of purpose are the, guiding (35) lights, the ethical core of the story is highly unorthodox ; and while we enjoy it quietly there is no need to make it positivel\' bad by undue emphasis. Neither let us tear the narrative to tatters in order to get from it forced moral issues. It is not meant to be used as a parable, and even if it were the best way to win meaning from it would be to tell it for all it is worth as a good story. This caution may be purely redundant. Never- theless, note writers and writers of introductions to school classics are so> ingenious in introducing ethical philosophy of the intrusive sort into- everything, that the teacher may well be doubly Avarned against following- such a tendency in handling this selection. It is not moral philosophy and ethical deduction that she is to expound; her task lies rather in making- real, Advid, and full of charm a quaint old story that has lived for the enjoyment of generations. The pupils must be brought to see the sleepy old colonial town Avith its, pleasant neighboring farms and shining riA'er and blue-shaded mountains, behind it all. They must enter the home of Rip and feel the humor and thin relief of pathos behind it. Above all they must come to knoAv the gaunt, kindly, shiftless Rip Van Winkle, loved by all, laughed at and scolded by all, cjuick to help CA^ery one save himself and his. All this can not be done by making the selection a reading lesson. The teaching of the mechanics of oral reading is a A-ery important piece of Avork; so important. indeed, that it should be the special object of a course carefully Avoi-ked out. But the literature course is as different and apart from this reading- course as is the work in spelling or arithmetic or music. The emotional experiences through Avhich the literature may lead the pupils, the apprecia- tions AA'hich it may leave Avith them, these are its objects; and one of the surest Avays not to attain them is to make the AA^ork a reading exercise.^ IrAdng's framing of the tale should, of course, be brought before the class:. but not in detached, misread fragments, riddled by formal criticism.. Children A\dll not enjoy the story as a good story Avell told, if it be made a formal reading lesson. Preparation and Presentation. " The teacher should first be at one Avith Irving in his vicAV of life in the Dutch village on the Hudson. She must see the scene described in the first tAvo paragraphs; must see it Aavidly and in colors and Avith intimate clearness as to characteristic details. Ajid not only must the teacher thus see the old toAvn, but it must be a pleasing visualization, Avarmed Avith genial appreciations, tinged Avith the colors of real experience. Some knoAvledge of old colonial Avays and scenes Avill help the teacher into the right mental environment. Half-forgotten pictures should be recalled. — pictures of a rambling village lane; of the roadside inn, sheltered by spreading trees: of stepped-up house fronts; of easy-going Dutch with silver-buckled shoes: and knee bows on their AA'ide pantaloons; of round, placid faces holding- old-fashioned pipes and surmounted by broad-brimmed. toAvering hats : of bowling greens; of ale tankards; of dusty travelers alighting before a boAving landlord in Avhite apron and floAving pigtails; of the villaoe ^vinamill oil the hill. Fortunately the author has done so much to develop the local color of the village and home of Rip Van Winkle that the teacher mav secure a very good working appreciation of the essential conditions of the time and place by merely following his hints. Given a fairly fertile imagination and Irving 's sketch lines, then the visual situations of the storv and the surrounding atmosphere of the time and place become real. The following settings should be warmly visualized in the teacher's mmd: 1 The oeneral scenic background of the whole story : river, village half concealed by trees, meadows and farm plots, and the hazy, shadow-grooved mountains in the background. 2 The main street of the village. 8. Rip Van Winkle's homestead and its contrast with neighboring farms. 4. The interior of Rip's home during some unhappy domestic wrangle. 5 The scene in front of the village inn. 6. The mountain solitudes through which Rip wandered with his dog and gun. . 7. The ravine and hidden amphitliealer where he met with strange company. 8 The scene of his awakening. 9. The various scenic details involved in the changes experienced by him on his return to the village. ^ • ^ ^i, \ mere knowledge of facts involved in the above is not sufficient: the scenes themselves must stand out in clear-cut mental pictures. Without these visualizations the charm of the story will be lost to teacher and class. \ keen appreciation of the human nature side of the story is aLso a pre- TCfiuisite to good interpretation by the teacher. She must become m fancy an intimatelv interested spectator of the village life and of Rip Van li^inkle's particular iovs, sorrows, motives, sentiments, and mood.s. bhe must see the change from sleepy Dutch village to bustling American town that twentv years had wrought. And tlirough all she must follow with sensitive response the whims of humor and of pathos that bind the whole together. The method herein su-gested for use in presenting the tale to the class assumes that pupils are to be supplied with texts. This seems advisable "because of the first-hand contact thus to he gained by them with the story as told bv a master story-writer. Acquaintance with Irving's Rip Van Winkle if it be friendlv acquaintance, will result in pleasant recurrences to the text by pupils in later years; and thus a dividend-bearing addition will have been made to the pupil's fund of literary capital. Besides, it will be a factor in leading him into a voluntary acquaintance with other and similar stories, and especially into touch with other stories by the same afuthor. This last consideration makes it advisable when selecting texts to choose an edition containing several other good short stories by Irymg. The teacher should take the opportunity to lead as many as possible ot the pupils to an interest in these stories as purely supplementary reading. (See chapter entitled ''Good Reading Habits," pp. 100-103.) The class work should begin with a brief discussion of the times m winch (37) the plot of the story is laid. Reference should be made to the voyage of Henry Hudson up the Hudson River, the settlement of the valley by Dutch colonists, the quiet easy life in the old Dutch towns, and of how the bustling American life with its elections and swiftly changing conditions came in with the Revolution. The time may be somewhat clearly fixed by allusion to the fact that Indians still went on the warpath in New York State. The general setting of the story should be fixed by a sketch of the life in the Dutch colonies and a description of the village of the story. Instead of outlining the whole of the narrative in this preliminary sketch, it will be well merely to describe the principal characters, and to give a suggestive inkling of what the plot is about. With this end in view the pupils should be led into a friendly interest in Rip and his affairs. A few hints should be thrown out to arouse anticipatory interest in the adventures and sur- prises that the plot develops. This done, the pupils are ready to open texts with the teacher and to follow her as she reads and interprets. Method of Inteppretation. 1. Unfamiliar words: Such words as present difficulties to the pupils should be explained briefly by the teacher, or where possible by comments by the class. The explanation should detract as little as possible from the progress of the story. Examples: gabled fronts; galligaskins: volley; virago; rubicund; sages; wistfully; musing; vague; antique; jerkin; alacrity; azure; transient: amphitheater; incomprehensible; doublet; fowling-piece; roysterers; gambol; famished; misgave; metamorphosed; scepter; doling; jargon: akimbo ; austere ; cronies. 2. Allusions and references : A considerable number of geographical and historical allusions will need clearing up. This should be done, as in the case of new words, with as little digression from the story and as much class cooperation as is possible. Examples: Hudson River; Kaatskill Mountains; Peter Stuyvesant; Tar- tar's lance; George the Third; Flemish paintings; General Washington; Congress; Bunker Hill; heroes of seventy-six; Babylonish jargon; Federal or Democrat; Stony Point; Hendrick Hudson; "Half Moon." 3. Situations of strong narrative interest : Emphasis should be placed on the following as each arises, to the end that every turn in the plot shall be fully understood and enjoyed : ' (a) Rip 's habits and disposition. (&) His domestic sorrows. (c) The encounter with the stranger on the mountainside. (d) The adventure in the amphitheater. (e) The awakening and the search for the strange revellers. (/) Rip as a stranger in his home town. (g) His final readjustment to changed conditions. 4. Visual images : The story is a panorama of vivid pictures which will be mentally visualized by the class if the presentation is well done. The (.38) following, especially, should be inade clear by the introduction of crisp, suggestive detail : (a) The sleepy old Dutch town. ( b ) Rip 's shiftless ways. (c) Domestic infelicity in the Van Winkle home. (d) The strange revel in the mountains. (e) Rip's astonishment on awakening. (/) Rip's appearance at the political meeting at the inn. (The busy body who leads in Rip's examination deserves especial attention.) ig) Rip's return to old habits. (The house of his daughter and the bench in front of the inn form the scenes in the last view of our friend.) 5. Class activity and response : All through the presentation leading questions should be thrown out by the teacher in order to keep class interest at its best. It should be remembered that the best way of explaining a motive is to skillfully lead the pupils into a discussion of it, and the clearest interpretation is the one that is largely a result of class contributions. The following are indicated as typical occasions for class activity. The watch- ful teacher will see others equally as stimulating to clear ideas and to inter- est in almost every sentence of the text : (a) Comparison of the mountain scenery described in the first paragraph with similar scenery in the experience of the pupils, for the purpose of making vivid the Kaatskill background of the story. (5) What sort of people would you expect to find in the little Dutch village described in the second paragraph? Would they be busy, bustling folk, or slow-going and contented? (c) What do the words in parenthesis, paragraph third, tell about the occupant of the house under discussion ? (d) What sort of a disposition do you suppose that Rip Van Winkle must have had judging from the description in the fourth paragraph? Did he have a kind or cross expression on his face? Do you happen to know any one like him? Would you be glad to have such a character in the neighborhood? (e) What sort of a picture do you suppose young Rip made in his father's cast-off knee breeches? If he was like his father, do you think that his outlandish appearance bothered him very much? (/) Why was the company at the inn so congenial to Rip? Have you ever met any village sages? What did Dame Van Winkle think of the associates of her husband? How do you suppose Rip felt to be routed from their company? Which pained him more, his own disgrace or the fact that his good friends were involved in the scandal? (g) What Avas left for the unhappy man when the inn no longer offered refuge from his wife's ratings? Wliat does his kindness to Wolf show of his nature? Why was there such a bond of sympathy between Rip and Wolf ? Were they in some respects alike ? (h) Do you think that Rip enjoyed the view and the pleasant mountain surroundings as he rested after his day's hunt? What afterthought dis- (39) turbed his peace of mind? Do you think that he was eager to start for home ? (0 Why did the dog skulk to Rip's side when the stranger approached! Did you ever see a dog behave in that way? What does Rip's readiness to help the stranger in carrying the keg tell about him ? AVas Rip a timid, overcautious man? How do you suppose he felt when he came upon the scene in the amphitheater? What disquieting signs were there? In what respect was Rip poorly qualified to act as a cup-bearer? What helped him to master his fear and curiosity concerning the strange company ? (j) What did Rip think when he found himself awake on the green knoll ? What shows that Dame Van Winkle was never far from his thoughts? What signs were there that changes had taken place since he was last awake? To what did Rip ascribe those changes? Did he have any reason to think that he had been out on the knoll more than one night? What made his homeward journey an unpleasant prospect to him ? (A') Note the various unusual circumstances which he met with on his way home. How did he feel as he passed down the village street and entered his deserted home? What changes had taken place in the inn? Do you think that the new hotel with its sidewalk politicians in front of it seemed so pleasant a sight to Rip as the old inn and its bench full of village gossips would have seemed? Which picture do you like l^est? Why was it that the words of the political speaker were mere jargon to Rip? In wiiat state of mind do you think he was as each new confusion seized him? What made his statement that he was a loyal subject of the king so. irritating to his hearers? What sort of a character Avas the man in the cocked hat? Do you like him as well as you do old Nicholas A^edder or Rip himself ? What did the people think was the matter with Rip when he first began to explain? What made them fear that he was crazy? (/) What was so appropriate in the death of Dame Van Winkle? Had Rip fared better or worse than his neighbors for his twenty -year sleep? Don't you think that after twenty years of sleep he should have been thoroughly rested and ready for work? Would you rather that he had turned over a new leaf or gone back to his old ways? Was the village in an>- way better of? because of his return? Suppose his son-in-law was as idle and shiftless as he had been, what would Rip have done for a home? Do you think that little Rip,- — old Rip Van Winkle's grandchild, — was to turn out as shiftless as his grandfather, and as his uncle. Rip II? What was there about the home-raising of this youngest Rip that would probably bring him into different habits ? (m) Do you like the story? Why? What part is the most interesting? Is any of it sad? Find some humorous touches. After the story has been told and discussed a few words should be given the class to remember concerning the author. This should be limited to the facts that .his name was Washington Irving, a famous American story-writer, who lived and wrote about eighty years ago. The teacher should then call attention to such other sketches by Irving as may be found in the text or are otherwise accessible to the class. These should be read (40) voluntarily l)y the pupils outside of class work. Occasional class reports maj^ be made by individuals concerning' this reading, and from time to time some pupil should be permitted to tell the class the story that has specially appealed to him. The teacher should be careful to make such reference to this supplementary reading as will stimulate the desires of the pupils to enjoy it. A brief introduction to a good story, presented by the teacher in the manner of a first installment, will often prove an effective lure to the interests of the class. Cumulative Review. 1. Briefly sketch the story of Rip Van Winkle. 2. In what time and place is the plot of the story laid ? 3. Describe the character and appearance of Rip as you have him in mind. 4. "Who wrote the story of Rip Van Winkle? 5. What other stories by Irving have you read? 6. In what day and land did Irving live and write? For the Pupils to Read. (See chapter entitled "Good Readins' Habits." p. 100.) Other Well-known Works by Irving : The Legend of Sleepy- Hollow. Stories selected from the Alliamhra: The Adventure of the Mason. Legend of the Arabian Astrologer. The Moor's Legacy. The Rose of the Alhamhra. Governor Maneo and the Soldier. The Two Discreet Statues. The Enchanted Soldier. General Reading: Grimm : Fairy Stories. Arabia)! Niglits' Entertainments. Mabie: Legends Every Child Should Know. Dickens: Chri.'^tnias Carol. (41) THL 50NG OF HIAWATHA. General Remarks and Sug-g'estions. This Indian hero story with its interwoven myths and legends occupies a prominent place in grammar school courses of study. It is the best adapted of all of Longfellow's longer poems for presentation to children. There is, in harmony with its subject-matter, a certain simplicity of form, freshness, and sincerity of phrasing, and sprightliness of action that bring it easily within the appreciations of pupils in the upper grades when properly intro- duced to them. From it the teacher should strive to get the following results for her class: 1. It should give the children some knowledge warmly touched with feeling for various phases of Indian life. Some knowledge of this aborig- inal life is common American lore and no one can be tolerably well informed in this direction who is ignorant of the wigwam, hunting habits, war customs, dress, diet, and manners of the Indians ; or of the more specific customs of the peace pipe, ceremonial dance, medicine making, and picture writing. To all this the poem introduces the pupil, and in a way that brings out the spectacular and adorns the commonplace so that the whole secures a good hold upon the feelings and becomes endowed with the char- acteristics of literature. It may be urged at this point by some that Long- fellow has portrayed an idealized, gilded Indian life, and that it is M-rong to set anything but the barren facts of the ethnologist and anthropologist before the impressionable minds of the young. The answer to this is that there is much in the poem that gives not only the truth concerning the spirit of Indian affairs, but the truth as to their facts as well. Such sifting out of the sheer glamour as adult common sense requires will be made by the child in good time as he develops. The poem as it stands gives us the romance side of the common viewpoint of the "noble red man." History is well able to take care of the other side. 2. It should arouse an appreciation for the form and music of the poem. This appreciation should be a very special product of contact wdth The Song of Hiawatha because of its clear, smooth-running, chant-like verses, its musical cadences and the simple vigor of its imagery. Together with Horatius and the old Ballads it has an important place in developing a general fondne-ss for poetic form. 3. The story of Hiawatha takes the pupil a long way toward the enjoy- ment of idealized nature poets and story-tellers, and hence into adjustment with a large amount of first-class current and standard literature. AVords- worth, Shelley, Coleridge, Kipling, Thompson-Seton, Burroughs, and the rest, are simply treating of Hiawatha's old friends and their relatives from some different angle. (42) 4. A number of healthful emotional reactions are given the child in dif- ferent situations that afford a basis for ethical discrimination. These are the principal results to be attained. But in the way of their attainment stand a number of difficulties. In the first place comes the old axiom,— the teacher must rejoice in the poem herself if she hopes to get a more than skin-deep appreciation in the class. Errors in method of pres- entation, too, will destroy its value. It is worse than idle to cut it wp into so many lines for this day and that ; to spend time having the class hunt up the meaning of words that should be endowed with meaning as quickly and quietly as possible by the teacher ; to haggle over the pronunciation of hard proper names that should be spoken by the simple rule of harmony to i-hythm ; to chase, impale, and classify figures of speech ; or, horrible to sug- gest, to have trembling youngsters mutilate and butcher and rend limb from limb the cadence and the sense of the beautiful lines in a» paroxysm improperly called reading. Each day's work should, of course, be carefully prepared by the teacher. She should be sure that each lesson unit is a true story unit, Math action and situations sufficient to hold the interest of the class and with a definite prog- ress in the development of some plot. She should be able to read it with expression qualified to bring out its meaning, and should have in mind the various points where significant questions, useful discussions and sidelights of anecdote, chalk sketch and allusion may most profitably be introduced. It was never intended by the author that an Indian mythological glossary should be thumbed to dilapidation as a means to the enjoyment of the poem. Therefore, he has woven into the poem, and generally in parallel construction with the term that needs interpretation, the meaning of every new word or phrase. Thus we have, — "And the Heron.— the Shu-Shu-Ga." ' ' The Great Serpent, the Kenabeek, ' ' "Glared like Ish-ko-dah, the Comet, Ish-ko-dah with fiery tresses," and so without number. Each of these interpretations of prominent names should be stressed by the teacher with as little flurry and digression as possible until the more important ones are readily understood by the class. The poem is filled with effective figures of speech ; but the death of their literary usefulness is at hand when the teacher starts in to analyze, define, and classify them. "When she reads, — "And the Spirit of Sleep, Nepahwin, Shut the doors of all the wigwams," or,— "Till the birch canoe seemed lifted High into that sea of splendor. Till it sank into the vapors Like the new moon slowlj^, slowly Sinking in the purple distance," — when reading these and other figures of like beauty the teacher should win (43) for the class a fuller, more vivid meaning' ])eeaiise of the imagery employed by the poet. But to stop and deiine each tigure, to berate some one who has forgotten a definition, to shake a finger at another who is unable to make a correct classification, to hunt for fine distinctions in form, — all this does not aid in giving that fuller, more vivid meaning to the class. Most of the siiiiple figures of speech in Hiawatha exert their power upon the child merely by being well read, or at most by having a short, parenthetical ex])lanation thrown in. And the rest should be quietly passed over. Any author who uses figures of speech that need elaborate annotation is using a useful instrument in a harmful way ; for the purpose of a figure is simply to illuminate, to make clear. — visibly clear, — not to cloud or compli- cate the meaning. Longfellow in other poems is guilty of many ornate, erudite, bookish and farfetched figures which no child or ordinary adult can do more than puzzle over. But such figures are in poor taste an\"where, and the kindest, most sensible thing to do with them is to pass them in silence. Fortunately this poem has few or none of these over-elaborate figures. The teacher should keep this in mind : in the literature lesson a figure of speech should lie the source of increased enjoyment because it makes a meaning more beautiful or more vivid ; and it is never in its proper place in such a lesson when it is made the subject of autopsy and in(juest. Above all do not base the class work on the reading aloud of the poem by the children. It is not an exercise in oral reading. No child can do more than make it hateful to himself and tiresome to the class by bumping along through it in this way. Even if a fair degree of skill could ])e attained by each pupil in this oral reading, nevertheless the idea of chopping up a story into disjointed fragments delivered, (with many suggestions and encouragements on the part of the teacher,) in a succession of errors, in varying manners, postures, voices, and styles, is abhorrent to the purpose in view, — the winning from it of literary values. Even a good teacher with her heart in the work Mill find it necessary to go over the lines at least twice in rehearsal before reading those portions to the class, in order to get the right swing to each verse and the proper twist to each long- proper name. Do not punish the class with demands for detailed memory reproduction of the story or parts of it. Is there any standard of education known and respected among men that makes it necessary for one to remember how Kwasind died, or whether Ajadaumo was a beaver, a squirrel, or a buffalo? To be sure, the meaning of each sentence and each story must be plain to all the class when the part in question is being presented. "Whether or not the meaning of what the teacher tells or reads is clear can be tested l)y a score of signs of interest "^nd by the way in which the pupils respond to interlocutory questions, how they engage in discussions, what they say and feel in the story problems that will be threshed out among them under the teacher's guidance and cross-questioning. But to put a class to the third inquisitorial degree at the end of a story or at the end of the poem or at the end of the term with such demands as. "Who was Poh-Puk- (441 Keena '? " " Where did Nokomis come from ? " " Tell the story of Nahma. ' ' etc., this Avoiild be the height of the ridiculous were it not so seriously damaging to the purpose of the poem in the scheme of literary education. Save where other method is specifically suggested, the teacher should follow in this work the general plan proposed for the presentation of Horatius and Evangeline. That is to say, the story should be introduced, told and made clear and interesting. Then the poem should be read, inter- preted, and the points of special interest discussed. It is necessary here, however, because of the fact that the poem is so long and because it is really a series of stories, to deal with each story as a unit. For each story, therefore, the introduction, narration and explanation of plot should be followed by the reading of the text, interspersed with such interpretation and discussion as may be worth while. The suggestions that follow are in great part directed toward securing class activity during the presentation ; but they by no means exhaust the possibilities in that line. Whether telling or reading, the teacher should be on the constant lookout for chances to secure interested class response. The pupils should be equipjied with the text, and they should follow the teacher on their books when she is reading. If it seems advisable for any reason to have the class go without texts the methods set forth in the fol- lowing suggestions will be found no less applicable to the situation. Famil- iai'ity with the printed poem, however, is one of the objects of the work, and it is desirable for this reason to have the class equipped with texts. Preparation and Presentation. Before beginning the work in class the teacher should read the poem through. A Avell-illiLstrated edition should be used by her if possible, so that the visualizations called up in her mind by the text may be as vivid and circumstantial as possible. She must put herself in the attitude of one who is to listen to the simple tales of a primitive race whose imaginings went fondly out to meet a world unknown. She should make herself rea- sonably familiar with Indian ways, for if the life of the myth-makers is; known their myths will be more appreciated. Acquaintance Avith the Greek, Hebrew, and Norse legends will help her to attain an insight into the spirit of myth-making. The teacher should begin class work with a discussion in simple terms of the origin of the stories found in Hiawatha. The following should be brought out in an interesting manner: Among the Indians were many stories in which they explained the Avonderful things in nature which they saw about them. Thus they made persons or spirits of the seasons, the winds, the ice, the river, the forest trees, animals, corn, and all the objects that aroused their wonder or strongly affected their affairs. So, too, they glorified their heroes and brave leaders. These hero tales grew with each generation and clustered more and more distinctly around a few of the inost important characters. Many different tribes of Indians possessed such old legends and wonder stories. The Ojibways, especially, had a rich (45) fund of them. These OjibwaA' stories were collected bj' students who found that they could learn quite as much about the Indians from them as from observation of present customs and ways. And finally came a poet, Longfellow, the greatest American poet, who wrapped them all together into one beautiful poem called The Song of Hiawatha. After an introduction in which the foregoing has been explained and amplified to the point of simplicity and cla). and (c) may be well presented by letting Rebecca describe them to Ivanhoe while we listen. 6. The outlaw's tryst after the capture of the castle. Bring out the joy of the outlaws over their victory; their fairness in the division of the spoils; the obedience they showed Locksley, their leader; their standards of physical manhood and courage as shown in the bout between the Black Knight and Friar Tuck; their underlying sense of fair play and justice, and the spirit of freedom that characterized every act. 7. Athelstane's funeral festivities. Bring out the details of the feasting, drinking, and formal eeremon^- that accompanied the rites. It should all be described in terms of what the Black Knight saw and thought. 8. The trial of Rebecca by combat. Make clear to the class the picture of the tilt yard, with its benches for spectators and its high paling all around. Describe the gathering of the Templars; the preparation of the iron stake and the fagots; the announcement of the trial by combat; Rebecca's vain waiting for a champion; Sir Brian's conflicting emotions and his urgent appeal to Rebecca; and finally, just as the sun was about to dip, the arrival of Ivanhoe. Through the whole of this tragic scene one question should hold the class : what can be done and v/hat will be done to save Rebecca not only from the wretched Sir Brian but from her impending doom at the stake. A common-sense, working understanding of each of the above scenes, and in less degree of many other scenes laid in the story, will serve in such type forming as will help the pupil in a thousand frequent illusions, references, and experiences in his wider relations with art, literature, the play, history and, for that matter, common conversation. In attempting to make the class visualize or see in imagination any particular scene, the use of maps, diagrams, sketches, chalk-talk work, and pictures should be used. A rough plan showing the relations between (70) Rotherwood, Sherwood Forest, Ashby, the scene of the roadside attack, Torquilstone and the anchorite's cell, will be helpful in making parts of the action clear. All of the characters listed among the names considered essential in the telling, (see pp. 68-69,) are drawn by Scott with force and distinctness. The following list of attributes is therefore a selection of those pertaining to the most essential personages in the story. Each has minor aspects as we view his actions, yet the side to be emphasized is the one here suggested : 1. Cedric's dominant characteristic is to be found in his descriptive title, The Saxon. He is a brave, unselfish man ; but stubborn beyond reason, and severely rather than kindly just. Above all he is intensely devoted to the Saxon cause. Remember that one or another, or perhaps a combination of several, of these attributes is shown in every act and motive of his. 2. Ivanhoe : Marked by Saxon loyalty, but without narrow prejudice against Norman virtues. Above all, true to his king. Brave in action, unselfish, chivalrous, generous to friend and foe. Eminently skilled in the accomplishments of knighthood. Wholly possessed by a deep, constant, and admirable love for Rowena. 3. Rowena : Rather less clearly portrayed than most of the other principal characters. A passive character throughout the story. Beautiful, however, and good and kind and constant to Ivanhoe and the ideals for which he stands. 4. Wamba : the fool in the case, and yet the wisest man. Marked by great loyalty for Cedric and his house ; possessing a wit ever ready for repartee or sharp .strategy, and harboring an over-mastering desire to make it hot for Normans. 5. Gurth: a burly fellow of great strength and of courage enough when the interests of his masters are at stake. Loyal through all extremes to Cedric and the Saxon interests. 6. Athelstane : a Saxon glutton ; type of the man of great heart and capable of splendid action who gives himself up to swinish tastes and habits. 7. King Richard (the Black Knight) : Fond of adventure, brave and efficient as a warrior, ready to see real worth even when lacking its custom- ary social trappings. Fond of rough, wild escapades. Interested in the welfare of his subjects, and especially interested in Ivanhoe. Above all a paragon in arms. 8. Prince John : a rascal caitiff, treacherous, cruel, selfish, tactless, unjust, always attempting to undermine his brother's kingship. An unreasoning foe to all Saxons. A foil to Richard in every virtue of that hero. 9. Sir Brian : proud, imperious, cruel, given to sudden and violent passions, willing to sink all vows and principles in the effort to gratify his ambitions. Showing extreme hatred of all things Saxon. 10. Isaa«' : shrewd, cringing, abased through persecution ; but kind to those who treat him kindly and holding a great love for his daughter. 11. Rebecca: gentle, grateful for kindness, possessed of supreme courage; a noble and thoroughly womanly woman. (71) 12. Locksley : skilled in woodcraft, a menace only to the rich oppressors ; kind, brave, and loyal at heart. In attempting' to endow each of the above individuals with the proper characteristics, the teacher must remember that little is to be gained by direct description in general terms. It avails little as far as vivid, realistic portrayal goes to say that Wamba was quick-witted; but the desired idea may be given if a few of his sharp comments are retold in direct discourse, and if his scheme to save Cedric, his resourcefulness while riding forth with King Richard, and other concrete illustrations of his shrewdness are presented in vigorous detail. The teacher should remember that she has certain characters with certain dominant characteristics to make real, and should play each actor so as to make him reveal his inmost self in every motive, feeling, and act. The following charts or plans should be sketched and used as indicated: 1. The great hall of Cedric ; to be u.sed when telling of the entertainment of the travelers there. 2. The lists at Ashby; to be used w^hen telling about the tournament. 3. Plan of Torquilstone : showing the bestowal of the prisoners and the details of the storming. The following chalk talks are simple and effective : 1. Knight on horseback; with slight variations useful in many stage-s of the story. 2. Rotherwood ; showing towers, drawbridge, moat, and method of forti- fication. 3. Torquilstone,— exterior view. This should be made a typical media?val castle. 4. Isaac's dungeon; showing fireplace, torture irons, chains, stone pillars, and the skeleton in manacles. 5. Preparations to burn Rebecca; showing judges and spectators, stake, firewood piled up, and Rebecca just about to take her place upon it. The following pictures are found in so many histories and history story books that it is not necessary to give specific references : 1. A tournament scene. 2. Knight in single combat. 3. A jester. 4. Mediaeval castle under storm. 5. Robin Hood pictures. When using a map, plan, chalk sketch, or picture the teacher should bring the illustration into as close conjunction with the events of the story as possible. Therefore, it is better to draw the map, or the plan, or the chalk sketch, and to show the picture, while in the very act of telling. In this way the use of the illustration in making relations clear is intensified. Without doubt the teacher will see, without any one pointing it out to her, that the story of Ivanhoe owes a large part of its interest to the charm of the element of mystery that it contains. Constantly the reader's imagina- tion is whetted and all his detective instincts aroused by the frequent con- fusions and disguises of identity, and in the unexplained meaning of events. (72) Each of the following- is a question that should be developed in its proper place in the telling. And the conjectures and anticipations aroused by the mystery suggasted by the questions will go a long way to give the story its strong hold on the interests of the class: 1. Who was the Palmer in Cedric's hall? 2. Why was Rowena so anxious for news from the Holy Land? 3. What did the Palmer whisper to Gurth? 4. Who were the outlaws who stopped Gurth on his way home from the Jew's? 5. Who was the Black Knight ? 6. What .sort of life did the outlaws live ? 7. Who was the sick man borne in the Jew's litter? 8. What did the Black Knight whisper to De Bracy at the postern gate ? 9. Where was Isaac when the castle was burning? 10. Where was the Holy Clerk of Copmanhurst when the spoils were divided ? 11. What befell Ivanhoe after the Black Knight rescued him? 12. What champion could Rebecca expect to find? 13. What did the Black Knight plan to do when he left Ivanhoe recov- ering at the priory? 14. Who was it that called upon Ivanhoe when he Avas attending Athel- stane's funeral feast? 15. Who were the minstrel and sturdy priest that came to the trial of Rebecca? 16. Why did Rebecca leave the trial without thanking Ivanhoe? It is. of course, understood that these questions are all answered in the development of the story. But during the progress of the tale one or more of them continually claims the attention and keeps the mind busy planning possible outcomes in answer to it. It will be well for the teacher to let the class give frequent expression to their suspicions or conjectures as to the answers, and to that end to make the questions vital problems in the unfold- ing of events. Cumulative Review. 1. What character in Ivanhoe do you like best? Why? 2. How did the Normans and Saxons feel toward each other in the days of King Richard? 3. How were the Jews treated in those days? 4. Describe the tournament scene. 5. Wlio was Robin Hood? 6. What sort of life did the outlaws live? 7. Describe a castle of the time of Ivanhoe. 8. What was a jester? 9. Describe the appearance of a knight equipped for fighting. 10. Who were the Knights Templar? 11. How were heretics and those accused of witchcraft treated in those davs? (73) 12. Describe a trial by battle. 13. Why is Ivanlioe called an historical novel? 14. Who wrote Ivanlwef 15. What other work of Scott have you read? 16. When and in Avhat land did Scott live and write? Fop the Pupils to Read. (See chapter entitled "Good Reading Habits," p. 100.) Other Well-known Works by Sir Walter Scott : The Talismmi. Kenilworth. The Lady of the Lake. Lochinvar. General Reading : Radford: King Arfliur and His Knights. Lamb : Tales from Shakespeare. Wallace: Ben Hur. Porter: Scottish Chiefs. (74) SNOW-BOUND. General Remarks and Sug-g-estions. This poem has a place in nearly all grammar grade courses of study. The literary values to be drawn from it for the class are as follows : 1. A friendly knowledge of winter life in a snow-bound farm house. While the poem deals with a situation of almost three generations ago, it is, nevertheless, typical in most of its salient points of conditions still common in many parts of the United States. 2. A sound appreciation of home and homely things, be they ever so humble. This, involving as it does right attitudes toward parents, brothers and sisters, guests, simple pleasures and home duties, is as much to be striven for to-day as in the day of Whittier. 3. An attitude of kindly, affectionate remembrance of childhood in the home. The poem is written with this as its main emotional end, and is, therefore, primarily a poem for adults. From children of twelve years of age or thereabouts scarcely anything of tenderly sad retrospection can be expected. Maturity and some world experience in the reader are required in order to catch the full spirit of the author. This spirit, the key to the poem, he has expressed in the following lines in which he refers to the feelings which he hopes the poem will arouse in others : "Yet haply in some lull of life, Some truce of God which breaks its strife, The worldling's eyes shall gather dew. Dreaming in throngful city ways Of winter joys his boyhood knew ; And dear and early friends — the few Who yet remain — shall pause to view These Flemish pictures of old days ; ' ' etc. But although children in the grammar grades are unable to catch to any considerable degree this delight of musing sadly over time-softened memories of childhood, they may develop an interest in the poem that will lead to later adult enjoj^ment of it ; and thus to the reminiscent attitude to which it brings its adult readers. Besides, they may catch to some small measure the spirit of the old man looking back upon his boyhood by putting themselves emotionally in his place; just as in imagination they are accustomed to take the roles of prince, knight, soldier, Horatius at the bridge, or what you please. The teacher should give the class a preliminary sketch of the narrative framework of the poem. In this she should lay the scene and describe the (7.T) farm while telling of the preparations for the storm. Then she sliould men- tion, but not attempt to detail, the various ways in which the snow-bound family passed the winter's night; and finally, she should end her introduc- tion with the events of the clearing up of the road after the storm had passed. It may be well to note here that in scenes of quiet, commonplace things it takes genius such as Whittier's to make them vivid, real and inter- esting. The teacher who can tell the story of H'oratius at the Bridge in a manner to set the dullest eyes in the class room to starting, may find her- self pretty much at a loss to make a quiet fireside evening of interest. Therefore, she should leave this to the poem and such interpretation as must be woven into its reading by her. Preparation and Presentation. The teacher who starts to make this poem interesting to children without first having brought herself into harmony with its moods and meanings will be trying to carry water in a sieve. Its appeal to the class must come from her enthusiasm and the flavor of appreciation that her every expres- sion smacks of. If this attitude is not at first present she should try to develop it in herself through reading the poem carefully, together with some good story of the author's life such as that found in each of the following: Cody: Four American Poets; Whittier. Hart: Seven Great American Poets; pp. 193-237. Bolton: Famous American Authors; pp. 399-430. She should think of the story as a tale of old-fashioned simple life in which the memories of an old man (whose kindly rugged face is in the shadow of every line) dwell softly over the scenes of his childhood, over the faces and voices and little exploits of those he loved best, and over the family hearth where concord and hospitality threw their halo about those who gathered there ; — tliose who have long since been fore-gathered elsewhere. Teaching in this spirit and with careful preparation of the details to be emphasized in each day's work, she need not fear that the class will fail to get from it all that it can carry to the minds and feelings of children in the eighth grade. The following lesson units are suggested : I. From the beginning of the poem, the coming of the storm, to the point where the family and its guests gather around the hearth. (Lines 1-154.) In this unit the preparations for the storm should first be made vivid and real. It will be well to have the class help in introducing other details besides the caring for the barnyard stock: such as piling up the wood for the great fireplace, bringing plenty of water from the well for family use during the violence of the storm, closing the outside shutters on all the windows that could possilily be dispensed with, and moving under cover all articles in the yard that might be covered and damaged by the snow. The description of the farm and landscape at daybreak on the second (76) morning should be made clear. Here the viewpoint to be taken is that taken by the author : the wondering amazement of the children over the way that the snow has changed familiar sights. At this point, while describing the various transformations described in lines 55-65, is the best place for giving an idea of the lay of the house and out-buildings. A chalk sketch including the house, barns, sty, corn-crib, (Be sure you knoAv what a corn-crib is,) garden wall, belt of wood, brush-pile, bridle post, well curb and sweep, each with its mantle of snow, will be effective. It should be developed, detail by detail, as the description found in the poem progresses. If the chalk sketch is too difficult, a diagram will be found helpful in aiding the class to visualize the scene. The next phase of the story, the attention to the live stock, may well be introduced by some such question as, "After every one had seen how the snow had covered and changed all the familiar things of the farm yard, what do you suppose they first thought of?" Or, "How do you suppose the horse and oxen and cows and sheep and chickens were faring all this time?" Then describe the digging of the path and tunnel through the sno^\• to the barn door. Let such members of the class as have seen real snow and such others as have encountered the California valley imitation of it recount experiences in any way supplementary or illustrative. Lines 92 to 115 bring out the lonesome isolation that the storm brought to the little farm. Its melancholy note contrasts effectively with the brisk and cheery preparations for the evening that are described in the succeeding lines, 116-142. The building of the great fire is the chief of these prepara- tions and its details should not be slighted. Thousands of people who never saw the fire burning in a great old-fashioned fireplace have good, common- knowledge ideas of a back log and a forestick, and of how the wood was laid and how the huge logs roared and crackled ; and these ideas should be given to the class. A chalk sketch may be introduced showing the fireplace and the fire. During the presentation of the next unit the details of the house dog and cat, the andirons, cider mug, apples, and basket of nuts may be added to the picture. Through the whole scene should run the feeling of warmth and contentment and love of home that possessed those who gathered around the hearth. II. The second lesson unit in the reading and interpretation of the poem to the class begins with the gathering of the family around the hearth, line 155, and ends with the sketch of the uncle, line 349. It should be noted by the teacher that the structure of the poem from line 224 to line 589 is such as permits many different selections of lesson units. It will be possible, if conditions warrant it, to organize this portion into other lesson unit groups than those suggested by simply breaking the work at the points where one character is left by the poet and another one taken up. The first appeal made by the poem is to one's appreciations of security and comfort when sheltered by a warm fire while a storm is howling without. Everyone has experienced this situation and it will not be hard for the teacher, by means of contrasting the wind and snow and darkness and cold without and the warmth and good cheer within, to bring the class into (77) a full understanding of the scene. Use each detail to show the satisfaction there must have been in having so pleasant a refuge from so wild a night. Bring out the meaning of the following phrases : clean-winged hearth ; f rostline ; shook beam and rafter ; lines 167-168 ; andirons. In connection with line 174 explain the New England custom of autumn nut-gathering. Lines 179-211 form a digression from the story proper, — ^a digression in which the author falls into a state of subjective reflection and philosophizing. In it the attitude of the lonely old man crowds out everything else. This passage, with its deep autobiographical interest and its beautiful expression of faith in eternal life, has double hold on the adult; but its claims are not so easily established in the appreciations of children. The teacher need not, therefore, attempt to bring it home to the hearts of the children by systematic exploitation. It will be better to read it with a few interpreta- tions interwoven, in order that the class may know what it is about and feel the charm of its expression, and then to leave its full significance to reveal itself in other years when the adult viewpoint shall have been reached. Next follow the details of how the evening was passed. These may be introduced by the question. ' ' Now that the family are all seated around the fire, what do you suppose they did to pass the evening ? ' ' Stories, puzzles, and riddles then, as now, held first place, but even the school reader was called upon to yield up its contents. (Do you suppose there were many books or novels to be had then?) Wlien the father told his stories what sort do you think they were,— book stories or stories from his own life? Bring out the interesting side to each of his reminiscences ; thus, the horseback journeys over the country, with their experiences with Indians and French-Canadians. Was the country well settled then? Why didn't he ride on a train instead of on horseback ? Why didn 't he stop in a hotel instead of camping out with the Indians? Lines 228-235 should recall the simple gaiety of the Acadians in their festivities, as described in Evangeline. Lines 236-241 give a picture of an old-time haying scene. Make its details clear. Bring out the full appreciation of the following: What sort of work was scythe-mowing, and what sort of men did it require ? What is a bee-line ? Lines 240-241 should give a picture of a series of mowers at short intervals and in regular series working acros.s the tide marsh. Lines 242-247 bring out the pleasures of fishing and camping out along the coast. They give a glimpse of a situation that will be interesting enough to any boy. Lines 248-255 contain little to interpret except the allusion to witchcraft and magic. Quote some anecdote or illustration to show the sort of stories that the people of Whittier's boyhood were so interested in. (See, for example, ]\Iadison : A Mai'l of Salem Towne. Price: Lads and Lassies of Long Ago; pp 64-84.) Bring out here, as in the balance of the poem, the delight there is in s'iniple homely pleasures, and the charm of romance that even commonplace events have for one who enters into them with whole-souled zest. (78) III. First ask the class what sort of work tlie thrifty mother would probably be doing as the family sat about the fire. After reading the lines involved, have some one describe a spinning-wheel. Bring out the fact that Whittier's family, as was the New England custom in those days, raised the wool, carded, spun and wove it, and then made it up into clothes for the whole family,— complete suits of clothes for men and boys as well as dresses for the girls. Let the class catch a glimpse of the simplicity in the sort of life where one is practically independent of all others in supplying the necessaries of life. AVho would like to live that way '? Why would it be pleasanter? Wouldn't it make for great peace of mind and a sturdy self- dependence ? Ask the class how they supposed the children liked to hear the Indian stories, and whether or not they have ever asked their parents to tell such tales to them. Explain fully lines 260-261 ; also, 269-272. Ask the children to tell about the sounds mentioned in lines 273-275. (X. B. The hawks played; but they did not play the boat horn!) What sort of a region was it where such sounds were to be heard? If the teacher or any member of the class has ever heard the call of the loon it will not be hard to supply the reason for the phrase, "As crazy as a loon." Compare the girlhood pleas- ^^res of the mother as described in linas 276-283 with the pleasures of the present-day town or city girl. In looking back over her girlhood, did she seem to regret that she had not had a different lot? Were her memories pleasant ones? Lines 284-288 should be used as a sidelight upon the religion of the Whittiers. Develop the fact, (line 288,) that the Quakers were scorned and often cruelly persecuted. Let some member of the class give illustra- tions. Bring out the meaning of "fire-winged" in the fact that oppression and martyrdom do not crush out but on the other hand rather give wings to the progress of any sect. In Chalkley's story is found not only a curious old tale, but one which involves the horror climax common to many stories of becalmed and ship- wrecked sailors, — the sacrifice of one in order that the rest may have food. Let the class conclude the sketch by telling what sort of a woman the mother was: cheerful, mild- voiced, always busy, and deeply religious in a quiet, Quaker-like way. Have some of the pupils tell which of the many things that she told about they think the most interesting. IV. The sketch of the uncle is filled with the local color of rural life among the hills of New England. Bring out the enjoyment that there was in the simple country pastimes and rural exploits of the uncle. Let members of the class call up similar experiences of their own or of members of their families. Have the class point out such details as are not to be found in California, such as, parish bounds, partridge, mink, woodchuck, musk-rat. Let them then suggest such things of nature as would have interested the uncle had he lived here : deer, coyotes, quail, redwood trees, great mountains, etc. In connection with the reference to Appolonius and Hermes, lines 320- (79) 323, outline the story told about ^lelampus in Bulfinch's Age of Fahle; p. 244. Do not quiz the class on any of the allusions found in this section or make it necessary for the pupils to remember them. They have a passing- value in the interpretation of the lines wherein they occur ; but beyond that the pupil will find them of no use. V. The sketch of the aunt brings in allusions to the old-time pleasures of husking and apple bees. Let the pupils describe them. Have the pupils tell whether in their opinion the maiden aunt was mother's or father's sister. What shows you that the relatives were always welcome at the Whittier home? Do you think that guests in those days pitched in and helped the mother with the work, or sat around and allowed themselves to be waited on ? Why were visitors so welcome ? Were the Whittiers the sort of people who would try to make a flashing show when company was in the house ? Why is there no account of how the sisters entertained the assembled family? Bring out the fact that in those days the young people had little to say when the older members of the family were disposed to talk. Prob- ably, also, the bitter memory of the loss of the two sisters overshadows in Whittier 's mind his other mem.ories of them. In the treatment of the por- tions of the poem dealing with the sisters there is need for little interpreta- tion. Bring out how dearly Whittier loved his sisters. Which one did he care the most for? Which one would he miss the more, — the one who had died years before, or the one who had been with him only a few months before he wrote the lines? Bring out the music and pathos in lines 407-437 by a sympathetic reading. Be sure that the central thought is clear : the bitter- ness of present loss, tempered by the faith in a reunion afterwards. VI. The sketch of the district school teacher is so fresh, brisk, and vivid that it will be easy to secure a class interest in it; especially as it presents a familiar character in a novel and interesting light. Two results should be striven for in presenting this part of the poem : first, a good appreciation of the old-time district school teacher in the person of the ambitious young man working his way through an education ; second, a true insight into the good, Avholesome, human nature of this particular teacher, and through him a more sympathetic understanding of teachers as a class. Arouse a friendly interest in his fortunes and experiences. He was one of the many of his time who worked his way through college by vacation efforts; sometimes peddling, at other times teaching little rural schools. It is in this latter capacity that we meet him quartered at the Whittier house in the course of his regular cycle of boarding 'round. Explain what boarding 'round was and what some of the "droll experiences" (line 458) may have been. Have tlie different games explained and find out which ones are still played. Show in each activity with which he is credited how pleasant a guest he was to have about the place, and try to get the class into the attitude of the Whit- tiers,- — that of hearty interest in and love for him as the school teacher. Lines 480-509 are a philosophical digression on human slavery, — its evil (80) consequences and the education that is to remedy them. This part of the poem is wedged into the story proper and has no more vital relation to it than the same amount of space would have if devoted to the immigration question or the single tax issue. The teacher should read it, and interpre- tation should be interwoven sufficient to bring out this single point : Whit- tier sees in the young teacher the type of those men who are to bring education to the South at the close of the Civil War and who will thus elevate the negro and improve the general tone of the country. In this part the teacher again has the necessity of deciding what is an alliLsion worth taking up and what is worth but scanty notice. The two references (lines 476 and 478) illustrate these two classes. "Pindus-born A raxes" is a somewhat scholarly allusion meant to convey no other impres- sion than that the river referred to is a stream figuring dimly somewhere in classic lore. It should be thus explained and allowed to slip by without (luestion. (In a foot-note to this line in a well-known and much-used edition of the poem the following note appears: "Pindus is the mountain chain \vhich, running from north to south, nearly bisects Greece. Five rivers take their rise from the central peak, the Aous, the Arachthus, the Haliae- mon, the Peneus, and the Achelous. " Think of the harrowing ways in which this reference and conjoined note may be used by the teacher if she fails 1(! challenge it for its real value and to trim its exploitation in accordance llierewith!) "Dread Olympus," however, is an allusion of the stock sort. The class should be familiar with its meaning from their early stories in Greek mythology. Questions should be asked upon it sufficient to bring out the fact that Mount Olympus, in Greece, was the sacred mountain upon whose summit the Gods dwelled. Naturally it was an object of awe and dread to the Greek people. VII. The introduction to "Miss Harriet Livermore, daughter of Judge Livermore of New Hampshire, etc.," has few if any values for an eighth grade. Indeed, the poem would be better off from any standpoint if she had been omitted. She is clearly not of the life of the Whittiers or of the picture of that life; nor is she a type of anything else. Her personality, character, manners, and ways are contradictory and full of such subtle changes and shades of change that it is hard for children to get a good idea di' her. "Whatever the interest she may have aroused in the young Whit- tiers, she arouses little in us, but enters the family circle as an element ^\holly foreign. In order to get through this part of the poem with any results to the class, it will be necessary to describe this "not unf eared, half- ■\',elcome guest" as well as possible in advance and to tell of her strange (idventures in the Orient. Then the lines shoud be read with enough inter- pretation to bring out her eccentricities and the sharp contrast that they make with the even-tenored life of the Whittiers. Lines 563-589 should be read with emphasis on the music in them. Interpret just enough to bring out the idea that Whittier had only kindly wishes and generous (j BUL. 5 (SI) sympathy for the strange guest. Do not drag the class into a meaningless attempt to discuss the theories of free ^vill and fatalism. VIII. In the coming of bedtime are found several crisp details that help out our picture of life in the snow-bound farm house. First, the early bedtime hour of nine and the fact that the black hand of the clock was sufficient to enforce the demands of the hour. Bring out the difiference between this peaceful enforcement of the bedtime law among the children, and the nagging, miserable struggle that there is in some families to get the children into bed. Second, the reference to the uncle's pipe. Third, the covering of the coals. Let the children understand the mean- ing of this and the origin of the phrase, "I've come to borrow a coal of lire." Fourth, the mother's prayer. Bring out the kindly interest in the wel- lare of all that the mother showed, and emphasize the spirit in which she prayed: asking for things that she was more than willing to pitch in and help secure. And note, too, the simplicity of the things prayed for, and yet their complete sufficiency. Lines 614-628 contain a number of concrete experiences that recall to every one the feeling of security that has been enjoyed while the worst of weather prevailed without. Here is a good place to bring out the experi- ences of the class with the sound of pattering rain on the roof at night. It is a California situation that compares favorably with that described in the poem. In this portion of the poem is an abundance of details with which to complete the picture of simple life. Bring out the difference between all the situations found in lines 590-628 and their parallel situations of to-day; and show the happiness, contentment, and solid comfort of body and spirit that the simple farm life brought the Whittiers. IX. In the next section, lines 629-673, we find that the storm has passed and that the farmers are busy breaking out the roads so that necessary local communication can be established. Three special reactions should be given the class from these lines : First, as clear a picture as possible of the ox train breaking out the drifts and an appreciation of the purpose of it. Second, a keen enjoyment, by proxy, of the delight that the young people felt at being free again and how they improved the occasion with all the fun that could be gotten from fresh snow. Third, the picture of the country doctor, — autocratic, prompt, generous, full of kindness, — busying himself in the welfare of the scattered farmers. The class is well-enough acquainted with Mrs. Whittier by this time to tell, in answer to questions, just what she would be glad to do in helping out the doctor. X. Lines 674-714 show us how the family passed the days with their limited stock of printed matter until the roads were open and the weekly paper came to them. Bring out the fact that the family loved to read, even if it had only a small stock of things to read. Describe an almanac. What members of the class have read one ? What is to be found in an almanac ? (82) Find out from the class what novels the different members have read and tell them of some of the books available from the list of books for the class to read. Point out how glad the Whittiers would have been to have had such books. What sort of poetry do you suppose Ellwood's was? The coming of the weekly paper was a great event in the snow-bound home. The following considerations should be emphasized in discussing it : 1. Explain the meaning of the news items, and, by reference to them, fix the time of the events of the poem; but do not make them objects of class research nor give them any intrinsic importance. 2. Have the class notice the different sorts of information found in the paper:, foreign news, national news, local news, criminal and sensational news, poets' corner, weather prophecies, lost and found notices, and adver- tisements of every sort. 3. Let the pupils compare this old country paper with our modern dailies. 4. Try to get them to see that it is not mere bulk, or frequency of issue, or telegraph service, that makes a useful paper. That it is rather its adjustment to our needs, its decency of content and its trustworthiness that commend it to us ; or at least that should. In the conclusion, lines 715-759, Whittier again lapses into the frame of mind of a lonesome old man yielding himself to a melancholy contempla- tion of the things that have passed. It should be read with feeling, for it is charged with it by the author, and the class should be brought to appre- ciate the sad melody that runs in its rhythm. By way of interpretation the following should be brought out : Who is the Angel of the backward look ? Why has he a book? Why associate the hour-glass with him? Make it clear that Whittier, though sad for the past that is gone, is hopeful of the present and the future; that he is not one of those who feel that the old times were better than the new. What is the aloe ? Make clear the object of the poem as expressed in lines 740-750. Bring out the rare harmony in the allusion to "Flemish pictures." When the study of the poem has been completed the following exercises are suggested in order that its full values may be secured by the class : First — A discussion of the various pleasures there were in the Whittier home in winter time. Bring out through questions all the details sug- gested by the poem. Second- — How did the family get along together, and why were they all so happy? Bring out here the simple arrangement of home duties: how every one had his share to do ; how the work was made play or mixed with play ; how each one thought of the others before himself ; how cheerfulness and helpfulness had become habits to the whole family. Third — What pleasures were there on the farm in other seasons of the year? Have the class supply such activities as the following: swimming; hunting; gathering roots and herbs; nutting: husking bees; quilting parties; picnies on the beach. Fourth — Bring out that it did not take the telephone, rural delivery, windmill, expensive house, many magazines, automobile, and other common (83) tilings of to-day to make the AVhittiers happy. If the poem has been well tanght it will be safe to say that the whole class will be ready to change places and times with the young Whittiers. Have some of the members who feel most strongly this way give their reasons for their feelings. Fifth — Have the pupils pick out lines that they wish to memorize, not less than fifteen and preferably in two different places in the poem. If ideas are slow in this selection, quicken the tastes by reading aloud some of the most beautiful passages, such as : Lines 1-14, ; 155-175 ; 203-211 ; 405- 437, or any subdivision of it ; 715-740 ; 740-759, or any part of it. Cumulative Review. 1. About what does the poem, Snow-Boimd, tell us? 2. In what part of our country was the home of the Whittiers located? 3. How did the "Whittier family spend the winter evenings? 4. Which personal sketch in the poem pleases you most? Why? 5. Why was the life of the Whittiers so pleasant? 6. Give from memory those parts of the poem which you like best. 7. Of what country was Whittier a citizen, and when did he live and write ? For the Pupils to Read. (See chapter entitled "Good Reading Habits," p. 100.) Other Well-Knov^n Works by Whittier : Barbara Frietchie. Maud Muller. General Reading. Morris: Wood^nan, SiJarc that Tree. Hood: Past and Present, ("I remember, I remember"). Woodworth : The Old Oaken Bucket. Wiggin: Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. Kipling: Captains Courageotis. Twain : Tom Sawyer. Twain : Huckleberry Fhm. (84) THL MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY. General Remarks and Sug-g-estions. Edward Everett Hale wrote The Man Without a Country during the Civil War. He wrote it so that men in that day might be brought to feel the full strength of the bond that held them to their nation. There was grave need, even in the North, for a stimulus to the sentiment of loyalty to country then, and this story helped to meet the need. This need still con> tinues, and always will continue, although the Civil War is no longer its occasion. There are so many other occasions in these "piping times of peace" for men to fail in sentiments of forthright loyalty, so many ten- sions seek to draw allegiance from the welfare of the state and nation, that the story it still almost as useful as it was in the days that called it forth. In a recent preface the author has said: "It does not need now that a man should curse the United States, as Philip Nolan did, or that he should say he hopes he may never hear her name again, to make it desirable for him to consider the lessons which are involved in the parable of his life. Any man is 'without a country' who, 'by his sneers, or by looking back- ward, or by revealing his country's secrets to her enemy, checks for one hour the movements which lead to peace among the nations of the world, or weakens the arm of the nation in her determination to secure justice between man and man, and in general to secure the larger life of her peo- ple.' He has not damned the United States in a spoken oath. All the same he is a dastard child. ' ' The mental and emotional attitudes aroused by the story of Philip Nolan are, therefore, no less to be sought now than forty-five years ago. This is the more true in- that the nation now has to bring a larger infusion of adopted children into the bonds of loyalty. A rational pride of country, like a rational pride of family, is a factor making for individual decency. Moreover, it is in itself a good thing, even a necessary thing, demanded by the standards of our civilization. The man who is dead to all interest in his country's welfare is still an outcast and a social exile, just as Philip Nolan was. Invisible seas part him from the life of his day ; much of the pleasant intercourse of literature and speech and community life is cut off from him. He is more like a cave man than an American. As one means to the end that this may not be. The Man Willwut a Country has found a place in our grammar school literature course. Preparation and Presentation. The surface as well as the deeper values to be gained from The Man Without a Country will be best attained by presenting the story for all that it is worth as an absorbing story. Its situations, characters, issues, (85) and problems should be brought to the appreciation of the class as details of vivid interest. Philip Nolan must be made mentally real. The various experiences through which he passed must be drawn so clearly as to afford strong stimulus to the emotions which they are designed to arouse. The class must appreciate the elements of mystery, tragedy, pathos, and patriot- ism shown in the events of the story. Abstract moralization has no place in the work. Its introduction will defeat its own end. Not by the preach- ing of the teacher, but by the charm and strength of the story will the gen- eral truth best be made known. And the charm and strength of the story depend upon its presentation for all that it is worth as a story full of moving situations. The following special lines of preparation should be made by the teacher before the story is taken up in the class : 1. She should read the preface, the story and the notes as found in the copyrighted edition*. 2. She should establish in her own mind the most important elements of the atmosphere of the story. These are, — (a) The state of affairs in the territory of Louisiana and in Texas dur- ing the decade following the Louisiana Purchase. This involves some notion of the wildness and remotenass of the new territory, the adventurous char- acter of its few American inhabitants, and the condition of border ill-feeling that existed between the Americans and the Spaniards along the unde- fined boundary line. (&) A brief review of the facts concerning Aaron Burr and his Western schemes. The winning personality of Burr, his national fame, his diffi- culties with the administration, his duel with Hamilton, and finally his visions of empire in the west should be clear. Especially clear should be the idea that selfish ambition was the key to his life. (c) An understanding of the times sufficient to interpret the significance of the situations into which Philip Nolan fell when his life on the sea began : the fact that the world was larger to a wanderer then than now ; that ships often left on cruises of two and three years; that the War of 1812 would naturally involve the vessel on which Nolan happened to be at that time; that the horrors of the slave trade had been prohibited by law and were being suppressed. 3. References, allusions, and foreign idiomatic quotations must be under- stood fully by the teacher so that she can interpret them when the text is before the class. (See page 90.) 4. Above all, the plot of the story must be perfectly clear to the teacher ; critical situations must be appreciated for their full meaning ; motives and impulses should be understood in all their aspects; and the emotional attitudes which the story is designed to stimulate must be experienced. The story should then be told by the teacher to the class. It should take the form of a brief but vivid sketch of the text version, involving the details of the main situation, but not supplying all the minor circumstances. The following should be emphasized in it: *Published by Little. Brown & Co., Boston, Mass. (86) 1. The life of Philip Nolan on the southwestern frontier. 2. The influence of Burr over him and how it led him from loyalty to his country. Bring out the fact that Nolan was not only an American, but an officer in the national army as well, and hence was doubly bound to loyalty. Develop, also, all the conditions that made his disloyalty easy: his life remote from fellow Americans and from national affairs ; the personality of Burr; the tempting opportunity offered to disloyal ambition by the wild regions of Texas and Louisiana Territory. The point to be clinched by all this is that his treason had every possible excuse, — and yet had no justi- fication. 3. The trial and the sentence of the court-martial. This scene should be given in full detail. Bring out, especially, the horror that Nolan's wild renunciation of his country aroused in the old officer who judged him. Be sure that the fitness of the judgment is made clear. 4. How the sentence was executed. In this should be explained the way in which the prisoner was kept on the seas by means of transfer from ship to ship. The details of his life on board ship should be dwelled upon : how he was a man set apart from the dearest interests of his fellows in that no reference to home and country was ever made in his presence. Describe in a general way how he passed from sea to sea and ship to ship and always found himself alone. Bring out the routine of his life and let the class see that no additional punishment was heaped upon the fate which he had sought, — never to hear of his country. Nothing else was lacking to him, and yet the main bond between himself and his fellows was missing and could never be replaced. In one respect he was as if dead. The various situations arising in his life at sea which show what he suffered should be left until the text is taken up by the class. When the story has thus been sketched briefly as above outlined, the text should be put into the hands of the children. They should follow the teacher on, their books as she reads and interprets the story. Here, as in all cases where the teacher reads to the class, the success of the work will depend largely upon what light she throws upon each point as it arises and what class activity her leading questions are able to arouse. So much new mean- ing and so many new points of interest should be discovered as to prevent all flavor of staleness from entering the work. The text reading and the interpretation begin with the notice of Nolan's death, which event should not be included in the preliminary account given by the teacher. Thus a fresh interest is aroused in the very first stage of the reading. The teacher should explain that the writer, the "I" of the story, is supposed to be a retired officer of the navy and one who would in consequence know about the facts of Nolan's case. From the first line to the last the author has used the utmost art to give his tale the aspect of literal truth carefully expressed. So well has this been done that it is fairly impossible for one immersed in the story to doubt the veracity of each progressive step. The teacher should preserve this illusion of fidelity to fact until the story is finished, because of the realistic (87) force it gives to all the situations. If in the beginning any pupil should ask whether or not it is a ti'ue tale, the answer is that that is one of the things for the class to find out. At the end of the work a discussion should be held as to the probability and possibility of its truth, and by thus discussion it should be brought out that the story is simply a great parable on patriotism called forth by the times in which it was written. The teacher will find occasion for continual class activity during the presentation of the text. In almost every sentence is a point to be made clearer by a fitting question. The more important points that should be made specially clear are the following : 1. The mystery surrounding the ]\Ian Without a Country whose death notice opens the text reading. 2. The scene at the court-martial. In this should be shown the extreme of disloyalty to which Nolan went and, by w^ay of contrast, the effect of his actions on old Colonel Morgan. 3. The order of the President and the methods adopted on board ship to give it effect. Note the care with which the author builds up the impres- sion of authentic fact in this stage of the story. 4. The incident of the reading of the Lay of the Last Minstrel. In this the reader gets his first insight into the depth of punishment that Nolan suffered. Bring out the point that this marks the end of his self-confidence and the beginning of his suffering and repentance. The scene found here is a most dramatic one and should be made mentally visible to the class. 5. The dance on board the "Warren," during which Nolan found that there was no hope for him to ever get into toueh with home or national affairs again. This, also, affords a striking picture which should be made clear. Bring out the fact that as a Man Without a Country, Nolan was well treated ; but that no one would reach out a hand to lighten his punishment that he had brought down upon his own head. 6. The sea fight in which Nolan proves his bravery and his repentance. Show through sharp details the splendid service done by the Man Without a Country and the just honor given him for it. But bring out the fact that nothing was now of force sufficient to break down the barrier that he had placed between himself and the nation that he had disowned. At this point the reader, like the old sea captain, is ready to forgive the wretchied fellow ; but the consequences of his disloyalty are not to be cheeked. There Ls and can be no parole for one who has committed treason. 7. The narrow, methodical life that was left to him. The excellent sketch of Nolan's daily life gathers most of its pathos from the fact that his many natural talents and fine tastes had so little scope, — that one who might have been a great and iLseful man had to move by rule on so narrow and so bare a stage. 8. The freeing of tJie slaves on board the slaver. In this is found the climax of Nolan's punishment and his fullest consciousness of what his loss had been. Even the wretched slaves loved the home place and cared as much to regain it as they cared for their freedom. Here, too, we find an expression of the bitterness of Nolan's suffering. The personal rela- (S8) tioiis witli him a^-sunied at this point by the writer add to the force of the situation. 9. The death of Nohm as described in the letter. This scene develops the full pathos in the misshapen life of the dying man. No one can follow it without feeling- the deep loyalty to country that had long" possessed him. But the feelings of pity and admiration are not alone aroused. Behind them i.s the deeper feeling that the hard fate of Nolan was just and neces- sary. Moreover it was for the best, even for his best. Due to his punish- ment he had won to loyalty. The experiences through which he passed restored to him his love of home and country. Thus, although his life had been sacrificed, his spirit had been made whole. An endless number of minor points for class discussion will be found by the teacher. The following problems dealing with the motives, issues, and ethics involved in the story are of superior importance. They should be fully threshed out by the class when they arise in the progress of the read- ing. Such discussion will go far toward the securing of correct attitudes by the pupils and will insure an interested appreciation of each turn of the plot : 1. What was there in Nolan's life that made it easy for him to fall into disloyalty ? 2. Did the sentence of the court at first seem severe 1 3. How do you suppose his shipmates felt toward him at first? Later? 4. Suppose you were to lose all touch with country and yet had to live among those whose home interests were intense, how would you feel? 5. What possible good could Nolan's presence do the officers and men on board the ships? 6. Why did the selection from the Lay of the Last Minstrel aft'ect him as it did ? 7. What feelings must have possessed the exile as he was transferred from the home-bound ship to the vessel setting out on its cruise t 8. What does his experience at the dance on the "Warren" show about the way in which people thought of him? How would such an experience naturally affect him? 9 What points in the story bring out the change in spirit that crei)t over him? 10. Should he have been pardoned after the part he took in the sea fight ? 11. How would you like to live the tread-mill life he endured? What were the various hardships in it? 12. How do you suppose the earnest warning he gave to the young mid- shipman (the "I" of the story) affected the latter? 13. Why did he not try to secure a pardon? 14. What did he lose by becoming a man without a country? 15. In thought and feeling how did he try to regain something of what he had lost? 16. Why did Danforth fail to tell him about the Civil War? 17. Was his offense one that could be repaired and pardoned? 18. What makes his or any other disloyalty to country so evil a thing? (S9) 19. What ways are there in which one can disown his country, even in times of peace? The teacher will find many references and allusions that will demand cursory interpretation as she takes the class over them. Others deserve a fuller explanation because of their force in the story or because of their common recurrence in literature. The following are of this sort and should be clearly explained : 1. Location at sea given in terms of latitude and longitude. It is not the specific location here that is of value, but rather a general intelligence concerning the use of latitude and longitude in giving bearings, 2. ' ' Esprit de corps. ' ' Here used to 'describe the spirit of class harmony and mutual confidence that existed among the officers of the navy. It is a phrase for which w^e have no good English equivalent : hence, its common use. 3. "When Ross burned the public buildings at Washington." The class may remember that Washington was burned by the British during the War of 1812. 4. "Benedict Arnold" — "King George." Why would either of these be most offensive names to a veteran of the Revolutionary War? 5. "Perhaps ladies did not take up so much room as they do now." A reference to the enormous hoop-skirts worn by ladies in the middle of the nineteenth century. 6. "Salt-junk" — "turtle soup." A reference to the day when fresh and canned meats were unknown on board ship and when any reasonable incon- venience would be .suffered in order to get fresh food. 7. "Contra dances." Dances at which partners stand facing each other at some interval during much of the time. 8. ' ' Iron Mask, ' '■ — more commonly stated. The Man in the Iron Mask. A mysterious prisoner of state long confined in the Bastile. His features were always hidden by a mask and no one knew who he was or why he was in prison. 9. "Patois." Dialect. The word shade will stand as substitute for it in the text. 10. " 'Ah, non Palmas!' "—"Ah, not Palmas." Cumulative Review. 1. Briefly sketch the story of The Man Without a Country. 2. What was the offense committed by the Man Without a Country ? 3. How was he punished for his disloyalty? 4. Through what experiences did he learn to love his country? 5. In what ways may one be a traitor to one's countiy \n times of peace? 6. In what way may our love for country show itself? 7. Who wrote The 3Ian Without a Country? 8. "Wliat other story by Hale have you read? 9. In what dav and land did Hale live and write? CM) For the Pupils to Read. (See chapter entitled "Good Reading Habits," p. 1(10.) Other Well-Known Works by Hale : Stories of the Sea. Stories of Inventions. General Reading. Byron: The Prisoner of Chillon. Baldwin : An American Book of Oolden Deeds. Mabie: Heroes Every Child Shoidd Know. Key: The Star-Spangled Banner. Holmes: Old Ironsides. Read: Sheridan's Ride. Miller: Colutnbus. (91) LNOCH ARDLN. General Remarks and Suggestions. Some one will probably say, " What ! Enoch Arden in the grades? Enoch Arden with its heavy problems of adult life; its situations calling up feel- ings deep and complex and subtle?" The question is a fair one and the objection is in part well taken. Nevertheless Enoch Arden is now taught in many of our grammar schools and there are decided values to be won from it in a well-taught eighth grade. First. — There are many situations in it that the child of the eighth grade will readily appreciate. The coast town life of the children; the industry and energy of Enoch as a fisherman ; his home-making prepara- tions ; his love for Avife and children and his ambitions for them ; the fears and hopes over his parting ; his long absence and the conseciuent hard times at home ; his marvelous adventures while away ; even the problem of a second marriage that faced Annie, his wife; and at last the wanderer's return and self-sacrifice, — all these will be understood if properly presented. Nor are the feelings involved in an appreciation of these situations beyond the experience of the pupils in quastion. Second. — The full meaning of the remarkable story must Ije to any one an unfolding, and although all may not be got from it in the grades, yet much is to be secured there and the rest will come through, and in addition to, what is thus attained. Perhaps the high school will complete the work with a second treatment of the poem ; or perhaps the pupil may turn again and again to the poem in later days, each time with a fuller response. At all events, once the story has taken even a light hold on the hearts of its hearers it w-ill never lose that hold and must perforce be lived over and over iii imagination, each time becoming somewhat richer and fuller in meaning. Third. — The poem has certain literary knowledge claims that cannot be set aside for the uncertain chance of future settlement. Fourth. — It introduces the pupil to the enjoyment of the poetry of Tennyson, without which, to be sure, he could boast an ordinary education, but with which he is certainly much better off. And finally, the poem is already widely taught in the eighth grade. By that fact alone its presence here is justified, — provided the proposed treatment aids the teacher to any degree in helping her pupils to the literary values that it has in store for them. The following suggestions may be used in high school or grammar grade work, in each case the discretion of the teacher being exercised as to what parts of the work should receive emphasis and A\hat parts should be skimmed over. (92) Preparation and Presentation. It is especially desirable that the teacher tell the story of Enoch Arden before placing the text of the poem before the class. It goes without say- ing that in order to do this she must thoroughly understand and emotion- ally respond to each turn in the plot. In some cases this may require sev- eral thoughtful preliminary readings of it on her part and each time .she must lose herself in the fortunes of the characters. The principal situations nuist not only be understood, bat visualized as well. One way that the teacher may help herself toward the vizualization of the most dramatic scenes is to pause and think how an artist might illustrate each ; or how the situation would look if staged. During the telling, the class should be stimulated to constant comment; response and expression of feeling. T'he critical situations in the story, referred to on pages 96-98, should be made especially vivid. This phase of the work should result in a clear knowledge of the story by the class and a vigorous emotional rasponse to its changing situations. Most of the discussion of the motives and issues should arise later when the text is taken up. The second step in the work is the reading and interpreting of the poem. Copies of the text should be in the hands of the pupils so that they may follow the teacher as she reads. This will insure closer attention, and a fuller understanding of each point in the story. It will also afford the pupils a means of making ready reference to specific statements. In reading and interpreting the poem to the class the first care of the teacher should be to make its scenes clear cut and vivid : her pictures of them must become the property of the class. Supplement the author's portrayal by homely simple figures or other c[ualifying expressions of your own. Have members of the class add details such as are suggested by their imaginations. The very modulation of the teacher's voice, — soft or loud, brisk or sad, thoughtful or faltering, — will serve to color the description at hand or to interpret the action then under way. Here as elsewhere in dealing with poetry, the selection is to be read to the class with a constant running fire of interpretations. It must be well read, so as to bring out the meaning and the vocal beauty of each line. But a conscious pose or effort of the elocutionary type is to be avoided. Let the manner of voice and person be such as you would naturally employ in telling one group of friends just such a tragic story concerning other friends. The interpretation should generally follow the reading. Make it as parenthetical as possible. After all points have thus been made clear in a section, go back and re-read that section with its new meaning. Thus, to illustrate, one might read and interpret the first lines of the poem in some such way as the following : "Class, how would you like to live iu such a little seaport town as this: 'Long lines of cliff breaking have left a chasm : And in the chasm are foam and yellow sands;' (93) Such a spot as some of yon have seen along our coast, — a place where there is a gap cut by the waves in the high cliffs. How many have seen just such a break in our cliffs? But this gap in our story was larger than most of the onas we see along the coast, for it gave room for a little harbor. For see, — 'Beyond,' — that is beyond the water and the yellow sand, — 'Beyond, red roofs (are seen) about a narrow wharf In cluster; then a mouldered church; and higher' — You see the town is on a liillside sloping down to the sandy beach, — — 'and higher, A long street climbs to one tall-towered mill;' — A winding street, I should say, leading up through the little town to the mill almost half way up the hillside. — " 'And high in heaven behind it,' — high against the heavens,— against the sky line, — behind the mill,^ — 'high in heaven behind it a gray down with Danish barrows, ' — old burial mounds of the Danes, you see. How do these mounds help us to know that this scene is on the coast of England? Why would such Danish barrows naturally be near the sea coast ? — 'High in heaven behind it a gray down "With Danish barrows, and a hazelwood. By autumn nutters haunted, flourishes Green in a cup-like hollow of the down.' In autumn, you see, the nuts are ripe and the people of the village come up to gather them. You are going to hear some very strange things that happened to some who came up in the autumn to gather those nuts, so don't forget where the trees are. "It's rather a pleasant little place where this story happened. Don't you think so? Just listen, now% and see how fine it would have looked to you if you had been on a desert island for ten years and were just coming back and entering its port. — " Then read the whole description again, this time smoothly and with all the meaning possible. At the conclusion, — "And now that we know all about the place, let us hurry on and find something about the strange things that happened there." This illustration of the method is not proposed as a model, nor is the passage interpreted considered to be especially susceptible to interesting exploitation, in an eighth grade : but it simply gives an example of what is meant by intenvoven interpretation. The results are much more pronounced in passages filled with spirited action or with waverings between conflicting motives. Do not fail to show a natural, unforced pleasure in beautiful expressions or scenes as they occur. Our artistic tastes are largely the result of uncon- scious imitation, and the teacher's enjoyment of a passage, if not thrust upon (94) the class, will awaken a like enjoyment in them. Thus one might pause and show pleasure in the thought and form of the following: — " 'Enoch set A purpose evermore before his eyes, To hoard all savings to the uttermost To purchase his own boat and make a home For Annie:' — Do you think that he was the kind to succeed ? What makes you think so ? — — 'and so prospered that at last A luckier or a bolder fisherman, A carefuller in peril, did not breathe For leagues along that breaker-beaten coast Than Enoch.' I like that picture of Enoch, don't you? See how determined he was to succeed so that he could make a home and a living for Annie, — — 'Enoch set A purpose evermore before his eyes. To hoard all savings to the uttermost. To purchase his own boat and make a home For Annie : ' — And see how well he succeeded, — —'and so prospered that at last A luckier or a bolder fisherman, A carefuller in peril, did not breathe For leagues along that breaker-beaten coast Than Enoch.' Why, — of course he was! Who can tell why he became so successful a fisherman? But do you think that it was luck that made him a success? What sort of a man do you take him to be?" etc., etc. Many times in the story the teacher must turn back to other and earlier passages for references that throw light upon the situations or the motive or the problem under consideration. See how full of new meaning the words of Annie as a little girl when we read them after her marriage to Philip, — "The little wife would weep for company And say she would be little wife to both. ' ' And what a new meaning there is in Annie's misgivings after we hear of Enoch's misfortunes on his voyage. Illustrations might be multiplied; but the careful teacher will be constantly on the lookout for chances to perfect this back and forward interweaving of the parts of the story. Through it each part finally gets its full meaning. The poem abounds in issues between motives and confiieting alternatives of conduct, many of which are of the highest value as a basis for giving the pupils sound emotional attitudes. The supreme issue in, of course, the self-effacement of Enoch upon his return, and all the confiict of influences, (95) motives, and alternatives that entered into his decision should be brought into the foreground. Let the class decide for him, or with him, after they have lived his life up to that point. So in the many other more or less important problems. Get the pupils to live the life and make the brave and kind and self-denying decisions. In this way they will lind themselves in emotional attitudes that will make the story almost a personal experience to them; and that at the same time will tend to fix their stand on all the like problems that life presents. This is the main value of the work : the power tlie story has to make us feel aright on some of the common problem>s of life which it presents in specific form. That it may do this the teacher should, first, see each problem herself and take the right stand on the issue involved in it ; and second, present the problem in such a way as to get a like insight and attitude on the part of her students. Admiration, sympathy, strong feel- ing of any sort for what is right in the conduct of a story character makes the pupil an ally of that character and a limited partner in his conduct. The following situations, most of which call upon us often in life in some form or other for a high or low ethical stand, should be presented so as to bring out sound attitudes on the part of the class. 1. The desire of Enoch to work for and make a home. (What do you think of such an ambition? Would he not be happier without a family and a home?) 2. The necessity for courage, ambition, and ability in accomplishing his purpose. (Is success "easy ? Why did he succeed? Did his success depend on luck? Do you think he deserved to be happy after his efforts?) 3. The courage and self-sacrifice of Philip that made him renounce his love for Annie. (Why did he do it? What else might he have done? What was best to do? Wouldn't Annie have been happier with him,^ — for he was rich,— than with Enoch, a hard-working fisherman? 4. The happiness in Enoch's home. (Is it possible to be happy in such a simple way? What made the family happy? Wlio Avas better off, — Philip with his wealth or Enoch with his family?) o. The courage with which Enoch planned when ill-fortune came upon him. (What would you have done in such a case? What else might be have done? Of whom did Enoch always think first?) 6. Enoch's ambition to give his children a good start in life. (What else might he have done? Was it easy to give the children the advantages he wished to give them? What good would it do him?) 7. The sadness of the parting. (Why did Annie oppose his going? Was she right? Do you think that Enoch was as sorry to go as Annie Avas to have him go? Why did he stick to his purpose?) 8. Annie's failure as a shopkeeper. (Does goodness mean business suc- cess? Would it not have been better for her to have been shrewd and crafty in her dealings? What made her failure so bitter?) 9. The death of the weakling child. (Which child do you think that Annie and Enoch loved most of all? Would it not have been better for (W) Annie to have been a little tricky in running her store li* by doing so she could have gained the means to save the child's life?) 10. Philip's offer to send the children to school? (Why did he make it? Did he plan by doing this to make Annie dependent upon him so that he could the better urge her to marry him? Should Annie have accepted his oifer? Did the death of her child have anything to do with her accept- ance? What would Enoch have said? Would Philip have made the oifer if Enoch had been home but poor and in hard luck?) 11. Philip's help to Annie and her family. (A review of the last problems. Why did Philip enjoy what he was doing?) 12. The love of the children for Philip. (Why did they care so much for him, and so easily forget their father? Was this right? What would have been the situation had Enoch returned before or at the end of the ten years ? 13. Philip's proposal of marriage. (Why did he propose it? Was it right for him to do so? Did Annie love him at this time? Why did she ask a year's delay? The law says that if a husband is not heard from in five years, then the wife can remarry just as though he were dead: what sense was there, then, for Annie to wish to wait for over ten years?) 14. The village gossip. (Do gossipers ever try to see the good in what they whisper about? What effect did this gossip have in shaping Annie's decision?) 15. The marriage of Philip and Annie. (Why did the children urge the marriage? What made Annie finally consent? Did she still love Enoch ? Wliat made her so troubled and unhappy just after her marriage ? Why did the new baby make her happy again ? Do you think that she still thought often of Enoch?) 16. Enoch's life on the island. (What do you suppose he thought most about? Why was he so unhappy? How would he have felt over each event at home if he could have seen all that was happening? Would it have been better if he, too, had died? Did Annie still hope and wish to see him?) 17. The return. (How did Enoch feel when one home sight after another came into view as his ship came into his old home town? How did he feel as he approached his old home? What had changed him so that Miriam Lane did not know him? Why did he not out with his story and ask news of the first people he saw concerning his wife and children?) 18. Enoch's final sacrifice. (Why did he not tell who he was after he knew that Annie had married Philip? Why did he wish to see Annie again? Do you think that there could have been any grain of satisfaction in all the sorrow he felt when he saw how happy and well cared for his children were? What would have. been the result for Annie and the chil- dren if he had told his story? Would their suffering have made him any better off? Did he deserve all this disappointment? Who was to blame for it all?) 19. Enoch's lonely life. (Was his Avork as pleasant to him now as it had 7 — BUL. 5 (97) once been ? Now he had few cares and no one to look out for but himself : shouldn't this have made him happy?) 20. His lonely death. (What was the cause of his death? Why did he not let Miriam Lane bring the children to see him? How do you suppose his dying message affected Annie? Did he blame her or Philip for Ms fate? How did Philip feel over his death?) These situations may mean much or little to the teacher who is studying the poem; and the questions may set her heart on one side or the other of great life problems, — or they may merely arouse perfunctory formal answers. It is to be hoped that the former in each case will be true. But if not, — if the situations mean little and the questions wake no contending feel- ings, — then in common decency and out of respect for honest teaching they should be left out of the work. The story, in such case, should be told with all the meaning that the teacher sees in it, and no more. It should be a true interpretation ; not a diluted transmission of someone 's else inter- pretation. To the teacher, however, who feels the response to the various crises of the tale no better story can be found for the emotional awakening of her class. For here are the problems of life, — common ordinary home life, — simple problems and hard ones, problems that in some disguise or other meet us all and must be properly solved by us all if we are to make fair claim to a full degree of civilization. And here is the chance to give young people a clear, high stand for the correct solution,- — a chance for them to align themselves with all that is strong and kind and true and worthy to endure in good repute. When the teaching of the poem has been done, the class should be led into an interesting discussion of the following points: 1. What character in the poem do you like best? 2. What situation in the story is most interesting to you? Why? 3. AVhat action appeals to you as having been noblest and best? 4. What parts of the poem seem to you to be the most beautiful? Memory Work. No memory work should be insisted on at the completion of this work, but pupils should be tempted to learn by heart such portions of it as have made an especially strong appeal to them. Cumulative Review. 1. Sketch the story of Enoch Arden. 2. "Who wrote the poem? 3. What other poems by Tennyson have you read? 4. When and in what land did Tennyson live and write? (98) For the Pupils to Read. (See chapter entitled "Good Reading Habits," p. 100.) Other Well-Known Works op Tennyson : The "Revenge." The Brook. Charge of the Light Brigade. General Reading: Defoe : Rohinson Crusoe. Stevenson: Treasure Island. Dickens : Tale of Ttvo Cities. (99) GOOD RLADING HABIT5. We teachers have long claimed that our school work in literature has given children a taste for good books. That it should do so, no one doubts; but that it generally does not do so is the plain conclusion to which one must come after an inspection of actual results. Why this is so has been dis- cussed in the introductory chapter and there is no need to repeat or enlarge upon that discussion here. Our purpose should rather be to lay plans for giving the pupils that discriminating love of books which they must have if their lives are to be fully rounded with literary culture and enjoyment. It should be recognized at once that a deep enjojanent by the class of the eight selections of this course will not in itself result in a taste for good reading. Such a result must come from contact with many selections. Like other habits, it is the product of many repeated experiences. Never- theless, the interest aroused through a proper presentation of each of the subjects of the course is a force that may be used by the teacher in securing the desired result, a sound reading habit. That it may be so used and developed, and that it shall not through neglect be permitted to die without lasting influence upon the pupil's literary tastes, should be a very special object of care to the teacher. The following suggestions are offered with a view of helping the teacher to use each rising class interest in the work in hand to the end that good read- ing tastes may be developed. Several appropriate references are found at the end of the treatment of each selection. These are of two sorts: first, other writings by the author whose masterpiece has just been studied; second, those familiar in spirit, content, form or atmosphere, to the selec- tion whose treatment they follow. Thus Macaulay's Horatius is followed by a reference to Yonge's Book of Golden Deeds, a collection of stories of heroism similar in many respects to Horatius. So, also, it is fol- lowed by a reference to two other ballads by Macaulay, — Virginia, and the Battle of Lake Regillus. The reason for thus selecting reading material in some respects akin to or by the same author as the work just studied is that such material will best draw the interests already aroused by good class work. "When the presentation of a selection in the regular course has been started and is well under way, the teacher should set to work to lead the growing interests of the pupils to a delight in the works listed for reading. This requires care and skill. Moreover, it must be systematically done if results worth while are to be attained. But at no time should the element of compulsion or the cold method of the command be employed. The sup- plementary reading must be voluntary, free and joyous from the stand- (100) point of the child. Its purpose must always be held clear : a love for good books, not a hatred or dread of them. The following methods and devices have been found useful in leading pupils into friendly contact with the wider range of reading provided by the supplementary lists: 1. Individual pupils may be prompted to read certain of the books through suggestions given them by the teacher in the form of personal and confidential talks. Thus, she may during some recess or before or after school ask some boy who does not .show a desire to read how he likes the story of Rip Van Winkle, then under consideration in the literature class. From this she may easily pass to the great fund of stories strong in the elements of the supernatural, and may, by brief sketches, or the testimony of her own past delight in them, or the use of illustrations, arouse in him a desire to read the Arabian Nights' Entertainments or some of the stories of magic and buried treasure contained in Irving 's Alhamhra. The more casually and informally this is done the stronger will be the pupil's desire to read. A watchful teacher will be sure to find some interest in the most backward pupil that may be led by this method of personal sugges- tion into voluntary reading of some of the references. 2. The teacher should take a few minutes from time to time for the pur- pose of introducing the class to some line of reading. This should be done in the manner of the first installment bait. That is to say, the teacher should sketch as cleverly as possible the opening events of the story. She should thus arouse the interests of the pupils in the characters and the plot and should then leave them breathless with expectation just as the first climax of the story is about to culminate. The book is then referred to and shown with all the special commendation possible. Duplicate copies should be at hand to accommodate several pupils at once. 3. Children are like the rest of us in that their appreciations are largely the result of unconscious imitation. Because of this it will prove stimula- ting to their desire to read a certain book if some of the class leaders can be led to express warm interest in it. Occasional impromptu class discus- sions should be held by these leaders on such questions as : Which book of all that you have read do you like best? What sort of stories do you most enjoy ? What is there that is so interesting in The Talisman (or other work) ? A shrewd teacher will soon find that what the leader among the boys and girls has to say about a certain book will go far toward directing the interest of his flock. 4. A number of applications for the use of the same book at the same time affords a reason for starting a waiting list which is in itself an interest- stimulating device. Each pupil desires the book because others are eager for it ; and his desire is all the keener because it cannot be gratified at once. From time to time when the waiting list is growing short the teacher should make class announcement of this condition and should call attention to the opportunities thus afforded (101) 5. Pupils who have done some reading should be led to refer to the knowledge gained through it as often as possible. This reference to inter- esting persons and events encountered in their general reading may be made in the history, geography, literature, and composition work. The prestige and pleasure that come to the children . from such allusion to their leisure reading is a stimulus to their interest in it as well as a spur to the interest of the other pupils. 6. Occasionally some pupil who ha.s especially enjoyed a story should be permitted to read or tell it or parts of it to the class. This should be done in the spirit of a treat to the class and a privilege to the one who thus enter- tains them. At the end the teacher may in an incidental but appreciative way call attention to other and similar selections on the desk and ready for reading "which are as good or better than the one which the pupil has just told to the class. The general reading is to be done largely at the pupil 's leisure outside of school. FIriday night, on which no regular home work should be given, is an excellent time for the taking out of books. Some times a history or geography or literature study period may very properly be given over to certain readings from the lists of selections, for some of the works are the best sort of supplementary reading to portions of the regular school work. So, also, an occasional half hour may be given up to general pleasure read- ing. If it is possible by any reasonable means to arrange for it in the press of other work, two such half-hour periods per week should be devoted to this pleasure reading. It is as distinct and as important an object of our grammar school course that children should learn to care to read good books as it is that they should learn their history or geography lessons. It is desirable that special effort should be made to secure the reading of as many as possible of the subjects in each list during the time that the selec- tion to which they are appended is under treatment in the literature work. Thus the selections found under the caption, "For the Pupils to Read," folloAving the suggested treatment of Ivanlwe, should be introduced as skill- fully as possible to the interests of the class during the time that IvanhoG is the subject of the class work in literature. But this general rule should not prevent a pupil from reading anything in all the lists upon which his fancy may at any time have been brought to rest. Any boy who reads the books of these lists under the influence of his delight and pleasure in them will have gone a good way toward acquiring a reading habit that will make him happier and wiser. The promises of our best boast, too often unfulfilled, will then have been fully redeemed in him, for he will have gained an open sesame to the literary wealth that is in the possession of the world about him. The foregoing discussion of the subject of general reading by children does not assume to be a full treatment of the problem involved in it. The subject is full of questions thus far unanswered. What books should be on the school library shelves? For what grades is each best suited? Is this particular book good or bad in its influences'? How may this or that book (102) best be introduced to the class? How may that author become a friend of the children ? What sort of books does this or that sort of boy need ? What manner of appeal will most effectively draw various classes of pupils to various classas of stories? Wliat part should juvenile reading play in the general scheme? What distinction should there be between the methods and aims of directing supplementary reading in geography or some other subject, and the methods and aims of directing pleasure reading? These questions and all their more specific corollaries must be answered before the general reading tastes of children can be brought under systematic and effective control. Owing to the importance of the subject and to the lengths to which its adequate investigation should run, a fuller and more detailed treatment of the questions touching the general reading habits of children has been left to a future bulletin. It is a subject well worth the study and the emphasis of a special treatment. (lo:{) AFH 23 ItfUS LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 021 720 861