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THE DRAMATIC METHOD 
 OF TEACHING 
 
 BY 
 
 HARRIET FINLAY-JOHNSON 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 ELLEN M. CYR 
 
 AUTHOR OK THE CHILDREN'S READERS 
 
 »«> . J . o ; 
 
 GINN AND COMPANY 
 
 BOSTON • NEW YORK • CHICAGO • LONDON 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1912, BY GINN AND COMPANY 
 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 
 
 GINN AND COMPANY • PRO- 
 PRIETORS • BOSTON • U.S.A. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 I undertook with great pleasure the task of editing this 
 book for the inspiration and guidance of the teachers 
 in America. Every page is imbued with the spirit of joy 
 and hfe, — natural, spontaneous life, — recognizing the 
 rights of a child to his own point of view with his own 
 limitations. 
 
 Education is life, not just the preparation for life. Some 
 one has said that education is "being at home in God's 
 world," and another educator gives the following beatitude : 
 " Blessed are they who do hunger and thirst after the 
 knowledge of how to direct instead of suppress the spon- 
 taneous activities of childhood, seeking to transmute what 
 is evil into good, for they shall make happy and competent 
 and well-behaved children." 
 
 The best teachers are those who lead their pupils into 
 activities which, based upon the fundamental instincts of 
 child nature, are to test and examine everything and to 
 attempt all feats. 
 
 Miss Finlay- Johnson recognizes her pupils as little men 
 and women who have a right to appropriate just that part 
 of this world which belongs to childhood, and in her 
 school the children live in a world of their own and look 
 upon life through their own childish vision. They enact 
 again the events of history, literature, and geography, 
 
 260895 
 
vi THE DRAMATIC METHOD OF TEACHING 
 
 and fill even the arithmetic lessons with life and action. 
 In the study of history the characters are released from 
 their imprisonment between the covers of the books ; they 
 don their regalia and, stepping out of the prosy pages, 
 live their lives again and perform once more their deeds 
 of courage and prowess. This dramatic work brings the 
 children into closer relationship, awakening sympathy be- 
 tween the pupils and teacher, and fosters class spirit. It 
 also gives the forward children opportunities for leadership, 
 and offers a natural outlet for spontaneity and enthusiasm. 
 Ingenuity, individuality, and imagination are developed 
 when the children make their own stage properties, as 
 they were led to do by Miss Finlay-Johnson. 
 
 A child enters school during the years of the play period. 
 " Shades of the prison house begin to close upon the grow- 
 ing boy," and it seems hardly fair to confine him in a 
 schoolroom during this time. Activities at this age mean 
 much more than objects to the child, and, in justice to his 
 development, every means to educate him by play should 
 be employed. If he finds himself repressed on every side, 
 he becomes discouraged and loses interest in his lessons ; 
 and the depression which is likely to follow retards his 
 mental growth. His interest is most quickly aroused in 
 results brought about by his own activities. Wise is the 
 teacher who fosters the enthusiasm and elasticity of these 
 early years, and helps the child to realize the forces that 
 exist within him. 
 
 This dramatic work should be kept simple. Miss Finlay- 
 Johnson realizes this and also the danger of working for 
 
PREFACE Vll 
 
 theatrical effects. She avoids this danger by engaging the 
 whole class in most of the plays, and by letting the children 
 suggest their own methods of acting. It is interesting 
 to note the way in which Miss Finlay-Johnson introduces 
 acting into the various branches of study. The dolls in 
 the geography lessons impersonate the inhabitants of the 
 various countries, and the children interest themselves in 
 the clothing adapted to the various countries and climates. 
 A prominent educator says, "there is more philosophy 
 and poetry in a single doll than in a thousand books." 
 
 I hope many of our American teachers will learn les- 
 sons from the experiences of Miss Finlay-Johnson in her 
 work in "the little school on the Sussex Downs, where 
 children and teachers lived for a space in the world of 
 romance and happiness." She preaches "the gospel of 
 happiness in childhood for those who will be the world's 
 workers and fighters to-morrow," and it is her conviction 
 that " fleeting childhood's days should be filled with joy." 
 
 Acknowledgment is made for permission to use illustra- 
 tions from the dramatic work in the schools of New Haven, 
 Connecticut, and Holyoke, Massachusetts. 
 
 ELLEN M. CYR 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTl-K PAGE 
 
 I. IXTRUDUCTIOX . 3 
 
 / II. The Teaching of History by Plays 18 
 
 III. The Adapted Play 44 
 
 IV. The Original Play 56 
 
 V. The Shakespearean Play 'j'] 
 
 VI. A (iiRLs' Play 109 
 
 VII. Literature 118 
 
 ^y VIII. Geography 133 
 
 IX. Arithmetic and Composition ....... 169 
 
 X. Nature Study newly approached 178 
 
 XI. Manual Work 187 
 
 XII. After School A(iE 191 
 
 INDEX 197 
 
FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THE ''tig" shed in COURSE OF CONSTRUCTION . . Frontispiece 
 
 ''iVANHOE"— THE ARREST OF MALVOISIN 5 
 
 REDCROSS KNIGHTS IN ARMOR OF TEA PAPER .... I I 
 
 THE CORONATION OF WILLIAM AND MARY . . . . • 23 
 
 THE KNIGHTING OF RALEIGH 29 
 
 THE COLLAPSE OF MRS. MICAWBER WHEN SHE SEES DAVID 
 
 COPPERFIELD AFTER HER RETURN 45 
 
 Photograph taken at the Highland School, Holyoke, Mas- 
 sachusetts 
 
 COMBAT BETWEEN RODERICK DHU AND FITZ -JAMES . . 49 
 Photograph taken at the Highland School, Holyoke, Mas- 
 sachusetts 
 
 A PART OF THE '' CHRISTMAS CAROL " FESTIVAL . • • 53 
 
 LITTLE RED RIDING -HOOD 59 
 
 Photograph taken at New Haven, Connecticut 
 
 THE SUN AND THE WIND (tHE WIND SHOW^S HIS POWER) 65 
 Photograph taken at New Hayen, Connecticut 
 
 THE SUN AND THE WIND (tHE SUN SHOWS HIS POWER) 69 
 Photograph taken at New Haven, Connecticut 
 
 THE FIRST COUNCIL OF HENRY V 79 
 
 SCHOOL GARDEN — THE FLOWER GARDENS 89 
 
 xi 
 
Xll THE DRAMATIC METHOD OF TEACHING 
 
 PAGE 
 FAIRIES IN ''a midsummer NIGHT's DREAM " .... 97 
 
 ELLEN AND MALCOLM GRAEME Til 
 
 Photograph taken at the Highland School, Holyoke, Mas- 
 sachusetts 
 
 MR. SCROOGE AND THE BENEVOLENT GENTLEMEN . . 12 1 
 Photograph taken at the Highland School, Holyoke, Mas- 
 sachusetts 
 
 THE doll's party 1 27 
 
 Photograph taken at New Haven, Connecticut 
 
 geography GAMES " COAL AND IRON TOWNS " . . 141 
 
 NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS AT MEALTIME. IN THE P.ACK- 
 
 (IROUND ENGLISH SETTLER PLOWING 1 49 
 
 NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS KILLING ANIMALS . . . . 1 55 
 
 A NATURE-STUDY GAME— " (,)UESTIONIN(i THE FLOWERS " 179 
 
 A FAIRY PLAY — NATURE STUDY IDEALIZED 183 
 
 mothers' dramatic FOLK SONGS 1 93 
 
THE DRAMATIC METHOD 
 OF TEACHING 
 
THE DRAMATIC METHOD 
 OF TEACHING 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 IN my endeavor to write a practical account of the 
 way I taught my school children by the dramatic 
 method, I think it will be useful to preface the more 
 practical chapters with a few introductory words. I feel 
 sure that all educationists worthy of the name will agree 
 that at the present day, more than ever before, only the 
 very best will be good enough for the education of our 
 children. Yet I cannot help thinking also that, in our con- 
 scientious search for that best, we (even the most thought- 
 ful of us) may lose sight of the child in our hunt for the 
 VIC t J 10 d. It was my endeavor to treat with children rather 
 than with methods and theories which led me to throw 
 more and more of the initial effort on to the children 
 themselves. The school in which my experiments were 
 carried out was an English village school of about eighty- 
 five older pupils and forty-five primary children — the latter 
 with my sister in charge. There, twelve years ago, I found 
 myself in the position of head teacher ; and it was then 
 
4:.»?!iE DJI'AMATIC-.METHOD OF TEACHING 
 
 that I came to the conclusion that there was a great need 
 of a radical change. So litde was there of initiative or 
 originality on the part of the children themselves, that I 
 felt sure nothing short of a surgical operation — a com- 
 plete cutting away of old habits and the formation of a 
 new school tradition — would meet the case. The first aid 
 which I invoked was " nature study," mainly from its 
 aesthetic standpoint ; and from the very first I realized that, 
 to be of any value, it must be nature really studied by the 
 child himself. It must not be nature filtered through pic- 
 torial illustration, textbook, dried specimen, and scientific 
 terms, finally dribbled into passive children's minds minus 
 the joy of assimilation ; but it must be the real study of 
 living and w^orking nature, absorbed in the open air under 
 conditions which allow for free movement under natural 
 discipline. And since nature is the storehouse from which 
 poet and artist draw their inspiration, it naturall)' follows 
 that we found it but a short step from the study of the 
 open book of nature into the Elysian fields of literature 
 and the arts. Nature study then became the basis of every 
 possible lesson ; and the school nature gardens and na- 
 ture rambles supplied subject matter for lessons in singing, 
 reading, writing, arithmetic, drawing, painting, recitation, 
 composition, grammar, and much of the geography. 
 
 It was because the lessons in history could not be so 
 well connected with nature study, and therefore lacked 
 the living interest w^hich the other subjects now acquired 
 from nature, that the historical play in my school came to 
 be evolved. A child learns, and retains what he is learning, 
 
INTRODUCTION 7 
 
 better b\' actually sccijig and doing things, which is a 
 guiding principle of kindergartners. There is not a very 
 marked difference between the ages of the children who 
 enjoy learning by kindergarten games and of the so-called 
 " older pupils." Why not continue the principle of the 
 kindergarten game in the school for older pupils ? I did 
 so, but with this difference : instead of letting the teacher 
 originate or conduct the play, I demanded that, just as 
 the individual himself must study nature and not have it 
 studied for him, the play must be the child's own. How- 
 ever crude the action or dialogue from the adult's point 
 of view, it would fitly express the stage of development 
 arrived at by the child's mind, and would therefore be 
 valuable to him as a vehicle of expression and assimila- 
 tion (which is, after all, what we need), rather than a fin- 
 ished product pleasing to the more cultixated mind of an 
 adult, and perhaps uninteresting to a child. 
 
 So far as originality is concerned, 1 believe all children 
 are original. But the elementary-school tradition (as we 
 have been forced to know it hitherto) has followed faith- 
 fully the lead of the first schoolmasters — who catered to 
 pupils of mature years. This tradition tacitly presupposes 
 the development of qualities and faculties of mind which 
 are not developed in the child of tender years ; thus na- 
 ture's plan is violated. To study a child who is attending 
 a school conducted under such conditions will not result 
 in our finding out much about the natural, normal child. 
 A child in such a case will have learned to suppress 
 himself — his originality — and not to express himself. 
 
8 THE DRAMATIC METHOD OF TEACHING 
 
 Language and facial expression are vehicles of thought (at 
 least, they are in childhood). But in schools where the 
 lessons are conducted on the lecture and question-and- 
 answer principle, thought and language are limited and 
 facial expression may be nil. The question, of necessity, 
 determines the trend of the answer, and, to a certain 
 extent, suggests the terms of the answer. 
 
 In order that I might see how far the beauties of na- 
 ture, literature, and the arts had been comprehended and 
 appreciated by my pupils, I realized that I must get them 
 to converse freely with me (or at all events where I could 
 hear their real conversations), and not merely to listen to 
 me or answer my questions. Here was the main difficulty 
 (and here will lie the difficulty for those teachers who 
 desire to base their children's school lives on rational and 
 natural lines) — to obtain free, natural, and spontaneous 
 conversation, real self-expression from pupils who have 
 learned as a tradition that "Talking in school is against 
 the rules ! " Here, again, nature study served me ; chil- 
 dren once trained to observe rightly soon have no difficulty 
 in telling about what they have seen, and lose all shyness 
 in discussing the whys and wherefores of natural phenom- 
 ena with others who have observed the same things. The 
 four steps to original conversations and to an improved 
 vocabulary were : 
 
 1. I first trained the children to sec the world of 
 nature around them. 
 
 2. I encouraged them to tell me what they saw. 
 
INTRODUCTION 9 
 
 3. I showed them where to find their earhest im- 
 pressions confirmed and crystalhzed, which was their 
 introduction to good hterature, with its (to them) new 
 vocabular)'. 
 
 4. I led them to look for "reasons why," by means 
 of free discussions, and to imagine for themselves the 
 gleam, " the light that never was, on sea or land." 
 
 And all this time my pupils were developing rapidly — 
 acquiring natural manners with a lack of self-conscious- 
 ness ; enlarging their vocabulary with the knowledge of 
 how to use it ; attacking difficulties with zest, and with an 
 absence of nervousness or self-distrust ; taking a cheerful, 
 bright outlook on life with no tendency to worry. Surely 
 such habits are a more valuable foundation for a life's 
 career than the mere ability to spell a large number of 
 extraordinary words, to work a certain number of sums on 
 set rules, or to be able to read whole pages of printed 
 matter without being able to comprehend a single idea, or 
 to originate any new train of thought. 
 
 Having thus brought my school to a condition in which 
 the pupils had really lost and forgotten tJic relationships 
 of tcacJicr and pnpil, by substituting those of fellow 
 workers, friends, and playmates, I had now to set to work 
 to use to full advantage this condition of affairs. It was 
 now quite possible to play any game in school without fear 
 of the pupils getting out of hand, confused, or too bois- 
 terous. There could be plenty of liberty without license, 
 because the teacher, being a companion to and fellow 
 
lO THE DRAMATIC METHOD OF TEACHING 
 
 worker with the pupils, had a strong moral hold on them 
 and shared in the citizen's right of holding an opinion, 
 being heard, therefore, not as "absolute monarch," but 
 on the same grounds as the children themselves. Hence 
 every one exerted his or her individual powers to make 
 the plays a success (which in the children's opinion meant 
 their being real and lifelike), and it was the equal right of 
 teacher or child to say, " So-and-so is n't playing the game," 
 or in some other way to criticize the actions of others. It 
 was, moreover, a point of honor that pupils so criticized 
 should take the matter in good part and endeavor to con- 
 form to the rules of the game. 
 
 Our first plays were Jiistorical and were based on the 
 historical novel, because 
 
 1. The children were already interested in read- 
 ing them, and had formed fairly dramatic pictures of 
 them in their own minds, 
 
 2. I desired that, at first, the children should act 
 real characters rather than mythical or fairy crea- 
 tions. This did away with acting for display in the 
 usual school-entertainment style, which would have 
 detracted considerably from the educational value, in 
 that it would have fostered self-consciousness or 
 nervousness. 
 
 3. The pupils had already, with my cooperation, 
 formed a school library for use during school hours, 
 and this contained a sufficient number and variety 
 of books out of which to extract material for the 
 
INTRODUCTION 13 
 
 dialogues and arrangements of their plays. In these 
 books they had already found many scenes dealing 
 with real historical personages, which were easily 
 adapted to the needs of school games and plays. 
 
 The point which I should like particularly to emphasize 
 is that the earliest plays should deal with real persons. 
 Children are generally sincere and are most interested in 
 a story that is true. 
 
 A great advantage of this new method of learning 
 lessons by means of playing and acting them, lay in the 
 fact that it was not absolutely necessary to have the lessons 
 in one particular room ; they could as easily, or more easily, 
 be played in the open air. Frequently we acted our history 
 plays on the downs, in overgrown chalk pits, or just in 
 our own school playground. 
 
 The advantage of this adaptability of situation lies in 
 the fact that more movement and open-air conditions make 
 for the improved health of teachers and pupils alike. In 
 the history of education we appear to have arrived at a 
 time when we have to consider the advisability — or the 
 reverse — of giving our pupils what is termed a practical 
 education. Too often, it seems, the practical degenerates 
 into the merely technical or utilitarian, and may usurp 
 time which should be given to the humanities. Every one 
 agrees that childhood should be — and nearly always is — 
 the happiest time of life ; when that is once over, there is 
 " something lost and gone " that no subsequent happiness 
 quite atones for. If this be true, then am I wrong when I 
 
14 THE DRAMATIC METHOD OF TEACHING 
 
 claim that childhood should be a time for merely absorb- 
 ing big stores of sunshine for possible future dark times ? 
 And what do I mean by sunshine but just the things for 
 which nature implanted (in the best and highest part of us) 
 an innate desire ? The joy of knowing the beauties of the 
 living world around us and of probing its mysteries; the 
 delights of finding sympathetic thoughts in the best of 
 English literature (a literature unrivaled in the world !) ; 
 the gradual appreciation of the beautiful in art ; the desire 
 which all these bring to burning youth to be up and 
 " doing likewise " ; the awakening of the young enthusi- 
 asm, even of merely evanescent youthful dreams, instead 
 of the soul-deadening monotony and limitation of tech- 
 nical instruction — these are the things that count. Let 
 the boy who delights in experiment and investigation 
 follow his bent, and, when he himself is ready and eager 
 for it, then supply the necessary technical instruction. Do 
 not damp and kill the fires of young enthusiasm ; they 
 make the world go round. Our dreamers have been our 
 real workers after all ; they " dreamed dreams and saw 
 visions " and probed things new, while they of the earth, 
 earthy, were content to toil mechanically, as beasts having 
 no understanding. You cannot turn out scientist or artist 
 without a training in the humanities. And we are not re- 
 quired to teach the humanities, but to allow our boys and 
 girls in their natural enthusiasm to absorb them from the en- 
 vironment which we can, at least, help to place around them. 
 Curiously enough the most striking result of teaching 
 by means of the "play " in school is that children become 
 
INTRODUCTION 1 5 
 
 really practical in the best sense of the word, although we 
 set out to ignore the practical and pay attention to the 
 humanities. 
 
 And one other plea for the dramatic method of teach- 
 ing in school : it makes for greater happiness of both 
 pupils and teachers. We all do our best when we are 
 happy. Most of us are happier when conscious of giving 
 pleasure to others. A great many persons are of the opin- 
 ion that, "as the teacher, so the class." I believe, at all 
 events, that the temper of the teacher must necessarily 
 react on the class ; and I know that thunderclouds of 
 impatience or mists of disappointment are quickly dis- 
 pelled by the sight of happy, healthy children entering 
 with zest into their interesting dramatic plays ; and that 
 hardened and deadened indeed must be the teacher who 
 can resist the happiness radiated by children anxious to 
 play well, and looking for the encouragement shown by 
 the approbation of fellow pupils and teacher. 
 
 It may be argued that all these results might possibly 
 be obtained in the usual school routine, by making the 
 ordinary lessons more interesting by means of pictorial 
 illustrations or by the teacher's telling the children stories 
 inculcating the lessons in hand. And I reply that it is 
 more in keeping with child nature not to sit constandy 
 " as a passive bucket to be pumped into." I know that, 
 as a child, while I promptly forgot all my " school " his- 
 tory (taught, no doubt, in what ought to have been the 
 most interesting fashion, with anecdote and illustration), 
 I have still a clear and lively recollection of the history 
 
l6 THE DRAMATIC METHOD OF TEACHING 
 
 (and other things) which I acted with my chums after 
 school hours. As a matter of fact, my pupils remember 
 an enormous amount of detailed history and fact, not to 
 mention such things as genealogical tables (bane of all 
 children), dates, and statistics, which they have absorbed 
 unconsciously during their plays and in the preparation 
 of them. 
 
 Probably most people have recollections of the time in 
 their life when action seemed the keynote of their char- 
 acter. Robert Louis Stevenson, who understood children 
 better than most people, says : " We grown-up people 
 can tell ourselves a story, all the while sitting quietly by 
 the fire. This is exactly what a child cannot do, or does 
 not do — at least, when he can do anything else. He 
 works all with lay figures and stage properties. When his 
 story comes to the fighting he must rise, get something 
 by way of a sword, and have a set-to with a piece of 
 furniture until he is out of breath." 
 
 Young pupils entering our school from another very 
 soon fell into the ways and discipline of ours ; which, I 
 think, showed that our method worked on natural lines, 
 although it was a contrast to that generally prevailing. 
 
 I remember being much struck by hearing the inspector 
 of our district say at an educational meeting that very few 
 women teachers possessed a sense of humor — or at least 
 he never found them exercising it. I have found it a 
 great safety valve. How often a sense of humor at the 
 right moment may prevent the tragedy of life from strik- 
 ing too deep ! By humor I do not mean the silly frivolity 
 
INTRODUCTION ly 
 
 which characterizes so many children, — the gigghng at 
 mere fooHshness, which would, of course, upset any school, 
 — but just the ability to see the humorous side when it 
 ought to be seen. We frequently had amusing little unre- 
 hearsed effects in our plays which might have resulted in 
 quarrels or teasing, and so upset " plays " in school. Then 
 it was that the ability to " see the joke " saved the situation. 
 I think a sense of humor — duly harnessed — is a valuable 
 asset even for a business man (although I did not profess 
 to be training business men — Heaven forbid!). On one 
 occasion we were acting the insurrection of Jack Cade, and 
 Cade was being slain in I den's garden. He should have 
 said : '' Oh, I am slain ! Famine and no other hath slain 
 me." What he did say was : " Oh, I am slain ! Salmon 
 and no other hath slain me." A hearty laugh interrupted 
 his beautiful death peroration. When we explained his slip 
 no one laughed more heartily than he. But it was remark- 
 able that once the laugh was legitimately and naturally out, 
 every one fell to once more with the play. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 THE TEACHING OF H1ST(3RY BY PLAYS 
 
 OUR first attempt at drama as a legitimate school 
 lesson was concerned with history. We had been 
 reading Sir Walter Scott's " Ivanhoe " as an adjunct to 
 the study of the reign of Richard Cceur de Lion and his 
 times. I think we were all thoroughly imbued with the 
 atmosphere of romance and dcrriiii^-do, and the boys in 
 particular seemed ready for suiting the action to the word. 
 The fire was laid ; it needed but the match to start it ! 
 And here it should be noticed that the foundation and 
 basis of our play was literature — not from the ordinarily 
 accepted school "reader" containing a little bit about 
 cotton, a little bit about coal, a scrappy extract from a 
 " good " writer, with a poem about an impossible little 
 girl who sewed "as long as her eyes could see" (so bad 
 for her eyes, too!); the whole interlarded with moral 
 maxims, conveying practically nothing to a child, and 
 seasoned with a pinch of " tables " and another of " diffi- 
 cult " words in columns ! No. In our school the whole 
 book as it left the mind of its writer is placed on the open 
 library shelf to be read by every interested pupil. 
 
 The practical-minded person will probably now be in- 
 terested to have a description of our first play. It was a 
 
 i8 
 
THE TEACHING OF HISTORY BY PLAYS 19 
 
 rainy day. Long play out of doors had been impossible ; 
 so I started with a good supply of bottled energy and ''in- 
 stinct for play" ready to command. A little talk with the 
 children of the upper classes and a discussion on the char- 
 acters in "Ivanhoe" led to such remarks from the boys as, 
 " If / had been So-and-so, I should have done so-and-so "; 
 and as play out of doors was out of the question, some 
 one soon suggested, "Couldn't we play at 'Ivanhoe' 
 indoors ? " From that time I had no further doubts as to 
 whether the play in school could be successfully man- 
 aged. But to outsiders there was nothing brilliant in our 
 first attempt. 
 
 To us who were "in it," the schoolroom was really the 
 lists at Ashby de la Zouch, or any other place our imagi- 
 nation desired, but an outsider could see only the restricted 
 space in front of an ordinary class. No time was wasted 
 at first in arranging scenes or casting parts. It took but a 
 few seconds for the boys to settle on a rosy, rotund boy 
 for a jovial Friar Tuck, who at once deposited himself 
 under a high, spindle-legged desk which he dubbed his 
 hermit's cell. " I 'm the Black Knight," said another, 
 dragging his black jersey over his head for a suit of chain 
 mail. " Let me be your horse," volunteered another, prof- 
 fering the necessary " back." Soon the play was in full 
 swing, although it might not have seemed encouraging to 
 the enthusiast (burning to " improve " the children) to 
 hear Friar Tuck, forgetting the text of the book, retort 
 "Shan't," when the Black Knight thundered with his 
 heavy " pointer " on the spindle-legged desk, demanding 
 
20 THE DRAMATIC METHOD OF TEACHING 
 
 admittance or "the road." The same Friar Tuck, when 
 told by his onlookers that he ought to sing loudly, impro- 
 vised quite an appropriate refrain to the words " Tol-de- 
 rol-lol." No one laughed, and none were at all irreverent, 
 when he changed the tune to, "\Miile shepherds watched 
 their flocks by night," as the nearest substitute he could 
 find for a monkish Latin chant. There was plenty of 
 interest, plenty of life, no ill-temper, and a sufficiency of 
 self-expression both verbal and facial. 
 
 It has always been an axiom in matters of school method 
 that one of the first essentials in teaching any subject should 
 ^ be, "First arouse the desire to knowy When our pupils 
 began to dramatize their lessons, they at once developed a 
 keen desire to know many things which hitherto had been 
 matters of pure indifference to them. For instance, after 
 their initial performance of scenes from " Ivanhoc," they 
 Y soon began to study the book closely to supply deficiencies 
 y in dialogue; and when dialogue was rendered according to 
 r the book, it had to be memorized (voluntarily), and this 
 led to searching questions after meanings and allusions, 
 some of which the older pupils soon learned to find in 
 the dictionaiT. Here, then, was " English " studied vol- 
 untarily by young country children, to the enrichment of 
 their vocabulary and the satisfactory rendering of plays for 
 their own recreation. An enormous amount of general 
 knowledge can be acquired in the hunt for meanings and 
 derivations of words. For example, the sentences: " Doth 
 the Grand Master allow me this combat.?" " I may not 
 deny what thou hast challenged, if the maid accepts thee 
 
THE TEACHING OF HISTORY 15 V PLAYS 21 
 
 as her champion," led to questions from the young actor 
 impersonating the Grand Master as to what he was Grand 
 Master of, and a consequent description of the order of 
 Knights Templars, Crusaders, and the Holy Wars. This 
 further led up to an allusion to the fact that a preceptory 
 of the Knights Templars once existed not far from the 
 school, and so to some local Church history. By the time 
 the subject was exhausted every one had a good knowl- 
 edge of it acquired pleasantly and permanently. They had 
 made acquaintance with such terms as " palmers," "min- 
 strels," "tournament," "chivalry," and "challenge"; and 
 they had learned something about the way in which trade 
 had extended and improved through the spirit of adventure 
 which prompted men to travel and extend their horizon 
 and experience. 
 
 Each subsequent performance of scenes from " Ivanhoe " 
 showed a marvelous improvement in knowledge and in- 
 telligence of the right kind. The pupils themselves, even 
 while inventing probable conversations not recorded ver- 
 batim in the book, either consciously or unconsciously 
 kept up the style and " period " in their own diction. They 
 showed the greatest resourcefulness in getting over diffi- 
 culties such as must occur when boys and girls have to 
 leave school permanently or be absent temporarily. Always 
 one or another would come forward ready and anxious to 
 do the necessary work. The pupils themselves suggested 
 costume and stage properties, which the girls contrived out 
 of silver-paper tea wrappings supplied from their homes. 
 What mattered it if the mvstic words " Ceylon Tea, $0.30 
 
22 THE DRAMATIC METHOD OF TEACHING 
 
 per pound " appeared writ large in sable on the hero's 
 shield ? Jl^e saw only the shield of a Red Cross Knight. 
 Such delightful surprises^ too, would the boys spring on 
 us ! One morning it was a set of horse brasses bestowed 
 on the joyful recipient by a teamster. Picture how de- 
 lighted the crowd was in the playground that morning 
 when the proud owner produced them and fitted them on 
 the "war horse"; how, of course, Ivanhoe, the champion, 
 must have that horse ; how the eager crowd trooped in to 
 show their treasures to me ; and how truly good and happy 
 they were when, disregarding the regular schedule, we 
 rehearsed, and I raised no objection to the war horse's 
 curvetting, stamping, and jingling its brasses. Why, it 
 was a rfci/ tournament ! 
 
 Then, of course, the question arose as to what would 
 be the proper song for Friar Tuck to sing if he might not 
 sing "While shepherds watched," which ended in a pupil's 
 discovering a song which /ir thought appropriate and which 
 turned out to be "There were three ravens sat on a tree — 
 Hey-adown-hey derry derry down," which was, I think, 
 a sufficient advance on the first attempt to prove encourag- 
 ing to the most pessimistic of pedagogues. On an inquiry 
 being raised for a tune for "Troll the brown bowl to me, 
 bully boy," none was forthcoming, so Friar Tuck impro- 
 vised quite in the style of the " Three Ravens." But eyes, 
 ears, and minds were kept alert, and, joy of joys, one day 
 an inspector visited the school who, when the song time 
 arrived, could supply the tune. He sang it over once to 
 the most attentive audience I have ever known, and when 
 
THE TEACHING OE HISTOR\ \\\ I'LAVS 25 
 
 he had gone away every child knew that tune and could 
 sing lustily, " Ho, jolly Jenkin — I spy a knave drinking." 
 I contrasted this with some of the laborious lessons on 
 school songs that I have known — dead bones of songs, 
 having no responsive chords in the hearts of boys and girls ! /• 
 
 I feel convinced that my pupils, while playing, had 
 learned far more of the English language, history, and 
 withal romance, than I could ever have taught them by 
 means of blackboard, columns of classified words, and 
 Latin " roots " more suited to adult students possessed of 
 a goodly store of voluntary attention and will power — to 
 whom, by the way, I do not believe it would be very 
 enthralling ! And surely there is no such virtue in black- 
 board and chalk that they should be deemed essential in 
 the teaching of all subjects in school. How much more 
 in keeping with child nature is it to conceal the "pow- 
 der" in the " jam," and to work with live puppets at play 
 so that the end is reached through pleasant means. 
 
 Our first pla}-s were what I term adapted plays worked / 
 up from historical novels ; and when I had watched and 
 helped through the first trial play, I began to see how it 
 might be possible to throw more of the actual lessons, 
 including their preparation and arrangement, on to the 
 pupils themselves. I had long felt instinctively that the 
 ordinary "notes of lessons" — even the best of them — 
 were open to serious objection. For the best of notes, 
 prepared by the teacher with laborious care overnight, pre- 
 suppose an attitude of mind which may, in the morning, 
 be missinsf from the class as a whole or from individual 
 
26 THE DRAMATIC METHOD OF TEACHING 
 
 children. The teacher who prepares her notes and says, 
 " Now I will say this and the pupils will reply so-and-so," 
 finds that her ''best laid schemes" may "gang a-gley," 
 and that the unexpected most often happens, for the 
 pupils' minds may not work according to the prepared 
 ''notes," and friction is the result instead of harmony. 
 Besides, more than half the benefit of the lesson lies, 
 in my opinion, in the act of preparing it, in hunting its 
 materials out of hidden sources and bringing them into 
 shape. Most people know that the best way to learn a 
 thing is to try to impart it. If any weakness in knowledge 
 exists, it appears directly we try to impart our facts con- 
 secutively. How much better, for instance, it is to hunt 
 out one's own botanical specimens and study them in their 
 own native haunts than to have a set of dried specimens, 
 carefully collected and preserved by some one else, put into 
 one's hands, together with a full explanation and descrip- 
 tion of their peculiarities, order, class, and habitat ! 
 
 If the pupils know that they have to prepare certain 
 scenes in order that they may, by such agency, impart cer- 
 tain facts to their fellow students, they immediately feel 
 the responsibility and derive the full benefit from the les- 
 son because they " find it " themselves, little by little, and 
 are receptive in the highest degree because they intend at 
 once making use of what they have found. They learn to 
 " feel their feet " under them, — to stand alone, — to find 
 and use their ow^n powers. 
 
 Children have a wonderful faculty for teaching other 
 children and learning from them. Uncontrolled, this faculty 
 
THE TEACHING OF HISTORY BY PLAYS 2/ 
 
 is generally used for getting one another into mischief, 
 but diverted into other channels it may have a great influ- 
 ence for good. Children know by instinct how to get ideas 
 into their companions' minds where a teacher will fail for 
 lack of the sympathetic touch. Another strong argument 
 in favor of allowing children to impart knowledge to others 
 is that the pupils in any one class will almost always be from 
 the same neighborhood, and limited to the same vocabu- 
 lary; hence they will find the correct terms of expression 
 to convey the necessary intelligence to their hearers. I 
 have frequently found this occurring in our improvised 
 school plays, and have been delighted to hear clever para- 
 phrases and translations into everyday language, showing, 
 as they did, such complete grasp of the author's meaning. 
 It was not only boys who could adapt plays. Suitable parts 
 and plays were found for and by the girls. In " Ivanhoe," 
 of course there was a Rebecca and a Rowena ; and noth- 
 ing could have excelled the simplicity and quiet dignity 
 with which they prepared and went through their parts. 
 Naturally in historical plays boys' parts predominated, but 
 the girls did their full share of assisting in the preparation 
 for them and in making notes of all the scenes which had 
 to be compiled or invented. This brings me to an impor- 
 tant point in the dramatization of lessons. The clerical side 
 is by no means neglected ; it is, in fact, extremely arduous, 
 but the children are unconscious of this, sin ce the work 
 is voluntary and determined in amount by themselves. 
 Having found by disappointing experience that " lovely " 
 speeches, drawn from, perhaps, two or three different 
 
28 THE DRAMATIC METHOD OF TEACHING 
 
 books, were forgotten at the critical moment or rendered 
 badly, the pupils made a point of writing out their speeches 
 in full and /;/ their oivn time! Their reward was that they 
 convinced their audiences. 
 
 One can easily see how children mav_unconsciously ab- 
 sorb the art of spelling by encountering new words during 
 the act of writing out notes or parts. And similarly they 
 fall into the art of good composition and style in just the 
 way that we grown-ups model and remodel our style — on 
 the plan of unconsciousl}- imitating that of good writers 
 wdth a dash of ourselves thrown in. Here, then, are two 
 of the " three R " bogies tackled without tears — reading 
 and ' ritiug : reading^ for in formation and immediate profit 
 (not to speak of longer deferred and more lasting results, 
 of which more anon), which is ' ' readmg^\\athjntelligen^ 
 and this no one can deny; and writing, not a mere "exer- 
 cise " for the sake of writing and correction, with visions 
 of the waste-paper basket looming large in the background, 
 but writin g: for a,purpose and for preservation for present 
 and future use. 
 
 The sonrees from which the pupils drew their adapted 
 plays were always placed within their reach. In one corner 
 of the schoolroom the boys theniselves have erected four 
 long shelves, made out of disused desks. On these shelves 
 we formed a colle ction of books, including as many good 
 historical novels as we could, and endeavoring to obtain at 
 least one good novel on each reign or period of English 
 history. Such books as Lytton's '" Harold " and "The Last 
 of the Barons," Kingsley's "Heroes" and " Hereward 
 
THE TEACHING OF HISTORY BY PLAYS 31 
 
 the Wake," Scott's "Kenilworth," "The Talisman," and 
 "The Abbot," Blackmore's "Lorna Doone "; several good 
 tales of sea adventures of the times of Raleigh, Drake, and 
 Frobisher ; as many good histories as we could collect, 
 really good manuals, — a "Green" and a "Fletcher,"- — 
 all found a place on our shelves. Particularly useful books 
 were collections of stories from the original authorities of 
 history. We had various books which contained stories 
 bearing on every reign, and since these stories were trans- 
 lated or adapted from the best-known authority on each 
 subject, we regarded them as authentic. 
 
 These books were left in an easily accessible place with 
 no locked doors, or elaborate cupboards where they might 
 be stored and neglected. Every pupil knew that, as soon 
 as he or she could read, the books might be freely con- 
 sulted and used for reading, reference, or making notes 
 at any time, either before, after, or during school hours. 
 Our free system of discipline allowed pupils to hold quiet 
 discussions together, — either at the library shelf or at 
 their desks, — and I found the more I trusted them, the 
 more trustworthy and unsuspecting they became. One 
 would see a child quietly get up, walk to the shelf, hunt 
 through the books for a probably useful one on the subject 
 in hand, spend a little quiet time turning the pages, be- 
 come absorbed, raise his head and say, "Miss Johnson, 
 there is so-and-so in this book!" or "Here's the very 
 thing we want — can't we put this in such-and-such a 
 play .? " or take out a notebook, always kept handy, and 
 busily make pencil notes. 
 
32 THE DRAMATIC METHOD OF TEACHING 
 
 . There was often quite a msh for the driest of history 
 w;- books, because such books supphed all the facts without 
 too much padding, and were most useful and reliable in 
 tracing the life histories of notable personages. For the 
 same reason biographies were eagerly sought — not be- 
 cause the pupils had been told to study biographies, mark 
 ^ you, but because they had, foj- themselves, discovered their 
 intrinsic value. I cannot too often or too strongly insist 
 on this point ; namely, the way in which the dramatic 
 ; method made the pupils of our school self-reliant, largely 
 self-taught, and self-developing. How many generations 
 of children have turned with disgust and loathing from 
 the dry-as-dust textbook (for examination purposes) — 
 history served up to them in an undigestible mass ! I, my- 
 self, have been among the number. After all, it makes 
 all the difference in the world how one's food is served 
 up. If it looks attractive and dainty, it is eaten with relish. 
 Just as food enjoyed nourishes the body, so lessons enjoyed 
 are readily assimilated by the mind. Thus instead of turn- 
 ing from the dry textbooks and fact lore, my pupils vol- 
 untarily asked for them, and used them well. It was the 
 case over again of the food rendered attractive. Why .? 
 Because we had put the textbook /// its proper place — 
 not as the principal means, but merely as a reference, 
 and for assistance. It has often been argued against our 
 method that it taught the pupils to rely on themselves too 
 much, and on books too litde — that the children neglected 
 / books too much. The fact is, the basis of all their work 
 was not one book, but manv books. 
 
THE TEACHING OF HISTORY BY PLAYS 33 
 
 No play was adapted from any one book. All the 
 authorities on the subject of the play were consulted, brought 
 together in note form, and reviewed. The best material 
 was then selected from, each, and any hiatus supplied 
 from the intelligent imagination of any member of the 
 class who hit the " public opinion " on the matter. (We 
 were a very united community !) 
 
 As soon as the necessary material — or, at least, suffi- 
 cient to make a fair start — had been collected, the next 
 step was naturally to choose characters, cast parts, and 
 either read the play through or tentatively rehearse. Here, 
 again, our system of freedom of discipline served us in 
 good stead. It did not take very long to discover among 
 the scholars a bold moving spirit. In other circumstances 
 he might have been warped into a ringleader or black 
 sheep. I soon found I had merely to say to him : "John, 
 suppose you take the books and go with the boys out into 
 the playground. I dare say you can all manage to choose 
 your parts. See what sort of a play you can make from 
 what you have collected." In less time than one would 
 think possible, they would be back, tapping on the school- 
 room door, with the play in such a condition that I would 
 be quite astonished at the originality and individuality 
 shown. At the same time one of the most noticeable fea- 
 tures was the way in which the pupils, children as they 
 were, would bring out, apparently quite casually and without 
 effort, the salient points of the history they were engaged 
 in Icai'uing without being taught formally. They showed, 
 too, a marvelous aptitude for casting the right pupils for 
 
34 THE DRAMATIC METHOD OF TEACHING 
 
 parts, in which task they were doubtless much aided by 
 John and his successors. No doubt, too, the tone of the 
 school — its new school tradition — helped those who felt 
 they could interpret a part to declare themselves ; and it 
 seemed an unwritten law that any one who volunteered 
 in this way should be given a fair trial, the volunteer 
 always realizing that if he proved unsuitable in the opinion 
 of the majority, he should make way for some one else. 
 
 " What happened to the pupils for whom no parts could 
 be found ?" I hear )-ou ask. Whenever it was possible, 
 they were worked into a " crowd " of citizens, or an 
 "army," or a "crew"; but where this was out of the 
 question, they sat at their desks and formed a "chorus," 
 whose duty it was to announce players, fill up gaps in the 
 play with explanations, tell dates, and give suggestions. 
 In fact, they were made b)' every means to feel that they 
 w^ere necessary to and a part of the play, and of course 
 they learned a great deal of history and " English " by 
 listening and commenting, arid they were very acti\e at 
 this. All this did away with the idea of "audience" and 
 consequently with " acting for display," self-consciousness, 
 nerves, and possible jealousy and heartburnings, of which, 
 of course, we desired to steer clear. 
 
 As regards space, apparatus, properties, and time, we 
 used, when acting in school, merely the ordinary space in 
 front of the class — about twenty feet by six feet, or rather 
 less. A door opening out of it led into the hall, and an- 
 other door led into the classroom, which could be used in 
 an emergency. We found this especially convenient when. 
 
THE TEACHING OF HISTORY BY PLAYS 35 
 
 as often happened, one pupil had to impersonate two char- 
 acters and needed to make a quick change. Our apparatus 
 was very simple. It consisted mainly of the school furni- 
 ture, which I am sure pleased the pupils more than the 
 most elaborate scenery I could have provided. They simply 
 howled with delight when " Charles II " was hidden in a 
 real cupboard — the more so as '' Charles" proved to be a 
 very substantial boy, highly difficult to stow away between 
 narrow shelves. He comported himself like a true " Royal 
 Martyr" of the Stuart brand, and endured agonies of 
 thumpings and pummelings by the anxious actors, who 
 desired to shut the cupboard door before the '' Round- 
 heads " arrived. Ingenuity decreed, on another occasion, 
 that "Scrooge" (of Dickens's "Christmas Carol" fame) 
 should look out of a window consisting of the top of a 
 blackboard easel with a movable rail for hanging diagrams 
 before the class. This scheme was enjoyed tremendously, 
 and the inventor was loudly praised. This was a most 
 noticeable outcome of the method of work : pupils would 
 always praise good work in others, and if their compan- 
 ions appeared unnoticed when praise was due, they drew 
 attention to what they had done. 
 
 When reading, a short while ago, Richard Jefferies's 
 book "Bevis," I came across the following paragraph,^ 
 which emphasizes very strongly my plea for self-made 
 and self-planned properties : " He knew that the greatest 
 pleasure is always obtained from inferior and incomplete 
 instruments. Present a perfect yacht, a beautiful horse, a 
 
 ip. 217. 
 
36 THE DRAMATIC METHOD OF TEACHING 
 
 fine gun, or anything complete to a beginner, and the 
 edge of his enjoyment is dulled with too speedy posses- 
 sion. The best way to learn to ride is on a rough pony." 
 The boys, of course, always enjoyed battle scenes, and 
 ^ made different "properties" for use in different battles, in 
 order that the various reigns and periods might not be 
 ^ confused. Thus for early English times they manufactured 
 N halberds, or "brown bills," out of cardboard (for the 
 metal work) and broom handles. Big brothers and fathers 
 at home became interested at this point, and "properties " 
 which were well w^orth preserving for future use began to 
 ^ come in to us so fast that we had to set up a cupboard 
 for storing them. Thus one father 
 made a beautiful brass crown inset 
 with colored glass jewels. Several 
 persons presented us with wooden 
 swords — the blades w^ere silvered, 
 and generally the handles were of -bent tin and had some 
 little realistic touch. An older brother carved and contrived 
 some daggers in sheaths. Again, in this instance, the de- 
 ^ sign had been faithfully copied from a history ; the carver 
 was a former pupil of the school, who still kept up his 
 <^ interest. In planning our armies we always found out from 
 ' the histories the real numbers on each side, and kept ours 
 as nearly as possible in proportion. Thus in "Agincourt " 
 we ranged our English and French seven to one. In the 
 trial of Charles I we arranged that the court should contain 
 six men to represent sixty, and the " chorus " always told 
 .us that there were sixty men present. 
 
TIIK TEACHING OF HISTORY IJV PLAYS 
 
 17 
 
 Sea maneuYers were popular, and we refought man\- a >< 
 battle between English and I^utch. For these I allowed 
 the boys to bring their soap boxes on wheels, generally 
 
 preferring those with guiding wheels in front. It was 
 great fun when the boys maneuvered into position (after 
 many capsizings and accidents) with their cannon and fire- 
 arms on board. Once the Dutch leader had his box boat 
 turned into the semblance of a real ship by covering it 
 
38 THE DRAMATIC METHOD OF TEACHING 
 
 with cardboard over a cane-work skeleton, and rigging 
 masts and sails of paper. To add the realistic touch each 
 boy had plenty of chains on his boat to rattle when he 
 dropped or weighed anchor. The next morning, long be- 
 fore nine o'clock, I surprised all the first-class boys with 
 heads together over a history with illustrations, looking 
 up material for another bout with Van Tromp. The soap 
 boxes on wheels (cube-sugar boxes too, sometimes) were 
 one of our most valuable assets. The boys picked the 
 wheels up from ragmen or marine stores for a few cents 
 each, and found them very handy in their own little gar- 
 dens, using the boxes as wheelbarrows. Anon they did 
 duty for ships on voyages of discovery to other lands, and 
 were very skillfully manipulated past dangerous shores, 
 where desks — I mean capes — projected. "Queen Eliz- 
 abeth's" state barge was a soap box — on this occasion 
 draped in red cloth. If no soap box was available on history 
 day, however, no one was at a loss, for a bench, inverted, 
 was slowly and gracefully dragged across the floor with "her 
 Majesty" seated thereon. "Charles 11" escaped to France 
 in a disused bathtub, which rocked beautifully. From the 
 same tub fishermen on the Volga hooked giant "fish " in 
 the shape of the school dusters. One of the most comical 
 properties w^as a set of brown-paper animals' skins, into 
 which small boys would creep, and add a very realistic 
 touch to geography and other plays. "John," before men- 
 tioned, designed and painted these, and the girls sewed 
 them up. Another ingenious boy cut a suit of Saxon 
 serf's garments out of sacking and sewed them at home 
 
THE TEACHING OF HISTORY BY PLAYS 39 
 
 by himself. The girls, of course, could do much in mak- 
 ing costumes, and we soon found that certain stock gar- 
 ments were wanted which could be used for most history 
 plays. These, of course, saved the trouble of making fresh 
 costumes every time. For instance, there was generally a 
 king, and of course he would wear a crimson cloak trimmed 
 with ermine (wadding painted with dots of ink) and a 
 crown. A scepter was made by a father out of a brass 
 bedpost cut short. It was useful also to have a bishop's 
 miter of brown paper covered with gold paper. Queen's 
 and court ladies' robes were fashioned of white lace win- 
 dow curtains pinned at the shoulders and allowed to trail. 
 A court jester's cap and bells were easy to make. A few 
 pairs of sateen knickerbockers and short cloaks were made 
 by the girls from patterns supplied by a pupil's mother, 
 and these could be adapted to many periods. Coarse string 
 or knitting cotton made up into "shirts of mail" was dyed 
 with ink and afterwards touched up with silver paint to 
 give a tarnished metal appearance. Womens' discarded 
 black stockings made long " trunk hose" for the boys. A 
 crowning triumph was the fashioning, by the girls, of naval )C 
 officers' coats, for use by " Nelson " and his officers, out 
 of old black and navy blue skirts, with large silver-papered 
 buttons. True, " Hardy " soon grew out of his coat, and 
 looked as funny as a Cruikshank illustration, with his waist 
 buttons halfway up his back and his wristbands almost at 
 his elbows. 
 
 The tea-paper armor was always mounted on either 
 stout brown paper or cardboard, so that it should not 
 
40 THE DRAMATIC METHOD OF TEACHING 
 
 become ragged. We found ordinary paper fasteners suit- 
 able for joints, and where it was possible to use them they 
 were more serviceable than stitches. Paper fasteners also 
 made very effective " studs " for shields, and the most 
 successful costume we ever made was one for Edward when 
 
 ^we played " The Burghers of Calais." We cut out a large 
 shield in cardboard and bent it slighdy. This we covered 
 carefully with white cartridge paper, overlapping the paper 
 at the edges and attaching it to the cardboard with brass 
 paper fasteners as " studs." Next we cut out the royal 
 
 w arms of England in gold paper and carefully pasted them 
 on the shield. We then made Edward a cloak of white 
 cotton cloth and bordered it with gold paper. Our method 
 of fastening gold paper to this cloth was our own, and we 
 found it practicable. W^e mixed a tablespoonful of starch 
 with boiling water, and when it cooled applied it to the 
 back of our strips and patterns of gold paper. These w^e 
 laid carefully in position on the cloth and then ironed 
 them flat with a hot flatiron. The patterns then looked as 
 though they had been painted or embroidered on the gar- 
 ment. This form of decoration was easy and effective, 
 and looked especially well when the golden fleur-de-lis was 
 used as the pattern for bordering. Odd strings of beads 
 given by the pupils from time to time answered for 
 ''jewels," and our armory included some homemade bows 
 and arrow^s. These articles were all kept in one cupboard, 
 duly labeled, ready for immxcdiate use, and were looked 
 upon in the light of school apparatus as much as sets of 
 historical readers or piles of slates ; and we considered 
 
THE TEACHING OF HISTORY HV PLAYS 4I 
 
 them no more trouble to attend to and keep tidy. We 
 found that children of the upper classes were generally of 
 a fairly uniform size, and we always renewed such things 
 as paper headgear when a new actor had to take a certain 
 part, so that there should be no danger of infection. 
 
 We tried, when possible, to arrange that the boy who 
 had once been a king should not be another king — at all 
 events during the same school year. We hoped in this 
 way to avoid confusion of reigns in the pupils' minds. 
 We treated all important personages, such as Nelson, in 
 the same way. 
 
 The time occupied by history plays proper consisted of 
 that set apart for history lessons, because we considered 
 our play in the light of a lesson. We had two of these 
 each week, one of a half hour's duration, and one of one 
 hour. Preparation had to occupy the pupils' own leisure 
 time and odd minutes in school, many of which would 
 otherwise have been wasted ; while for the making of notes 
 an occasional writing lesson was set apart. Once a week 
 we had what we termed a " library morning," when -each 
 pupil was allowed to take a book from the library shelf 
 and read it silently at his desk. Questions might be asked 
 and answered, and little discussions were permitted, so 
 long as only one person spoke at a time and the general 
 order and quiet of the class was not upset too much. Then 
 it was that the most valuable discoveries were made for 
 possible "plays," and a good deal of the preparation done. 
 
 Frequently, too, while on an expedition or " nature 
 ramble " in the summer time, we would be out of doors 
 
42 THE DRAMATIC METHOD OF TEACHING 
 
 the whole morning. Then when the ordinary playtime 
 
 arrived we would arrange ourselves on the side of the 
 
 downs or in a little copse, and go through a short history 
 
 play ; occasionally we would arrange a new and impromptu 
 
 one. Sometimes these were very well arranged by the 
 
 children ; often they were better, from an educational 
 
 standpoint, than plays to which more preparation had 
 
 ^ been given. At the time of the Quebec pageant in mem- 
 
 > ory of the gallant Wolfe, the boys arranged a most suc- 
 
 ^. cessful and thrilling "Wolfe on the Heights of Abraham" 
 
 in a disused chalk pit, where they could scale the heights 
 
 most realistically. And of course Charles II and the 
 
 Boscobel Oak episode could be played to perfection only 
 
 in a little wooded plantation. Scenes from their favorite 
 
 ^ " Ivanhoe " were the delight of their hearts on summer 
 
 afternoons under the shade of the greenwood tree. 
 
 And here, in passing, as an example of how this kind 
 of teaching was training the pupils to a sense of the fitness 
 of things (a splendid possession through life!), I ought 
 to mention that they soon began to quote from good 
 authors quite appropriately and naturally. On the first 
 occasion on which they tried scenes from "' Ivanhoe," out 
 in the litde wooded spot, they naturally connected their 
 Locksley or Robin Hood and his bold outlaws with the 
 greenwood tree, and needs must pose themselves like a 
 band of " merr)- men " enjoying an evening rest, while an 
 unseen chorus of girls behind the trees sang " Under the 
 Greenwood Tree," to Dr. Arne's setting. A finer effect I 
 have never heard from the most practiced of singers, the 
 
T H E T E A CI 1 1 N G OF HIS T () R ^ ]\\ PI. A \ S 43 
 
 voices mellowed by the open air — young, fresh voices — 
 and the birds in the trees overhead echoing and vying 
 with their song ! After all, 7i>/n' do wc si?ig ? To please 
 the sense of hearing, and also a deeper, more ccsthetic 
 sense. Then our children should learn to sing artistically 
 and in the open air. And docs the ordinary school singing 
 please the senses } Does it not lack spontaneity "^ Then 
 let your pupils use their singing for a purpose, and you 
 will find that they will realize what is required instinctively 
 and supply the effect. I called this little tableau " drama- 
 tizing" their singing. Some may question the effect on 
 the listeners. What I saw was a group of silent, thoughtful- 
 looking boys, resting in perfectly natural poses, and sobered 
 in spite of their )outh and boisterous, boyish spirits, to a 
 quiet, listening attitude. I have not the faintest doubt that 
 theirs was perfect enjoyment, for the spell was not broken 
 when the song ceased. I did not question them as to 
 their sensations, nor ask if they enjoyed the music, nor 
 what their impressions of it were. I doubt if they could 
 have told me in so many words. But they have often, 
 since then, asked to have the song again in school, and 
 the boys have always supplied the soft whistling of the birds 
 as an accompaniment because the real birds were missing. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 THE ADAPTED PLAY 
 
 AS an example of what I may call an "adapted" play, 
 . and more particularly one for girls as well as boys, 
 I give that on the reign of Elizabeth, as it was partly 
 adapted from "Kenilworth" and partly originated by indi- 
 vidual scholars. It is copied from one of the girls' note- 
 books. The bo\s had fixed up the movable blackboard 
 table as a tobacco stall ; other stalls were arranged on the 
 front desks ; while the space in front was supposed to rep- 
 resent a street in old London — the chorus generally said 
 Cheapside. All those ta'king part in the play were ranged 
 at one end of the room, which we called "off stage." Those 
 left seated in the desks and called "chorus " then described 
 the scene as they imagined it to be — narrow streets badly 
 paved wdth cobblestones, stalls with market women keep- 
 ing them and calling their wares, and idle apprentices. 
 
 Scene I. The Market 
 
 Enter tivo Market Women witJi baskets ofwairs. Appren- 
 tices seattered about the stalls, ealling, "What d'ye 
 lack .? " 
 First Woman. Hast heard the news that Philip hath 
 sent a large fleet of ships to I^ngland against us } 
 
 44 
 
45 
 
THE ADAPTED PLAY 47 
 
 Second Woman. Odds, woman ! thou dost surprise me. 
 
 First Woman. There are hundreds and hundreds of 
 them, and I did hear that a man named Drake and some 
 of his friends were playing at bowls down at Plymouth 
 Hoe, when another man came riding up to them and told 
 them that the Spanish were in the Channel. The good 
 Queen, God bless her ! went down to see the army, riding 
 on her gray pony. 
 
 Enter Third Market Woman, 7vJiilc a Man draws near to 
 listcji, catiii!^ a large apple 
 
 Third Woman. Do you know that the English are 
 sending out fire ships } 
 
 Second Woman. Lawk-a-mussey-me ! What are they .'' 
 
 Third Woman. Why, they are old vessels filled with 
 tar, and gunpowder, and things that will burn easily. They 
 turn these adrift among the enemy's ships and they either 
 set fire to the other ships or blow them up. 
 
 Second Woman. They say the Spanish ships sail in a 
 half-moon shape. 
 
 Man. [ WitJi apple'] Ah, it wants stout English hearts 
 like mine to fight the Spaniards ! 
 
 First Woman. Methinks your stomach is greater than 
 your heart. 
 
 Second Woman. Yes, judging by the size of his apple 
 — but hark ! here comes the Queen. We must be off to 
 our stalls. 
 
48 THE DRAMATIC METHOD OE TEACHING 
 Enter Queen Elizabeth, Court Ladies, and Courtiers 
 
 Market Women. What cV ye lack ? What d' ye lack ? 
 
 First Woman. \Cnrtsies\ Ribbons and laces for sweet 
 pretty faces, your Majest)'! 
 
 First Court Ladv. I -will have a yard of sarcenet to 
 deck my bodice for this evening's morris dance. 
 
 Second Woman. Nice, fresh arum roots to stiffen the 
 ladies' ruffles, your Majesty! 
 
 OuEEN. Yes, my ruffles are exceedingly limp. I will 
 have a pound sent to the palace. 
 
 Third \V()max. Woundwort, to cure cuts and bruises, 
 your Majesty! 
 
 Court Lady. Oh, vour Majesty, do you not remember 
 that poor soldier who was wounded in a bout at quarter- 
 staff last night } 
 
 Queen. Indeed, poor fellow! then see that he has 
 some woundwort made into poultices and applied to his 
 sore pate. 
 
 Third Woman. Stitchwort, to cure stitch in the side, 
 your Majesty! 
 
 Second Woman. Rosemary and thyme to scent the 
 floors with, your Majesty! 
 
 Court Lady. See, your Majesty, the new flower called 
 wallflower, brought from America ! 
 
 Queen. Methinks I should like to smell that sweet 
 flow^er. [Market Woman presents a b?ineh, iv/iieh the 
 Queen S7nffs daintily. They pass along nntil they reach 
 tobacco staW] See, my ladies, the new stuff called tobacco, 
 
'.5 > > 
 
 49 
 
THE ADAPTED PLAY 5 I 
 
 brought from Virginia ! [Courtiers stop and pure Jiase cigars 
 and aivkwardly light tlicni ; the Queen nieanzvhile passes 
 on afezv steps\ Oh, this muddy pool — what shall we do, 
 my ladies? And my feet are so lightly shod! [WAr/rEK 
 Raleigh steps forward and graeefidly places the cloak 
 zvhich he has worn lightly on his shoulders over the 
 muddy spot — remaining kneeling on one knee ivJiile the 
 Ladies, headed by the Queen, pass over diy-shod] Who 
 is that young courtier ? 
 
 First Court Lady. He is one Walter Raleigh, your 
 Majesty, who sailed the oceans wide, and brought back the 
 tobacco, and the potato, and the wallflower from Virginia. 
 
 Second Court Lady. And called it Virginia after the 
 Virgin Queen, your Majesty. 
 
 Queen. Well, bring him to the palace, and perhaps we 
 shall find him a post there. Now to the barge, my ladies. 
 
 \^Exeunt all slowly\ 
 
 The words of this scene the children obtained from 
 various sources, and invented all they could not so obtain. 
 It was characteristic of them that they worked in a little 
 of their nature study when they alluded to " woundwort," 
 "- stitch wort," and " arum roots." It is a fact that wild 
 arum (cuckoopint) tubers contain starch, which was used 
 for starching ruffs in Elizabeth's reign. The children dis- 
 covered the starch by applying iodine and obtaining a 
 purple-colored reaction. 
 
52 THE DRAMATIC METHOD OF TEACHING 
 
 The children next changed the scene to Kenihvorth 
 Castle, and borrowed the wording of their scene from 
 Sir Walter Scott's "Kenil worth." 
 
 Scene II. KenihvortJi Castle, dcscj'ibcd by Chorus 
 as usual 
 
 Music ■ — something stately — treuerally a gavotte. Court- 
 iers and Ladies enter, a feiv at a time. The various 
 groups greet one anotJier with profound, courtly boivs 
 and the deepest of curtsies. Music grows louder and 
 imitates fanfare of trumpets. Enter Oueex. The 
 Courtiers and Ladies/^?// back into tzvo lines, and the 
 Queen bows from side to side. Her Ladies accompany 
 hei% and Pages carry her train. Queen sits dowji, 
 and all the Ladies ajid Gentlemen group themselves 
 about her 
 
 Queen. Bring in that young courtier. 
 
 Courtier. Yes, your Majesty. [Goes out, boiving. His 
 voice is then heard] The Queen requires you in her 
 presence. 
 
 Enter Raleigh. He kneels in front of tJie Queen 
 
 Queen. You have, young man, spoilt a gay mantle in 
 our service. We thank you for your courtesy, but your 
 gallantry shall not go unrewarded. Go to the wardrobe 
 keeper and he shall supply you with a suit quite of 
 
S3 
 
THE ADAPTED PLAV 55 
 
 the latest cut. [Raleigh shakes his head and makes a 
 sigji as if he deeliiied the Queen's present'] How now, 
 boy? What wouldst thou have of me — neither gold nor 
 garment ? 
 
 Raleigh. Only permission, madam, to wear my own 
 cloak. 
 
 Queen. To wear thine own muddy cloak, thou silly 
 boy ! Heard ye ever the likes, my lords 1 
 
 Raleigh. It is no longer my cloak, since your Maj- 
 esty's foot hath trodden upon it. 
 
 Queen. Then we will reward you in our own way. 
 Your sword, Essex. \TJie Eakl kneels and hands his 
 siuord to the Queen, zvho strikes Raleigh lightly over 
 the shonlder with it] Rise, ^Vr Walter Raleigh. [Raleigh 
 rises graeefully, while the other Courtiers shoiv jealousy 
 and look displeased] 
 
 Essex. Will you knight my friend, Nicholas Blount, 
 your Majesty t 
 
 Queen. Yes — bring him in. [Blount is fetehed] 
 Your sword, Essex ! Rise, Sir Nicholas Blount ! [He 
 rises awkwardly and elntehes at the Queen to save 
 himself] 
 
 EiKST Court Lad v. Did you see how awkwardly he 
 arose, your Majesty .f* 
 
 Second Court Lady. I heard his collar bone rattle. 
 
 Queen. [LaugJdng] Yes, I did give him a smart tap. 
 Now we will have a dance. [ TJiey dance a stately measure^ 
 Now to the banquet — your arm, Essex. [Exeunt all] 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE ORIGINAL PLAY 
 
 A SLIGHTLY different kind of pla\' I have termed 
 the original play. In arranging these the pupils 
 themselves collected all the material from histories proper, 
 and did not in any way rely on works of fiction or the his- 
 torical novel or storybook for their dialogue. Naturally, 
 as they were acting history, they had to get facts from 
 some record in the same way as an ordinary dramatist 
 must do. Therefore they consulted the historians but not 
 the writers of fiction. This kind of play was consequently 
 more difficult to get in form than such a play as " Eliza- 
 beth," in which much of the dialogue was taken directly 
 from books. One of the most successful of these " origi- 
 nal " historical plays was that called " Charles I." For 
 this the pupils chose six boys to be dressed as Puritans 
 and represent sixty, ranged on seats in the usual front 
 space, now called by the chorus Westminster Hall. Each 
 boy wore a tall stovepipe hat of brown paper (made by the 
 girls and painted black with ink) to show that he was a 
 Puritan. As the class agreed that the Puritans should be 
 stern men, the sort of men to " stand no nonsense," each 
 boy was always careful to wear a \'ery sober, not to say stern, 
 visage. The way in which they preserved their gravity 
 
 56 
 
THE ORIGINAL PLAV 57 
 
 was quite marvelous — in fact, they were so much "in the 
 play," heart and soul, that they did not think of anything 
 but the proper demeanor. Other characters chosen were 
 " Bradshaw," the judge, in his famous black hat, which 
 the girls also constructed, making it extra large to dis- 
 tinguish him from the others; "Cromwell," wearing a 
 sword to distinguish him as the head of the Ironsides ; 
 "Coke," the clerk of the court, wearing robes (sheets), and 
 holding a scroll of paper (from which, by the way, he read 
 his part to save learning it by heart at first); "Charles I," 
 wearing a curled wig, which deserves a paragraph all to 
 itself. 
 
 It was designed and made bv one of the older girls. 
 She made the foundation b\- crocheting a skull cap of 
 wool, and to this she sewed strands of frayed rope which 
 looked like fine glossy hair. When she reached this stage 
 it was tried on a boy's head and given a "hair cut" to 
 make the ends even. Then the "hair" was carefully 
 curled in papers and pressed, after which it looked like 
 a Cavalier's curled wig. 
 
 " Charles" also wore very debonairly a black velvet "pic- 
 ture" hat, given by a friend. We "corked" his mustache 
 and short beard. He wore a pair of the sateen knicker- 
 bockers and the long stockings before alluded to, a sword, 
 a graceful cloak (made out of a woman's skirt), buckled 
 shoes, and carried a knobbed stick which, as it had to do 
 duty in the play, had the knob previously loosened so that 
 it would fall off easilv. Other Cavaliers who accompanied 
 him also had wigs, knickerbockers, and swords. The 
 
58 THE DRAMATIC METHOD OF TEACHING 
 
 " plumes " in their hats were novel, consisting merely of 
 sprays of pampas grass such as are used in vases for 
 decorative purposes. The girls were dressed in window 
 curtains, with long trains, and carried fans (of plaited 
 paper). Their hair and headdresses were copied from pic- 
 tures of the period and were arranged before school time. 
 The boy who acted as Coke in the first scenes took the 
 part of Bishop Juxon in the later scenes, because, as he 
 was already draped in " robes," all he had to do to show 
 that he was a bishop was to don a miter. The two young 
 children of Charles, the Duke of Gloucester and little 
 Princess Elizabeth, were dressed as nearly as possible like 
 the pictures one sees of them, and were chosen from the 
 small children, so as not to make the " father " look ridic- 
 ulous. " Princess PLlizabeth " wore a close-fitting lace cap 
 and had two tiny pages to walk behind her. The boys 
 drew and painted a coat of arms to take the place of the 
 royal arms of England, bearing the words " God with us." 
 This they pinned on the cupboard door, where " Charles" 
 could not fail to see it on entering. P'or the king they 
 placed the high desk chair, so that he might be in a 
 prominent position. 
 
 The first scene was laid in Westminster Hall and rep- 
 resented the " first day's trial." The chorus always in- 
 formed us that after the first day's trial we skipped over 
 to the seventh day's trial. Here is the play as copied 
 from a pupil's notebook, with comments by me. 
 
59 
 
THE ORIGINAL PLAV 6 1 
 
 Scene I. Wcstininstci' Hall 
 
 Enter Gentlemen of the Court. When all are assembled, 
 enter Cromwell 
 
 Cromwell. Sirs, we have met here to-day to try a cer- 
 tain man named Charles Stuart, who has done much harm 
 to this country. We have had enough of his tyrannies, 
 his Star Chambers, and his illegal ways of getting money. 
 This must be stopped. 
 
 PuRrrANS. Yes, it must ! 
 
 Cromwell. He has been taught by his father the 
 divine right of kings, and by the evil influence of the 
 Duke of Buckinghamshire, helped on by his wife, he has 
 caused the blood of many thousands to be shed. 
 
 Coke. Yes, his evil influence has had a great effect. 
 
 Cromwell. It must be stopped. We must cut these 
 Stuarts out, root and branch. 
 
 Enter Bradshaw 
 
 Bradshaw. As we have met here to-day to try this 
 man named Charles Stuart, go and fetch the prisoner. 
 [Ushers of the Court go out and reenter, followed by 
 King Charles, accompanied by Colonel Hacker 
 and other Cavaliers] 
 
 Bradshaw. Clerk, read the charge. 
 
 Coke. YReads^^ The charge stateth that, with limited 
 power to govern according to law, you should use that 
 power for the benefit of the people — their rights, and 
 liberties. But you have tried to take away the remedy for 
 
62 THE DRAMATIC METHOD OF TEACHING 
 
 misgovernment, and in making war on the present Parlia- 
 ment you have caused the blood of many thousands to be 
 shed. All this is against the public interest and common 
 rights, liberty, justice, and peace of the people of this 
 nation. You are a tyrant and a traitor ! 
 
 Charles. Hold! hold! \^Hc touches Coke on the shoul- 
 der luith his cane. The head of the cane drops off and 
 rolls away. No one stirs to pick it up, although Charles 
 looks round for them to do so. He picks it up himself] 
 
 Bradshaw. Remove the prisoner. [Charles is re- 
 moved, looking scornfully around] 
 
 Chorus. End of first day's trial. 
 
 Scene II. Westnnnster Hall six days afterwards 
 
 Enter Gentlemen, Ushers, cVr., as before. TJie Gentle- 
 men talk in undertones and seem to discuss the trial 
 very gravely. Enter Cromwell 
 
 Cromwell. Have you agreed on your verdict, gentle- 
 men .'' 
 
 JuRVMAX. Yes, we have. 
 
 Cromwell. What shall it be t 
 
 Juryman. Execution. 
 
 Cromwell. When it is done it cannot be undone, so 
 decide carefully, gentlemen. 
 
 Juryman. There is no other way. It must be done. 
 
 Enter Bradshaw 
 
 Bradshaw. Have }ou decided on your verdict, gentle- 
 men } What shall it be 1 
 
THE ORIGINAL PLAY 63 
 
 Jurymen. Execution ! execution ! 
 
 Cromwell. Come, we will sign his death warrant. 
 [77/r warrant is si^^ncd, scaled, and stamped with the 
 
 great seal of England. Coke holds it ont to view'] 
 
 Coke. Will this suit your wishes, gentlemen .? 
 
 Jurymen. Yes. 
 
 Bradshaw. Go and fetch the prisoner. 
 [ They make their ivay to the eonrt. The Crowd {represented 
 by the Chorus /';/ desks, with a few standing) form 
 two lines'] 
 
 Crowd. Justice ! justice ! Execution ! execution ! 
 
 Soldier. [Steps forwaid as C\\\v.i.v.^ passes] God bless 
 you, your Majesty ! [The Kino tJianks him, but an Officer 
 strikes the Soldier witJi his eane] 
 
 Charles. Methinks that the punishment was greater 
 than the offense. [He turns to the Cavalier walking beside 
 him] Did you hear that cry for justice t 
 
 Cavalier. Yes, your Majesty, and I wondered at it. 
 
 Charles. So do not I. They will do anything their 
 officer tells them, and they would say the same thing to 
 their officers, if there were occasion, to-morrow. [TJuy 
 enter the eonrt] 
 
 Charles. [Looking at the coat of aims] God with us ! 
 Do you see that coat of arms .? 
 
 Colonel Hacker. Yes, it is the wrong one ! [Charles 
 glanees round the court, sits down, and then starts up again] 
 
 Bradshaw. Clerk, read the sentence. 
 
 Charles. I refuse to be tried by this court ! Where are 
 the peers, who, by the laws of England, alone can try me t 
 
64 THE DRAMATIC METHOD OF TEACHING 
 
 Bradshaw. We will try you ! Clerk, read the sentence. 
 
 Coke. \^Reads'] Hear the appointment and purpose of 
 this High Court which the king hath refused to acknowl- 
 edge. The sentence which you are about to hear is the 
 act and judgment of this High Court. The charge is 
 proved upon you as the principal culprit, for all of which 
 treasons and crimes this court doth adjudge that Charles 
 Stuart is a traitor, murderer, a liar — 
 
 Lady F'airfax. It 's a lie ! 
 
 Usher. Who spoke there ? 
 
 Lady Fairfax. I spoke. 
 
 Usher. Silence in the court ! 
 
 Bradshaw. Proceed. 
 
 Coke. I repeat, is a traitor, murderer, a liar, and a 
 public enemy, and shall be put to death by severing his 
 head from his body. 
 
 Bradshaw^ The sentence which you have heard is the 
 act, sentence, judgment, and resolution of the whole court. 
 Remove the prisoner. 
 
 Charles. \Starting up\ But, sir, I may speak after 
 the sentence. 
 
 Bradshaw. Sir, you are not to be heard after the 
 sentence. 
 
 Charles. [Much agitated^ I may speak after the sen- 
 tence ! Always, by your favor, sir ! I may speak after the 
 sentence — by your favor — 
 
 Bradshaw. Hold ! 
 
 Charles. [Being led from court\ They will not let me 
 speak — they will not let me speak ! 
 
65 
 
THE ORIGINAL PLAY 67 
 
 Scene III. A room in Whitehall 
 
 Charles is seated, with Bishop Juxon, Colonel Hacker, 
 Colonel Tomlinson, and Sir Thomas Herbert 
 standing near 
 
 Charles. I should like to see my children. 
 
 Bishop Juxon. Yes, your Majesty. \^He goes ont. 
 Reenter Bishop Juxon ivith Princess Elizabeth and 
 yonng Duke of Gloucester] 
 
 Charles. They are going to cut off thy father's head, 
 my children. 
 
 Children. Oh, father ! father ! 
 
 Duke of Gloucester. Do not let them cut off my 
 father's head ! 
 
 Charles. They will cut off thy brothers' heads if they 
 catch them. Do not you ever be a king, my son, or they 
 will cut off thy head also. 
 
 Duke of Gloucester. I will be torn in pieces first. 
 
 Charles. Give my love to your mother. 
 
 Children. Yes, father. 
 
 Charles. Farewell, my children ! 
 
 Children. Oh, father ! father ! [ They are led ont, 
 sobbing, by Bishop Juxon. Charles falls on his knees, 
 and the thire others do the same. TJie bell tolls. They 
 rise, afid JvxoN lays his hand on Charles's sho7ilder] 
 
 Bishop Juxon. You have only one stage more. It is 
 troublesome, but short. It will carry you from earth to 
 heaven. God bless you, your Majesty ! 
 
68 THE DRAMATIC METHOD OF TEACHING 
 
 Charles. It will carry me from an earthly crown to a 
 heavenly one. Farewell ! \To Herbert] Take my sword. 
 \To Juxon] Take my w^atch. YTJic bell tolls] 
 
 I could not help being struck by the manner in which 
 the children had collaborated to bring out the points of 
 the history they desired to learn and teach, — just those 
 points which a teacher would probably note down as the 
 things necessary to emphasize, — and yet it was all done 
 without effort. No doubt the reason was that each actor 
 had his mind so much on his own part, and was so much 
 in the part, that he was thoroughly acquainted with all the 
 " whys " and the " wherefores," and with causes and their 
 results. An ordinary class of children sitting still at desks, 
 feeling themselves to be merely a class of children, might 
 or might not be interested enough to inquire for reasons 
 or results of actions. It is doubtful whether they would 
 remember even what they heard, except for a very short 
 time. Teachers have constantly to devise plans for insur- 
 ing that children not only listen and pay attention but 
 also remember what they hear. The truth is, that we all 
 remember what we actually sec and do better than what 
 we merelv hear — perhaps force ourselves to hear or are 
 forced to hear. 
 
 I wonder if people ever reflect on the enormous num- 
 ber of facts which are talked mto children in elementary 
 schools for probably seven whole consecutive years ! How^ 
 monotonous it must become, although the child may not 
 realize that it is monotony ! \\'hy should it be considered 
 
69 
 
THE ORIGINAL PLAY 7 I 
 
 SO virtuous a thing for a class of children to sit still and 
 listen, while a teacher (who is probably often very tired of 
 it) talks on every subject or adopts what I call the " stand- 
 and-deliver " attitude, and demands from the children 
 opinions which they have not, as yet, formed ! The whole 
 lecture and question-and-answer system appears to me 
 now to be so dead — so utterly devoid of life ! If we are 
 anxious to obtain a child's opinions afid to find out what he 
 really knows (and consequently will remember), we should 
 confront him with what he may be expected to be able to 
 assimilate, and should throw the whole responsibility of as- 
 similation onto him ; in other words, // is useless to eat 
 the ehilcV s food for Jiiin ; he must eat it himself. To lec- 
 ture a child on a certain subject and then to ask him one 
 or two questions on it does not prove that he has learned, 
 knows, or will remember anything about it. He may make 
 a clever shot at the answer or he may be a little '' parrot." 
 And how much useless lumber we may pack into a child's 
 mind in seven years of ''fact teaching ! " For instance, of 
 what practical value is it for a boy to know that Charles I 
 was executed and said certain words at his trial, and to 
 know the number of men who tried him, their names, and 
 the dates when such things took place .? It may not be the 
 facts themselves which are so valuable ; it is the habit of 
 mijid iovm^d while learning them which makes their worth. 
 If a boy has to search out the facts for himself, for a pleas- 
 urable object, he will probably do it thoroughly ; and while 
 doing so he will exercise his ingenuity, resourcefulness, 
 self-reliance, and intelligence. If he does not exercise 
 
72 THE DRAMATIC METHOD OF TEACHING 
 
 these powers, it is certain, by the laws of nature, that 
 they will become attenuated for want of use or be lost 
 altogether. And I have heard frequent complaints from 
 teachers that " So-and-so, who used to be so very bright 
 in the primary school, seems to have lost all intelligence 
 and is quite dull in the simplest things." 
 
 There have been rumors, too, in other quarters, that 
 boys leaving school and beginning work are lacking in 
 initiative and self-reliance — both "business" qualities 
 needed by boys. There is only one way to develop self- 
 reliance and initiative, and that is to exercise these powers. 
 If boys are expected to show signs of possessing these 
 qualities on leaving school, then the time to develop and 
 exercise them is /// school. There are not many ways in 
 which such powers can be exercised while the pupils 
 remain grouped in classes. It often happens that indi- 
 vidual work cannot be done in class. But I have found 
 that my dramatic method forced children to develop and 
 exercise these powers automatically. 
 
 A glance at the foregoing play will illustrate my remarks. 
 The boy who represented Cromwell had to write his own 
 speeches, and therefore on hitn was thrown the responsi- 
 bility of finding out and putting together material. This 
 w'as the first step toward developing self-reliance — respon- 
 sibility of the individual. Probably one book of reference 
 failed him and he di^M^iO'^^di perseverance . All books failed 
 him at some junctures and he had to display ingenuity. 
 He had to work in an introduction to the play and its 
 characters, and in a few words describe the hero indirectly 
 
THE ORIGINAL PLA\' 73 
 
 yet gracefully. Here came in rcsonrcefidncss. Glance at 
 his first speech and see how he accomplished all this with- 
 out being talked into it or questioned out of it. He first ex- 
 plains why the Puritans are assembled. He introduces the 
 hero by name. He gives the Puritan version of Charles's 
 character, the reasons for disliking him. He enumerates 
 the crimes attributed to him or hints at them briefly. He 
 finds reasons for Charles's weakness of character, — "he 
 has been taught by his father," etc., — so he had evidently 
 hunted up the reign of James I to find causes. This is 
 not only teaching composition, but, at the same time, 
 inculcating important habits of mind. After all, of what 
 use is it to teach a child to write a fair composition if the 
 other habits of mind are lacking or only survive in spite 
 of circumstances .? In planning his speech he evidently 
 conferred with "Coke," because the next long and explan- 
 atory speech is by the bo)- representing Coke, who realizes 
 that his opportunity lies in enumerating in greater detail 
 the faults of Charles. " Cromwell" realized that he might 
 properly be brief and leave detail to "Coke." Here was 
 forethought. And here were two schoolboys aualy^^ing 
 history and men ! Is it not worth a trial, this method 
 which has such results to show } 
 
 After all, it did not need much resourcefulness, self- 
 reliance, or initiative to reproduce a story which had been 
 read aloud to the class twice, or to write a page of " com- 
 position " on a given subject, particularly when actual 
 " headings " of the various sections of it were written on 
 the blackboard for compulsory use ! I have read many 
 
74 THE DRAMATIC METHOD OF TEACHING 
 
 pathetic attempts of young pupils to oblige the autocrat 
 who dictated these "headings," and I have heard of one 
 poor little boy who tried to write an essay on the " cat," 
 using " orange " headings, with disastrous results ; for he 
 wrote : " The skin of the cat is its fur " (that was under 
 the heading '' skin "). "Its flesh is the pulp. Its seeds I 
 do not know." I do not think I ever found the children 
 of my school writing about something they did not under- 
 stand, because a child generally knows a great deal about 
 what he "plays" ; and also because the pupils had formed 
 a habit of freely discussing and " threshing out " difficul- 
 ties with the community, in the act of doing which they 
 deepened the impressions made on their brains, making 
 remembrance more easy. 
 
 It may have already occurred to the reader that one 
 effect of the play — more particularly the original play — 
 on the children would necessarily be a great improvement 
 in their speech and diction. They naturally learned to 
 speak freely, to enunciate clearly, and to avoid mumbling 
 or chattering. They learned to choose their phrases care- 
 fully and to clothe their thoughts in appropriate words. 
 To give an instance of what I mean : one little girl was 
 telling me that she had planted some seeds. She said, " I 
 planted them in some dirt in a box." Another small child 
 immediately said, "Don't say 'dirt,' say 'mold' or 'earth.'" 
 Young as she was, she had learned to differentiate be- 
 tween the polite term and the reverse. On another oc- 
 casion, while on a nature ramble with the older pupils, 
 I was picking my way over a very rough road full of 
 
THE ORIGINAL PLAY 75 
 
 old wagon ruts which had cut deeply into the soil. We 
 were walking single file to avoid the mud. I turned to 
 the girl immediately behind me and said: ''This is a 
 horrid road." " 'Alas ! my journey, rugged and uneven,' " 
 quoted she. 
 
 It was a great help to the children, in learning to speak 
 correctly, to be allowed to use appropriate and natural ges- 
 ture, as was possible while acting a part. One remembers 
 the "actions" taught in lessons set apart for "recitation" 
 and "action songs." How little they expressed what the 
 child himself felt ! And how impossible it was to show any 
 real "expression" or feeling when reciting with the hands 
 held rigidly behind the back ! 
 
 It is true that the chorus of pupils who had no speak- 
 ing parts had to sit at their desks during the performance 
 of plays, but a great measure of the success of a play de- 
 pended on them. Even they had no set form of words dic- 
 tated to them. They were told to find words for themselves, 
 and not a little of the work fell on them. It is not possi- 
 ble or necessary to act the whole of any reign when playing 
 history. The pupils ingeniously worked into their speeches 
 as much explanation as could be included without being 
 tedious. The rest they left to the chorus, who were con- 
 stantly on the watch to "put in their oar" when some 
 gap needed filling. For instance, in the play " Charles I " 
 they always explained why the wife and two elder sons of 
 Charles were not near him at his trial. Directly after the 
 first scene, and while the next was being prepared, they 
 would depute one of their number to be spokesman, who 
 
^6 THE DRAMATIC METHOD OF TEACHING 
 
 would say : "His wife has gone to the continent to try to 
 raise an army," or other words to that effect. 
 
 A glance round the school when a "play" was in prog- 
 ress would soon show that all the children there were 
 equally animated, eager, and interested, simply because 
 we were using for educational purposes one of the strong- 
 est instincts of childhood, I might almost say of human 
 nature, — we were harnessing another Niagara Falls. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 THE SHAKESPEAREAN PLAY 
 
 IT was only to be expected that, as soon as the pupils 
 of the school had tried to write their own historical 
 plays (and hence knew the points of a good play), they 
 should soon be on the watch for good ready-made plays 
 illustrating the periods they happened to be studying. 
 Naturally they found these in the works of Shakespeare, 
 and thus, as with poetry, songs, and music, they "dis- 
 covered" Shakespeare's works for themselves. It was 
 not a case of the teacher telling the children to read so- 
 and-so ; but, on the contrary, it was the children who drew 
 the teacher's attention to the fact that, in the volume of 
 Shakespeare which they kept on their library shelf, there 
 were good plays which they could act. It was the pupils 
 themselves, too, by the way, who subscribed their pennies 
 and bought a well-illustrated edition of Shakespeare's 
 works, which soon came to be one of the most used 
 books in their library. 
 
 Of course, just at first they found the complete plays 
 too lengthy for their purpose and the wording too difficult. 
 Then, once more, their ingenuity came to their aid and 
 they discovered how to abridge and adapt Shakespeare to 
 their own use. They began with " Henry V." 
 
 77 
 
78 THE DRAMATIC METHOD OE TEACHING 
 
 Their opening scene showed Henry as the hot-headed 
 young prince, with his boon companions, bragging of the 
 way he had defied Judge Gascoigne. His companions 
 encouraged him, and he, in turn, promised them great 
 honors when he should become king. Suddenly a mes- 
 senger appears and tells him of the death of the king. 
 He waves off his companions, saying, ''Away with you 
 all! I have no more to do with you." The boys liked the 
 first scene tremendously. They quite understood the spirit 
 of the thing and introduced a bit of swordplay and a quar- 
 rel, to which young "Prince Hal" put an end by striking 
 up the swords of the combatants. 
 
 After this they followed the plan of Shakespeare's 
 " Henry V," made the second scene of that play their first 
 scene, and abridged the " Archbishop of Canterbury's " 
 speeches sufficiently to allow an explanation of Henry's 
 claim to the French throne and his views on the Salic law. 
 It was certainly interesting to watch how cleverly they got 
 over the difficulty of knowing nothing of the French lan- 
 guage. They made the messenger from the dauphin speak 
 broken English ! The incident of the present of tennis 
 balls was included, and " Henry " was quite fine in his 
 denunciation of the insult and in his determination to 
 send the tennis balls back as " cannon balls." 
 
 The chorus in this play next recited from memory the 
 passage from the play beginning 
 
 Now all the youth of England are on fire, 
 And silken dalliance in the wardrobe lies, 
 
79 
 
THE SHAKESPEAREAX PLAV 8l 
 
 while the king and others donned all the gorgeous armor 
 they could muster. This in most cases consisted of string 
 "chain mail" and silver tea paper. " Henry V" himself 
 wore a shirt of fine mail consisting of a lady's silk vest ! 
 Over the headpieces of chain mail they wore helmets, and 
 the principals rode "steeds." They were generally dressed 
 before the chorus had finished reciting, and would then 
 ride past the school window, shaking their "lances" to 
 show they were off to Southampton ! Xext they fitted in 
 a little scene showing Southampton, the guilty Lords 
 Scroop, Cambridge, and Grey, and their punishment by 
 Henry. Mere writing cannot make my readers realize 
 how well these little rural boys "lived" the parts. The 
 dignity and restraint of " Henry " as he led up to the 
 charge and sentence ; the guilty starts and shamed de- 
 meanor of the culprits ; the correct bearing of " Exeter " 
 as he said, "I arrest thee," etc.; the way in which the 
 last-arrested conspirator broke his sword before delivering 
 it up, were all realistic in the extreme, and certainly had 
 their share in improving the tone and bearing of the boys. 
 It was in this play that we instituted the rule that when, 
 in a battle scene, the bell was rung, every one should stand 
 quite still in a sort of tableau. This was to guard against 
 accidents. I could stop the "fight" at will. The scene 
 showing the siege of Harfleur was w'orked in this way : 
 the walls were represented by chairs placed along the side 
 of "stage" space. When " Henry" desired the moment 
 of victory to arrive, he jumped upon one of the chairs, 
 crying, ' ' To the breach ! To the breach ! " I would then 
 
82 THE DRAMATIC METHOD OF TEACHING 
 
 sound the bell and every one struck an attitude just where 
 he was — some ''dead," some engaging in combat. The 
 scenes in both camps before the battle of Agincourt were 
 well adapted. The girls always pulled down the blinds to 
 show that it was night ; the chorus described the place, 
 time, geographical position, numbers on each side ; and 
 '' Henry" recited the speech which answers "Westmore- 
 land" when he wished for "one ten thousand of the men 
 of England who do no work to-day." 
 
 Of course they had a beautiful tableau for the finish of 
 Agincourt, with both French and English leaders included. 
 The boys suggested a voyage liome with French prisoners, 
 and cube-sugar boxes rigged as boats were brought into 
 requisition. All the chorus stood on the seats for a good 
 view of the procession through London, and so real was 
 it to them that I have heard little girls whisper excitedly, 
 ''Here they come ! Here they come ! " and almost fall 
 off the seats craning their necks and waving their hand- 
 kerchiefs. It was easy to distinguish who were prisoners 
 and who were victors. The former hung their heads and 
 dragged their feet, while the latter held their heads erect 
 and looked triumphant. 
 
 The "cfo\vd" of soldiers, etc. in this play were not 
 drilled or trained to their parts in the orthodox way. In 
 fact, they never acted the play twice alike, but just ex- 
 pressed themselves as they felt at the moment. Hence 
 the play always went with a swing — spontaneously and 
 never mechanically. No true educational expert will need 
 to be told that this self-expression is the very thing we 
 
THE SHAKESPEAREAN PLAY 83 
 
 need most to aim at in order properly to exercise and train 
 the children's faculties and get the best results. 
 
 That the children zvere set thinking for themselves 
 by means of playing their own version of Shakespeare's 
 "Henry V " is proved by the fact that on the next ''Un- 
 seen Reader " morning, following the first performance of 
 "Henry V," there was a great rush for historical works 
 of all kinds, and very shortly we heard such remarks as 
 " Why, it was my son, Henry VI, who caused Joan of Arc's 
 death ! " (from the boy who had impersonated Henry V). 
 "Yes, and when Jack died ("Jack " was Henry V for the 
 nonce!) Katharine married Owen Tudor, and that 's where 
 the Tudor line came from," said another. "How do you 
 know that } " said I. "I traced it on this table," was the 
 reply. I looked at the book shown me. It was opened 
 at a genealogical table ! Fancy that studied voluntarily by 
 an ordinary boy ! 
 
 Then a quiet, reserved boy — Ernest, otherwise Earl of 
 Exeter — woke up from a brown study to say, " I have 
 found a fine piece of poetry all about it." His book was 
 "Ballads of English History," and he looked as though 
 he were really and thoroughly delighted. What a great 
 improvement on the highly colored and sensational litera- 
 ture which is devoured by young lads so constantly ! I 
 quote this incident to illustrate that the dramatic method 
 of teaching shows, or rather leads to, the right way of 
 using the textbook as a book of reference, voluntarily 
 approached, rather than a book the contents of which 
 have to be committed to memory in stated doses. 
 
84 THE DRAMATIC METHOD OF TEACHING 
 
 And if any one should wonder whether the pupils were 
 really able to pursue any original investigations of their 
 own from this pla\', I may mention that they found out 
 without my telling them that Henry \^ claimed the crown 
 of France from his ancestor, Edw^ard III, and learned 
 about the Salic law. They themselves suggested that 
 Henry VI inherited his weakness of character from his 
 maternal grandfather, the French king whom Shakespeare 
 painted as almost imbecile. 
 
 As time went on the children became more ambitious. 
 They naturally desired to dive deeper into the works of a 
 dramatist who could provide them with such keen enjoy- 
 ment in playing the life of Henry V. And this is not the 
 least significant part of the work. "We needs must love 
 the highest ivhen we sec it^ We do not need to be told 
 that each one must find and see the highest for himself. 
 How many a poor elementary-school child is doomed never 
 to see it ! If he leaves school without having had a glimpse 
 of it, however shadowy and distant, the chances are that 
 he will never see it. His may be a life of toil, and his 
 short leisure hours may be filled by the sensational " rec- 
 reation " of the trick bicycle rider and other attractions 
 of the varietv theater — good or harmless in themselves 
 perhaps, but not sufficient to take the place of the pure 
 pleasure and elevating benefit to be derived from real 
 enjoyment of good literature. If we can give the child a 
 taste for good literature wdiile still a pupil in the elementary 
 school, w^e shall have opened the door by which he can, if 
 he will, attain the highest. With a literature such as ours 
 
THE SHAKESPEAREAN PLAY 85 
 
 it is surely our duty to use such methods as will bring 
 about this result. 
 
 And, I ask you, will a child who has once lived for a 
 time in the romantic Forest of Arden with Touchstone, 
 Rosalind, and Orlando ever need to be shown in what 
 volume he may find a way of escape from a sordid world 
 of toil and worldly gain ? If he has ever taken a part in 
 playing the delightful "A Midsummer Night's Dream," 
 will he need to be at a loss where to find an evening's 
 recreation ? If you have ever found delight or profit or 
 improvement in Shakespeare's pages, you will know ex- 
 actly how, by association of ideas, his plays haunt one's 
 happiest hours. 
 
 The w^orkingman need not necessarily — because he is 
 a workingman — blow hideous noises and rude songs on a 
 cornet, and generally make an exhibition of himself while 
 on his annual " outing." 1 do not think it is too extrava- 
 gant a dream to hope that one might see such things rele- 
 gated to the limbo of the past. I know young enlightened 
 workingmen who know their English literature w^ell ; who 
 prefer to spend all their leisure time on their bicycles, 
 touring this country of ours ; who see romance in the 
 storied monuments of the past ; who are not bored by an 
 evening in the country alone or wdth a kindred spirit ; who 
 have the true artist's feeling for color in beautiful land- 
 scapes ; who do not merely regard a patch of bright yel- 
 low mustard as so much food for sheep, but as a touch of 
 color and contrast in the landscape ; who know the names, 
 abodes, and habits of all the flowers — rare or common — 
 
S6 THE DRAMATIC METHOD OF TEACHING 
 
 of their countryside ; who know all the wonders and all 
 the romance of the traces of our ancestors to be found in 
 historic sections ! And that, not merely from folk legend 
 and ignorance, but from the folk legend plus an intelligent 
 store of knowledge obtained by reading and reasoning. 
 Surely there is ground for encouragement when education 
 of the right sort can turn out a workingman of this type. 
 He will not be a less skillful or industrious worker because 
 he is well read. A refined and intellectual workingman 
 is often looked upon as a rarity and even with suspicion. 
 I have hopes that the exact opposite may in time be true, 
 and that it will be the man who works only that he may 
 have money to spend on sensational enjoyments w^hom we 
 shall call extraordinar)^ I have seen in my own village 
 workingmen — including farm and garden laborers — who 
 could not only sit through an evening of Shakespearean 
 plays as spectators with intelligent enjoyment, but who 
 could and did themselves give a splendid rendering of 
 ''Julius Caesar." 
 
 That the pupils appreciated Shakespeare out of school 
 hours was clear, for fourteen of them chose volumes of his 
 plays for their school prizes. They further took the trouble 
 to specify which plays they wanted included, and the fa- 
 vorites seemed to be "A Midsummer Night's Dream," "As 
 You Like It," "The Merchant of Venice," "King John," 
 " Henry V," "Julius Caesar," and "Henry VI." These they 
 afterwards carried backward and forward between home 
 and school, and made themselves well acquainted with the 
 contents in the same way that they studied " Henry V." 
 
THE SHAKESPEAREAN PLAY 8/ 
 
 The girls, in particular, enjoyed the romantic plays of 
 Shakespeare, while the boys preferred the more busding 
 historical plays. Their rendering of the scene between 
 Hubert and Arthur in '' King John " was quite different 
 from any I have ever seen given by schoolboys. If any 
 person should like an experience similar to mine, let him 
 set a few boys to prepare and act this scene as they im- 
 agine it really took place, first reading the play carefully. 
 I always see the boys in my mind's eye when I read the 
 words of the play. The two attendants draped themselves 
 in window curtains (which looked Hke ''villains' cloaks") 
 and wore black paper masks — pieces of paper, with holes 
 cut for eyes, tied round their heads. They carried a pail 
 of coals such as road repairers use at night, and had two 
 pieces of sharp iron stuck therein. The hot coals and red- 
 hot irons were simulated with red chalk ! The boy who 
 impersonated Hubert was, I feel sure, a born artist. In- 
 stead of reciting his lines as if he were reading them word 
 for word, he "thought" them, and showed his thoughts 
 in gesture and facial expression. The result was that all 
 his young audience understood the struggle going on in 
 '' Hubert's " mind and were consequently interested, as 
 children will be by anything which bears the stamp of truth 
 — is ''really true." The young "Arthur" of the piece, 
 taking his cue from " Hubert," showed how the real Arthur 
 must have gained and followed up the advantages of his 
 eloquent and touching appeals — so much so that the audi- 
 ence was carried away. The same was true of the two 
 attendants, one of whom really meant what he said when 
 
88 THE DRAMATIC METHOD OF TEACHING 
 
 he ejaculated, " I am best pleased to be from such a deed." 
 The charm of the children's presentation of these plays of 
 Shakespeare lay in their original treatment and interpre- 
 tation of them, their novel "properties" and gestures. 
 
 This brings me to mention another point — the fact 
 that naturally the plays in school brought forth an accom- 
 panying handicraft ■d.x\d. art of their own. Following the 
 earlier plays, I frequently found the older bo\s drawing 
 in their books the scenes which the\- had enacted, and this 
 led to my giving them time and opportunity to depict 
 what they saw or imagined while acting or looking on. 
 Hie curious part of the resulting drawings was the fact 
 that they showed costume and scenery as it ought to be, 
 and not as seen in the make-believe plays. For instance, 
 in the tournament scene taken from " Ivanhoe," the boy 
 who drew the picture had most correctly imagined the lists 
 of Ashby de la Zouch, because, to him, the school desks and 
 cupboards had not existed in the play. He had drawn heroes 
 in armor instead of his small schoolmates in corduroy. 
 
 In addition to drawing, both boys and girls took a great 
 interest in making the various articles needed in their 
 plays, and I fancy this brought forth their ingenuity more, 
 and had a greater educational value, than formal lessons in 
 handicrafts — that is, for elementary-school children. It 
 set them experimenting at any rate, and thus they found 
 out their own weakness of method and ignorance of tech- 
 nique. It seemed, indeed, as if dramatizing lessons touched 
 some human interest which must express itself in every 
 possible form of art. 
 
THE SHAKESPEAREAN PLAY 9I 
 
 Another point which was brought out more particularly 
 in connection with the Shakespearean plays, in which the 
 children spoke the lines verbatim, was the habit of the 
 small children of the chorus in arming themselves with 
 copies of the play in progress, and constituting them- 
 selves " prompters." I have seen as many as fourteen 
 books being closely scanned by twice as many heads of 
 little grade children, and I have then thought, " What a 
 splendidly attentive reading class ! " What is more, I am 
 sure they were all attentive, because, did the performers 
 miss one single word, every child who had a book would 
 supply the needed correction at once. 
 
 One of the most suitable and successful Shakespear- 
 ean scenes for the boys was " King Henry VI," Part II, 
 Act IV, scene ii. The boys also attempted scenes iii and 
 iv, and scene x. Having thus exemplified the rebellion of 
 Jack Cade, it was natural that they should read the con- 
 text around it, and then dovetail what they had learned 
 with what they had played of '' King Henry V." In this 
 way the Shakespearean play was not only valuable as a 
 lesson in literature, but it correlated many useful branches 
 of knowledge. 
 
 The boys liked this play so well that they modeled and 
 played Wat Tyler's rebellion on similar lines. They com- 
 menced their play by causing two gentlemen to meet and 
 discuss the rising in France. 
 
92 THE DRAMATIC METHOD OF TEACHING 
 
 Scene I 
 
 First Gentleman (Squire Balderdash !) I have just 
 heard, by a mounted messenger from Dover, that the 
 EngUsh peasants are rising too, and are discontented 
 with the taxes they have to pay. 
 
 Second Gentleman. The king must be informed of this. 
 
 First Gentleman. But the king will not listen. He 
 is young and hot-headed ; besides, money must be raised 
 to pay for the war with France. The peasants are headed 
 by a man named Walter Tyler, of Essex, and they are 
 marching to Eondon. [Xoisr of Rabble /lain/ approach- 
 ing. A Crowd gathers round a Man, luho bigins to address 
 
 then I wit J I 
 
 '■ When Adam delved and Eve span, 
 Who was then the gentleman?'"] 
 
 Seconio Gentleman. Come! I to the King — you to 
 the lord mayor ! Something must be done to prepare 
 Eondon. [Exeunt both qjiiekly] 
 
 The Preacher (John Ball). Brethren, I have come to 
 explain to you the question of these illegal taxes. How can 
 you pay them without money } {A Voiee. We wants better 
 wages.) Why should you poor people be oppressed, because 
 money is needed to pay for wars .? {Another Voiee. Those 
 who make wars should pay for 'em — we wants trade im- 
 proved. We wants permission to buy and sell in the mar- 
 kets !) And if you are bound to pay taxes, why should n't 
 you be free men and no longer serfs t {A Voiee. Yes, that 's 
 it ! We wants land to till ; land at fourpence an acre.) 
 
THE SIIAKESPEAKEAN PLAY 93 
 
 Scene II. Dartford, Kent 
 
 Men found ivofking with hoes in the field. A realistie 
 blaeksniith' s shop is arranged zvith a desk anvil at one 
 end. The clanging of the sledge hammers is simulated 
 by striking an ordinary hammer on an old garden fork 
 laid on the anvil. One corner is set apart for Wat 
 Tyler's house, in zvhich his Daughter sits ivorking. 
 A bell is heard ringing a7td two Collectors appear, call- 
 ifig out, " Oyez ! Oyez ! " TJiey go to each of the Men 
 to collect the poll tax, and carry a book in which they 
 have entered the names of all persons above the age 
 of fifteen yea7's. I hey demand three groats from every 
 one of these. The Men all murmur and refer the Col- 
 lectors to Wat Tyler, tJicir champion. They call at 
 the house of Tyler, who declares he has no one above 
 the age for payme7it. His Daughter appears and one 
 of the Collectors, jeering, says, ' ' You have one, for she 
 is over fifteen." Wat Tyler, enraged, strikes him with 
 his smith's hammer. He falls dead. The ^^///r/' Collector 
 escapes. The Men rally round Tyler and tJirow the 
 body down a well (this is a brisk piece of acting), and 
 with mucJi sJiouting detcrmijie to march to F.ondon. 
 They decide on the terms they mean to demand : slav- 
 ery abolished ; no tolls and taxes on trade ; land at 
 fourpence per acre ; better Jiousifig ; no illegal taxation. 
 
 Feeling that the schoolroom space was all too cramped 
 for a march to freedom, the boys elected to march round 
 
94 THE DRAMATIC METHOD OF TEACHING 
 
 the playground between the scenes and arrive in London 
 in style. This they used to do, and frequently they intro- 
 duced funny little interludes, as, for instance, meeting 
 with a lawyer. 
 
 Wat Tyler. Ho, there! Stand! Who are you, sirrah.? 
 
 Lawyer. I am a lawyer. 
 
 Tyler. Can you write ? 
 
 Lawyer. Indeed, I can write a court hand. 
 
 Mob. He has been writing these heavy taxes on the 
 poor. Away with him ! [He is dragged off, aiul aiiotJicr 
 Man cntcrs\ 
 
 Tyler. Come, sirrah, join our ranks. We march to 
 freedom. 
 
 Max. I am sorry, sir, 1 am not fit for so grand an 
 armv ; besides, my wife and family need me at home. 
 
 Tyler. Can you read or write 1 
 
 Man. No, sir, and I am sorry for it. 
 
 Tyler. Do not be sorr\^ You are just the man for us. 
 Fall in with us. yHic Man is pushed into a plaec and 
 they march on'\ 
 
 Scene HI 
 
 Arrival in London. The seejie opens after the taking of 
 London Bridge. Wat Tyler Jiolds a eonversation 
 zuith his Chief Officer. {Notice hei^e how ingeniously 
 the yoking playzvrights make the characters tell the 
 story in the natural course of the play. They have, no 
 doidd, eaugJit that ujiaivares from SJiakespeare s plays) 
 
THE SHAKESPEAREAN PLAY 95 
 
 Wat Tvler. Well, what news ? Did you burn the old 
 Duke of Lancaster's palace, the Savoy ? 
 
 Officer. Ay, marry, that did we ; and right well he 
 deserved it, spending the good money and coming home 
 from France without accomplishing anything, but losing 
 everything. We have lost all save Calais ! 
 
 Wat Tyler. Yes, indeed ! Well, I have set fire to the 
 King's prison — the Marshalsea — and set free the pris- 
 oners. My good boys of Kent have killed every Fleming 
 they could find, whether in church, house, or hospital. 
 None have escaped. Now whom shall we send as mes- 
 sengers to the King.? 
 
 Officer. We have here a schoolmaster who hath 
 repented him of his learning. Shall we send him ? 
 
 Wat Tyler. Bring him to me. Now, sirrah, hearken. 
 You are to go to the King in the Tower and say, "Your 
 Majesty, Wat Tyler hath business with ye, and requires 
 to see ye ! " Mind your manners, as becometh a messenger 
 from a great man. 
 
 [Schoolmaster dows low and departs. At the extreme 
 end of sehoolroom he enters the Tower gates {a gap 
 between two desks) and is stopped by two Warders a?id 
 asked his bnsi/iess. He makes low bows and persuades 
 them to let him enter. But he has no sooner eommenced 
 his message tJian tJie young King (Richard II), looking 
 half amused, half angry, says, "Who admitted this 
 man ? Be off, rough rebel ! " The Messenger returns 
 and reports this to Wat Tyler, wJio is enraged and 
 says, "Go back and tell him we desire to speak with 
 
96 THE DRAMATIC METHOD OF TEACHING 
 
 him peaceably, but if he will not meet us we shall 
 send him messages of fire and plunder ! " 
 \Thc Messenger once more gets past the Warders, and, 
 on his deliveriiig his message with many awkward 
 boii's, the King eonfej's with his Knights and Courtiers. 
 They advise him to seem to agree with Wat Tyler 
 and his Followers, and he promises to meet the Insur- 
 gents on the follozving morning^ 
 
 Scene I\" 
 
 The Mob nnder Wat Tyler arrive from the playground 
 to meet the young King, wJio, Jiowever, merely eomes 
 in a barge {inveiied beneJi) dowii the Kiver Thames 
 to speak witJi them from that poi)it of vantage. The 
 Mob rusJi forward and attempt to reach the boat with 
 boat hooks {map poles). J here are confused sho?its of 
 " We want no illegal taxes ! " etc., and Wat Tyler 
 raises the cry of "Treason ! " Again W' at Tyler scjids 
 a Messenger, and the ¥^\^g pivmiscs to meet them in 
 a field at Mile End] 
 
 Scene V. Mile End 
 
 The Mob di'awn up under Wat Tyler at one end of 
 schoohvom. The King and his Followers, mounted, 
 at the other. {'This gave an opportunity for ?/sing the 
 Jiorse brasses, mentioned cai'lier in tJiis volume, on 
 the kings prancifig "steed.'') 
 
 King. S^Riding forwanl\ I am your King and Lord, 
 good people, what will you ? 
 
97 
 
THE SHAKESPEAREAN PLAY 99 
 
 Wat Tyler. Your Majesty, we will that you free us 
 and our lands forever ; that you give us leave to buy and 
 sell in the market places ; that land shall be fourpence an 
 acre ; and that no illegal taxes be levied. 
 
 Mob. Yes, yes ! We want better houses. We will not 
 be serfs any more. 
 
 King. I grant it. Go home quietly to your houses, and 
 I will have the charter written out and sealed. 
 
 Mob. Hurrah ! Long live Richard II ! 
 
 Wat Tyler. Half of you disperse to your homes. 
 The other twenty thousand remain here with me. Captains, 
 see to it ! 
 
 Scene VI. SmitJifield 
 
 Wat Tyler, vionntcd, talks in nndci'toncs ivitJi his Cap- 
 tains. Suddenly the Klxg and his Followers ride in 
 
 Wat Tyler. \Rides forivard to meet him, and takes 
 hold of his "Horse's" hridle'\ You have broken your 
 promise ! Where is the charter you swore to send us } 
 
 William Walworth (Mayor of London). [Rides fo?-- 
 
 luard, drawing his dagger {the zvooden dagger covered zvith 
 
 silver paper in eardboard sheath vientioned before in this 
 
 book)'] Take your hand from the King's rein, vile peasant. 
 
 [Tyler sti-nggles to retain his hold of the rein. The 
 
 " Horses " /r^?;/rr about. Walworth strikes Tyler 
 
 zvith the dagger. He falls, groans, and dies. The 
 
 Peasants rush- forward] 
 
 Peasants. They have slain our leader ! Kill ! kill ! 
 
lOO THE DRAMATIC METHOD OF TEACHING 
 
 Kixc;. [Faces round, sJioutiiig\ What need ye, my 
 masters ? I am your Captain and your King ! Follow me ! 
 I will be )our leader ! [He rides toward tJie door^ faeiiig 
 about and ivaviiig his sivord boldly. The Mob appear to 
 ivaverfor ail instant, tJieii follow Jiim, eJieering^ 
 
 The boys always finished the play by allowing " Richard " 
 to ride out and around the playground, while they marched 
 after him, cheering. 
 
 I think the reader will at once see clearly how Shake- 
 speare's play and his version of Jack Cade's rebellion had 
 influenced the young playwrights in their compilation of 
 "Wat Tyler's Rebellion." They dragged in a "lawyer" 
 who could write a " court hand," where Shakespeare had 
 introduced a schoolmaster. They certainly had tried to 
 talk in the correct style of the times. For the facts and 
 plot they read John Richard (jreen's " Readings from 
 English History- " and Froissart's account of the events. 
 The whole of the preparation and arrangement was their 
 own, the bulk of the work falling on " Wat Tyler " him- 
 self, who also impersonated Squire Balderdash in scene i, 
 and on his chief officer, who was also John Ball, in the same 
 scene. The chorus, of course, informed us that the young 
 king was only sixteen years of age, and after the play told 
 us the results of the rising. 
 
 I can assure the reader that, under this most graphic kind 
 of teaching, historical characters like those of Richard II 
 and Wat Tyler are no longer vague, unreal figures with 
 curious names, tiresome acts, and elusive dates. Certainly 
 
THE shakespeAkp'^AN, riliAX^' ''v ! ' • l^^3 
 
 they are real (and children love the concrete, we know !), 
 and for this reason it is impossible that any pupil should 
 be dull or that his brain should be inactive during such 
 a lesson. 
 
 The next Shakespearean play which they attempted 
 was the " Merchant of Venice," beginning with the trial 
 scene and including also scene ii, Act IV. And here I 
 would draw attention to the fact that there are many dif- 
 ficult lines, especially for " Portia," to be committed to 
 memory. These small rural pupils had no difficulty in 
 learning them /;/ a fezv days, and after that never needed 
 prompting. Not that they were w^hat is termed " sharp at 
 learning" ; they were learning almost involuntarily, because 
 they were " living in the part " as it were. And that they 
 did not shirk learning is proved by the fact that, of his 
 own accord, "Shylock" in the play asked to be allowed to 
 act scene iii, Act I, in spite of the great number of lines 
 and awkwardly turned phrases it contained. 
 
 Their impersonation of the various parts, far from being 
 calculated to draw a smile (which might be expected when 
 young children attempted to act complex characters), was 
 earnest and interesting. "Shylock" and "Portia," on 
 whom so much of the success of the play depended, real- 
 ized their parts, and yet played in an original manner, be- 
 cause the action and gesture were their own, and w^ere 
 neither taught by an instructor nor copied from players 
 seen previously. They had merely the text of Shakespeare 
 to depend upon. That they read this aright was proved 
 by the fact that in such speeches as Shylock's, commencing 
 
UQ2^ fT.H'E .Ei'R A vM A T I'C .METHOD OF TEACHING 
 
 '' How like a fawning publican he looks ! " the boy im- 
 personator used a venomous kind of undertone ; and 
 when Bassanio enters next and Shylock has to say, " I 
 am debating of my present store," etc., the boy changed 
 his tone at once to a conciliatory, cringing one, although 
 no such directions are given in the play. 
 
 This play had, of course, no historical connection to 
 teach, nor had "A Midsummer Night's Dream" nor "As 
 You Like It," so we treated them as dramatized literature, 
 under the general title of " English." 
 
 The children's playing had reached quite a finished 
 standard by the time they attempted scenes from " A Mid- 
 summer Night's Dream." Their best scenes proved to 
 be those of Act V, which depict "rude mechanics" in a 
 Greek play. The school children seemed to grasp, at first 
 reading, all Shakespeare's subtle burlesques and humors, 
 and were eager to " dress " the piece properly. They 
 gathered a huge quantity of ivy and wreathed the room, 
 making archways of thin laths nailed together — here 
 the "natural" handicraft once more made itself evident — 
 and fastening ivy and boughs of greenery on to that 
 foundation. Ingenuity showed itself when colored ribbons 
 — "gold" — were needed to bind the stockings like san- 
 dals. The girls actually painted white tape with the yel- 
 low water color from, their painting palettes. Wlien dry, 
 this answered their purposes perfectly. Afterwards, when 
 they needed colored " ribbon " to sell by the yard while 
 playing at arithmetic, each girl painted a piece of white 
 tape a different color. They made Greek tunics from old 
 
THE SHAKESPEAREAN PLAY 
 
 103 
 
 cotton skirts, gathering up the waistband for a neckband, 
 and cutting a hole at each side for the arms. These, when 
 decorated with '' key pattern " borders of gold paper 
 (ironed on, as described before) and accompanied by long 
 white stockings, bound like sandals, and " gold " tape 
 fillets around the head, gave quite a picturesque and Greek 
 appearance to the prosaic schoolroom. The girls who had 
 long hair turned it up all round to 
 add to the effect. 
 
 And all this was of their own in- 
 itiative. Their " English " lesson 
 was seasoned with the same fresh 
 enthusiasm as their history lesson 
 — with how little trouble on the part 
 of cither teacher or child ! Certainly 
 it required no more trouble or exer- 
 tion in preparation than an ordinary 
 game ; yet at the end what a splen- 
 did harvest of lasting results in the 
 wider outlook, the closer study of 
 humanity, the enriched and strength- 
 ened memory, the greater knowledge of the beauties of our 
 language (caught instinctively from contact with the mind 
 of a past master in the art of appropriate clothing of ex- 
 pression) — and all this lasting treasure absorbed from 
 and through a game in school ! I doubt if by any other 
 means the children could have learned to appreciate the 
 beauties of speech such as the alliteration contained in the 
 following lines : ''The riot of the tipsy Bacchanals, tearing 
 
I04 THE DRAMATIC METlIOJJi OF TEACHING 
 
 the Thracian singer." ... " The thrice three Muses 
 mourning for the death of learning," and "Whereat, with 
 blade, with bloody blameful blade, he bravely broach 'd his 
 boiling bloody breast." These lines, which occur in "A 
 Midsummer Night's Dream," were declaimed in a manner 
 which brought out all their word painting ; and shortly 
 after the play had been shown by the children to their 
 schoolfellows the older pupils essayed to write some poetry 
 of their own, in which we found occurring such lines as 
 this: "Sing a song of sunshine that will suit this summer's 
 day" — an example of alliteration which also suggested 
 summer breezes. Again in the same poem we had, "And 
 the leaves will fan )ou gentl\' as they rustle in the breeze." 
 I do not think it a small matter that children should be 
 made to understand grace of expression and a little of the 
 way to use their own language — to avoid being tedious 
 through using the same words over and over again from 
 a scanty vocabulary. Only a very short time ago a member 
 of the London County Council Education Committee was 
 reported to have said that if a certain circular had been 
 written in words reminiscent of the language of Milton, it 
 would not have been understood by the people for whom 
 it was intended. Another member described the circular 
 as " bad grammar and bad form." A woman defended it 
 by stating that the composition was partly her own, and 
 that its style had been adopted as " being more likely to 
 interest the people." If such conditions prevail among 
 the masses, then it is high time that Shakespeare and his 
 English became " familiar in their mouths as household 
 
THE SHAKESPEAREAN FLAY IO5 
 
 words." Surely the best grammar or composition lessons 
 must be long drafts from the well of pure English to be 
 found in our standard authors. Somehow we have always 
 felt this more or less vaguely, and have tried bringing our 
 horses to the well ; but they did not always drink, and 
 seldom deeply. 
 
 I wonder whether we grown-ups would ever have been 
 so fond of Shakespeare's plays if we had merely read 
 them, especially if we had been ordered to read them ! Do 
 we not remember how and when our real, lively interest 
 was awakened .? In how many cases was it the illuminat- 
 ing acting and impressi\e delivery of some great Shake- 
 spearean actor that first roused our interest ? i^rhaps 
 afterwards we read the play over again quietly, and by 
 association of ideas felt the same pleasurable sensations. 
 Perhaps, also, it will not be a national waste of time if our 
 masses learn to love Shakespeare " in the days of their 
 youth " by such means as I have described earlier in the 
 chapter. It means to the masses exacdy what it means to 
 the few — an enriched vocabulary, a better-stocked mind, 
 a more fertile imagination ; for the days when people 
 talked in the language of Shakespeare and his compeers, 
 and consequently thought in that language, were the days 
 of vivid imagination, initiative, and adventure. Our empire 
 was extended by discovery ; our trade was improved by 
 intelligence ; our inventions were made to keep pace with 
 the demand for greater luxury, which was the outcome of 
 refinement of thought — refined, that is, in comparison 
 with pre- Elizabethan times. 
 
I06 THE DRAMATIC METHOD OF TEACHING 
 
 It may seem a sweeping statement, but is it not true 
 that, in spite of at least more than twenty years of com- 
 pulsory teaching of English, written and oral, the average 
 youth confines himself to the latest catchword to express 
 everything ? One feels that he cannot forgive an English- 
 speaking person for neglecting the beauties of his own 
 language — a language in which almost ever}^ word tells a 
 history; in which is written a literature unrivaled in the 
 world. And the only way to revive the use of correct Eng- 
 lish is to allow children in school to speak and read it 
 almost constantly. My own experience is, that allowing 
 them to act a part saves them from feeling conscious of 
 speaking or reading as a lesson, and causes them to use 
 the words with a sense of their aesthetic beauty. 
 
 My pupils involuntarily bore me out in this opinion, for 
 they asked whether they might read a play, and, taking 
 the various parts, chose for their first effort "As You 
 Like It." They liked it so well that for quite a number of 
 weeks it was always asked for on Friday afternoons, which 
 afternoon we always set apart for sports or any subject 
 that seemed to please the largest number. The Celia and 
 Rosalind of the play were good friends, and, as most of 
 the actors had their own copies of the piece, it was evi- 
 dent that these two studied their parts together at home 
 during the evenings. They all soon became quite expert at 
 reading and acting at the same time, and I feel sure that 
 this improved their reading immensely. We seldom heard 
 a word mispronounced. On the contrary, we heard great 
 improvement in tone of voice, inflection, and modulation. 
 
THE SHAKESPEAREAN PLAY I07 
 
 It may seem incredible, but I am certain that even the 
 younger pupils thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated the 
 play when they saw it acted by their schoolfellows. Of 
 course the actors put their own original little stamps upon 
 it. Once more they improvised costumes, using their 
 fingers with much ingenuity. '' Audrey " was attired in 
 an old ragged " window-curtain " skirt, with her brother's 
 boots, many sizes too big, until on one joyful day a small 
 boy proudly marched into school bearing a pair of real 
 wooden shoes, in which " Audrey " clumped about to her 
 heart's content. " Orlando," not to be behindhand, used 
 to hang his verses on the school palm, which was always 
 placed in the center of the "stage " to represent the Forest 
 of Arden. '' Touchstone " wore a red flannel cap and bells, 
 homemade of course, and " Corin " had a real shepherd's 
 crook, borrowed from his father. 
 
 By this time the reader will have realized that I did not 
 attempt to teach stagecraft, but that my aim was rather to 
 put this in the background ; yet our child " Rosalind," our 
 'Xelia," and our ''Puck" were so exceedingly good, dra- 
 matic, and convincing in their parts that their performance 
 really approached pure art. A great Shakespearean actor 
 and actress who saw them waxed quite enthusiastic over 
 their natural way of conducting themselves, and compared 
 it with the "trained trickery" of many actors who are 
 taught to "raise the hand here, walk so many strides there, 
 lower the voice so, speak more slowly," and so forth. 
 
 After all, " all the world 's a stage." What were all our 
 heroes of history but men who held the center of the 
 
I08 THE DRAMATIC METHOD OF TEACHING 
 
 world's stage for a time, and so acted their daily parts that 
 they made a success of their play ? What is our own every- 
 day demeanor but the part which we play to express our- 
 selves, or the reverse, according as our humor dictates ? 
 So that, left to themselves, our small pupils had only to 
 imagine themselves the characters they represented, and 
 they immediately comported themselves as they fancied 
 those characters would have in the circumstances shown 
 in the play. 
 
 I have mentioned the arches of greenery used for "A 
 Midsummer Night's Dream." These were used again for 
 the Forest of Arden when the play was carried out in 
 school ; but whenever possible we had the play in the open 
 air, on the downs or under the trees in the playground. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 A GIRLS' PLAY 
 
 THE girls were so pleased with their own successful 
 readings of "As You Like It," that they deter- 
 mined to write a play, as the boys had done, entirely by 
 themselves, each character making her own speeches from 
 whatever authority she could collect material. They chose 
 scenes from the closing part of the life of Mary Queen 
 of Scots, and I will copy one of the girls' manuscripts 
 exactly as it was made. 
 
 EXECUTION OF MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS 
 Scene I 
 
 Enter Queen Mary and Ladies in Waiting. The Queen 
 seats herself at a table and the Ladies sit grouped at 
 needleiv<irk. A knock is Jieanl 
 
 Queen Makv. Go and see who that is knocking at 
 the door. 
 
 Elizabeth (Lady in Waiting). Yes, your Majesty. 
 
 \SJie goes to the door and talks in an undertone to some 
 
 one ojitside, then returns^ It is Lord Shrewsbury, and he 
 
 requires to see you, your Majesty. 
 
 Queen Mary. Tell him I cannot see him just at present. 
 
 109 
 
no THE DRAMATIC METHOD OF TEACHING 
 
 Elizabeth. [Goes back to doo?- and speaks to incsscn- 
 gci^ My lady says she cannot see you just at present. 
 
 Shrewsbury. But tell her my business is veiy impor- 
 tant, and therefore I must see her. 
 
 Elizabeth. [Ret?n'ning\ Madam, he says his business 
 is very important, so therefore he must see you. 
 
 Queen" Mary. [AftcrnuisiJig for a zvhilc] Well, then, 
 tell him I will see him. 
 
 Ejitc?' Shrewsbury 
 
 Shre'.vsbury. I am very sorry to tell you, madam, that 
 you are condemned to death. To-morrow at eight o'clock 
 you are to die. Therefore prepare yourself, madam. 
 
 Queen Mary. [Half faulting, speaks to the Ladies 
 who nui and support Jicr^ What does he say .? 
 
 Shrewsbury. I am very sorry to tell you, madam, that 
 you are condemned to death. To-morrow at eight o'clock 
 you are to die. Therefore prepare yourself, madam. 
 
 Queen Mary. Can it be true that the Queen of Eng- 
 land has consented to my death 1 
 
 Shrewsbury. It is true, madam. [He shows the war- 
 raiif] See, there is her signature ! 
 
 Queen Mary. I solemnly protest, with my hand on 
 this Testament [laying her Jiand on volume on the table\ 
 that I have never done anything that could prejudice the 
 welfare of the kingdom. 
 
 [Exit Shrewsbury after boiuing hnv\ 
 
 Queen Mary. [Rising'] Come, my ladies, supper — 
 the last, alas ! — awaits us. Do not weep for me ! 
 
A (;i RLS' PLAY I 13 
 
 Jean (Lady in Waiting). Oh, my lady, we would do 
 anything if only we could see you happy. 
 \^Exit Queen slowly ; the Ladies follow Jicr, iveeping] 
 
 Scene II 
 Queen Marv seated at a tabic. Ladies as before 
 
 Queen Marv. Go and fetch me my handkerchiefs. 
 
 Eliza r.ETH. Yes, your Majesty. \SJie brings them in 
 a box. The Queen turns them over and at last holds 
 ftp one^ 
 
 Queen Marv. I wall have this one with the gold 
 border to bandage my eyes on the scaffold to-morrow. 
 
 [Ladies sob alond^ 
 
 Queen Marv. [Poijiting to eaeJi one of her Ladies iti 
 tnrn as they sit around her'] To you, Jean, I leave all my 
 rings ; to you, Elizabeth, my jewels ; to you my dresses ; 
 to you my ponies ; and to you my money. Ask Bourgoin, 
 my physician, to attend and read my will. 
 
 Enter Bourgoin witJi the will 
 Bourgoin. I here bequeath all my jewels, dresses, 
 rings, ponies, money, and other things to my ladies in 
 waiting. \^He turns to the Queen] Will you sign it, 
 madam .^ [77/r Queen dips a quill pen in the ink, and 
 after pausing a moment signs it. The Ladies all eover 
 their eyes with their Jiandke^rJiiefs] 
 
 Bourgoin. You will need two witnesses, madam. 
 Queen Marv. Elizabeth and Jean, you will sign this, 
 please. {^Both Ladies eonie up weeping and sign it] 
 
114 THE DRAMATIC METHOD OF TEACHING 
 
 JeAxX. ^Falling on Jicr knees in front of the Queen] 
 Oh, madam, we would willingly give our lives if only we 
 could see you happy once more. 
 
 [Exit BouRGOiN after boiving. The Queen then rises 
 and goes off, her Ladies follozuing her'] 
 
 Scene III 
 
 Queen Mary, kneeling as if in prayer. A knoeking is 
 Jieard at the door and a bell strikes eight d eloek 
 
 Queen Mar v. Tell those intruders to wait a little. 
 Jean. Yes, madam, \llie Sheriff, bearing a luhite 
 ivand, p?ishes past Jier, and enters\ 
 
 Sheriff. Madam, the lords await you, and have sent 
 me to you. Are you ready } 
 
 Queen Mary. Yes, quite ready. Let us go. 
 \Shc rises from her knees. She ivalks zvith dijfieulty, so 
 tivo of her Ladies support her. A t the end of the room 
 she is met by the Earls of Shrewsbury and Kent. 
 The Earl of Shrewsbury orders the Ladies in 
 Waiting to stand baek. They refuse. Jean exelaims, 
 "No, never!" They eling to her dress and finally 
 fall on their knees. When they have sueeeeded in re- 
 moving the Ladies, the Queen walks on a few steps, 
 with dignity. She then meets Andrew Melvil, her 
 trusty serva t. He falls on Jiis knees, weeping'] 
 Queen Mary. Thank you, good Melvil, for your con- 
 stant fidelity. Tell my son all that you know and all that 
 you are about to witness. 
 
A GIRLS' PLAY II5 
 
 Melvil. It will be the most sorrowful message I ever 
 carried, to announce to the world that my sovereign and 
 dear mistress is dead. 
 
 Queen Mary. Thou shouldst rather rejoice, good Mel- 
 vil, that Mary Stuart has arrived at the close of her mis- 
 fortunes. Bear these tidings, that I die a true Scotchwoman, 
 a true Frenchwoman. Thou knowest that this world is only 
 vanity, and full of troubles and misery. May God forgive 
 those who have sought my death. The Judge of the secret 
 thoughts and actions of men knows that I have always 
 desired the union of Scotland and England. Commend 
 me to my son, and tell him that I have never done any- 
 thing that could prejudice the welfare of .the kingdom, or 
 his quality as king, or detract in any respect from our 
 sovereign prerogative. 
 
 Kent. [Reads tJic sentence aloud slowly^ You have 
 been found guilty of conspiring against the life of our 
 sovereign lady Queen Elizabeth, and against her realm; 
 therefore the sentence passed upon you is that your head 
 shall be severed from your body. 
 
 Queen Mary. I am a queen born, not subject to the 
 laws. I have never sought the life of my cousin Elizabeth. 
 
 Kent. \Looking at the crucifix in the Queen's hand'\ 
 It would be much better advised of you to have Christ in 
 your heart, and not in your hand, Madam. 
 
 Queen Mary. I cannot hold such an object in my 
 hand without my heart being attached to the sufferings it 
 represents. [ The tzvo Executioners approacJi and attempt 
 to remove her veil, but tJie Queen motions them away] 
 
Il6 THE DRAMATIC METHOD OF TEACHING 
 
 I have never had such rough valets before ! Ehzabeth and 
 Jean, I require you. [ With their help she revioves her veil 
 and outer dress'] I am not accustomed to do this before so 
 many people. \Her Maids sob aloud] Instead of weeping, 
 you should rejoice. I am very happy to leave this world 
 in so good a cause. \SJie turns to the other Maids] I give 
 you all my blessing. 
 
 Executioner. \^Kneeli7ig\ We ask your pardon, madam, 
 for the deed we are about to do. 
 
 Queen Marv. I forgive you, and all the authors of 
 my death. [Jean tJien bandages her eyes with the gold- 
 fringed handkerchief, and all her Maids ivithdraw to the 
 edge of the scaffold, iveeping. She tnrns tozvards the block 
 and kneels before it] My God, I have hoped in you. I 
 commit myself to your hands. 
 
 Executioner. God save Queen Elizabeth ! 
 
 Shrewsbury. And so perish all her enemies ! 
 . Kent. Amen ! 
 
 The girls, as before, made the necessary dresses and 
 properties, and in order to get these correct as to period 
 and fashion, read all the available literature on the subject. 
 Because Mary had declared herself to be a " good French- 
 woman," they utilized a skirt embroidered with fleurs-de-lis. 
 They copied her peculiar headdress carefully, using an old 
 bonnet shape for the purpose and edging it with pearl 
 beads. 
 
 I think the reader will agree that this was a veiy full 
 and successful attempt to put together a play to illustrate 
 
A GIRLS' PLAY 11/ 
 
 the period. Moreover, it was an excellent writing and 
 composition lesson, with plenty of transcription from vari- 
 ous books to give practice in the spelling of new or diffi- 
 cult words, and to help form the habit of reading for 
 reference and information. I may also add that the manu- 
 script from which I took the foregoing play was written 
 out from memory, the girl who wrote it having lost hei 
 first copy. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 LITERATURE 
 
 OF course the children could not lay claim to a very 
 extensive acquaintance with English literature if 
 they limited their dramatic readings to Shakespeare's plays 
 or Scott's historical novels. Their field of operations was 
 much wider, but their methods of working were still origi- 
 nal. They learned to recite such poems as " Charge of 
 the Light Brigade," " Ye Mariners of England," and 
 " Death of Nelson," and introduced them into their plays 
 — the last two into their play " Nelson," and the former 
 into "The Crimea." They selected a boy to recite while 
 the dead Nelson lay in state ; and he certainly made us 
 all see mental pictures. I have heard the school ask for 
 a fourth and fifth repetition of the " Charge of the Light 
 Brigade," that much-hackneyed school recitation ! It was 
 not hackneyed to them, of course ; and they always con- 
 cluded the piece by having the " Roll Call " of supposed 
 survivors, and introduced a realistic touch by letting the 
 last man stagger up just as his number was called, answer 
 his name, and fall dead. It is just these little touches that 
 children will add if they are allowed, and which make all 
 the difference between the prosaic " memory- work " repeti- 
 tions and the glorious, real, living Tccitations. 
 
 ]i8 
 
LITERATURE I I9 
 
 The girls, too, in this matter were very original in their 
 
 V 
 
 own way. In June, for instance, they would organize a 
 sort of "' Rose " play. On the day on which it took place 
 the room was tastefully decorated with roses of every sort. 
 The older girls selected a Rose Queen and called them- 
 selves Rose maidens. Then (and here m.y point comes in) 
 they found out at least one good poem or part of a poem, 
 or passage of poetical prose, from good standard authors, 
 and either sang or recited in turn before the "Queen," — 
 generally accompanied by soft music on the piano, — 
 choosing good classical compositions where possible. In 
 this way they " discovered " some charming old poems 
 which are not, as a rule, found in schools ; for example, 
 "The Rose had been washed, just washed in a Shower, 
 which Mary to Anna conveyed," and " The Rose upon 
 my Balcony." Of course they included "The Solitary 
 Rose " and any references to roses to be found in Tenny- 
 son, Wordsworth, Shakespeare, etc., finishing with " The 
 Last Rose of Summer" and the singing of a Sussex 
 folk song, " Rosebuds in June." 
 
 Children would often glorify their favorite poems in a 
 way of their own. One little girl invited a chorus of girls 
 to help her, and trained them to act in dumb show while 
 she recited Wordsworth's " Daffodils " in a most inspired 
 manner, to the accompaniment of soft music, generally 
 Mendelssohn's " Spring Song." The chorus would pre- 
 tend to be daffodils, dressed in yellow and green crinkled 
 paper ; and they swayed, or danced, or nodded their heads, 
 or went to sleep, or flashed, as the poem directed. All 
 
I20 THE DRAMATIC METHOD OF TEACHING 
 
 this was prepared and played directly after the afternoon 
 session — for many of the older pupils would beg to be 
 allowed to "stay in" after school hours and make up 
 their plays and invent new ones. 
 
 Of course they very soon discovered possibilities in the 
 works of Dickens. It had long been our rule to read the 
 " Christmas Carol " and other Christmas tales every year 
 just before Christmastide. Naturally when we commenced 
 "playing" our lessons, the "Christmas Carol" showed 
 its adaptability. The older boys and girls commenced by 
 acting the " Cratchitts' Christmas Dinner," and used to 
 enter most whole-heartedly into the spirit of the thing. 
 They were able to dress the piece more easily than their 
 historical plays, because the period represented. was more 
 modern. Bob Cratchitt wore a long white scarf, which 
 dangled below his waistcoat. He wore the black-tailed coat 
 which did duty for an officer's coat in the "Nelson" play. 
 They used to draw a table up in front of the school fire 
 on dull, dreary, wet winter afternoons, and revel in the 
 spirit of good humor and loving kindness which Dickens 
 designed to inculcate. 
 
 I am quite sure that in the years to come, when lessons 
 on vulgar fractions have been long forgotten and " cob- 
 webbed o'er," those afternoons and the lessons they taught 
 will stand out in relief from the pages of .memory. 
 
 If Shakespeare was good for their improvement in 
 English, so Dickens w^as their textbook for homely good- 
 ness. We who read and love Dickens know how magically 
 he constructs an "atmosphere" for us — how, like a silver 
 
LITERATURE I23 
 
 thread running through a string of pearls, goodness and 
 virtue connect all the emotions he stirs in us. So it was 
 with my younger pupils. They acted the " Christmas 
 Carol " every Christmas in their simple fashion, and all 
 felt better for it. From Tiny Tim they learned to sympa- 
 thize with all weak, afflicted things. They learned content- 
 ment and resignation from Bob Cratchitt, who earned but 
 " fifteen of his own namesakes every week, yet the spirit 
 of Christmas present blessed him." They learned cheer- 
 fulness and good- will from Scrooge's nephew Fred, who, 
 although " Christmas had never put a scrap of gold or 
 silver in his pocket," said "God bless it," and would keep 
 his Christmas humor to the last. Even Scrooge himself 
 had lessons to teach them — to abhor meanness and sel- 
 fishness ; to be merciful ; to use Christmas as a time for 
 putting away all grudges and quarrels, as well as for set- 
 tling up all debts ; above all, not to be afraid of reform- 
 ing thoroughly, when necessary, regardless of the sneers or 
 jeers of others. Fezziwig, too, bless his heart ! who could 
 "wink with his calves" in the good old Sir Roger de 
 Coverley dance and " never stagger," who danced with 
 twenty pairs of partners — "people who tlv;///^'/ dance, too." 
 Will the children ever recall these school years at Christ- 
 mas time without a smile and a tear for the " Fezzi wigs' 
 Ball," which they played so " really and truly" in the days 
 gone by ? The name Fezziwig will bring back to them 
 the fat, rosy boy (stuffed in the region of the waistcoat 
 with dusters to complete the illusion !) who sat up at the 
 spindle-legged desk, once the hermit's cell for Friar Tuck, 
 
124 THE DRAMATIC METHOD OF TEACHING 
 
 and beamed over spectacles, which sat with difficulty on 
 his snub little nose, while he called, " Hello, Dick ! Chir- 
 rup, Ebenezer ! " and we all settled down to enjoy such a 
 good time. 
 
 It was all real. Truly the page was no "dead letter," 
 but living spirit to us. How infectious was the motherly, 
 beaming smile of Mrs. Fezziwig, bedight in cap and rib- 
 bons, and how really sorry we all felt for "the girl who 
 had her ears boxed by her mistress," and " the boy who 
 was suspected of not having enough to eat." I feel con- 
 vinced that the mere act of playing and enjoying the 
 " Christmas Carol " was a true education to my pupils — 
 it drew out the latent sympathies in which they were not 
 naturally lacking. 
 
 And I am quite sure that the type of so-called educa- 
 tion which contents itself with such present " results " as 
 a piece of composition, immaculately penned and all cor- 
 rectly spelled, while it may exhibit a glaring paucity of 
 ideas, or is satisfied if it can show ' ' four sums right and 
 neatly worked," is a very poor pretense at educating 
 w^orthy men and women for the battle of life. Perhaps a 
 critic may say that the religious and moral side of the 
 children is attended to during the daily hour for religious 
 instruction. But if religion be not the guiding principle 
 of our daily life, for all day, it becomes worse than noth- 
 ing to us. It is impossible to shut away moral teaching 
 into a compartment of the mind. It should be freely and 
 openly diffused throughout the thoughts, to ' ' leaven the 
 whole lump." 
 
LITERATURE 12$ 
 
 Nature study, properly treated, can touch both senses 
 and emotions — can awaken an instinct leading up to na- 
 ture's God. There was a Great Teacher once who scorned 
 not to teach the highest and grandest truths through simple 
 parables on nature — who taught them graphically, in the 
 open air, from observation of the actual objects. So, too, 
 good literature can stir human emotions and guide and 
 school human passions — can prevent us from excess of 
 introspection, from dwelling on self ; and there is more 
 need for inculcating this love of nature and good literature 
 in the mind of the workingman's child than in that of the 
 child of higher station. In the latter case, the child may 
 properly be left to parents who, if they possess education 
 and culture, can look after the reading and moral training 
 of their own child. But parents of the working class have 
 no time, even if they have the ability, to direct their chil- 
 dren's reading. 
 
 Therefore I judged it to be of vital importance that 
 every one of my pupils should be given opportunity for 
 getting on good terms with our English authors. We did 
 not scorn the lighter vein, when it presented -itself in the 
 form of "The Pickwick Papers." I remember one real, 
 all-round " dunce " being reformed and becoming a com- 
 paratively bright boy through being cast for the part of 
 Mr. Winkle in scenes which the boys got up from the 
 early chapters of that book. It was quite a revelation to 
 us all to view the awakening, or rather the transformation. 
 The fact was that, rather than look ridiculous in the eyes 
 of his schoolfellows, he made a great effort to read and 
 
126 THE DRAMATIC METHOD OF TEACHING 
 
 master his " part," and, in doing so, discovered his own 
 powers, which from that time he cultivated and improved. 
 When leaving school he expressed a desire to possess a 
 copy of " The Pickwick Papers." He evidently did not 
 intend throwing aside his books, but had made a beginning 
 and meant to go on. 
 
 The girls were particularly fond of Louisa M. Alcott's 
 '' Little Women " — as, indeed, what girls are not ? They 
 acted as much of this book as was possible, becoming so 
 familiar with its contents that they could quote many of 
 the chapters by heart. A kind friend presented us with 
 copies of "Wood Magic " and " Bevis," both by Richard 
 Jefferies. These three books were, I feel sure, stories of 
 the authors' own childhood. They were tales of human 
 children, and they appealed, therefore, to human children. 
 The objection is often made by teachers of girls, when dis- 
 cussing ways and means of using the dramatic method in 
 school, that the difficulty is that there are only girls and 
 no boys for male parts. Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy easily 
 solved the difficulty, and in the story of their girlhood 
 one can find ample material for a start. After that, you 
 may trust the girls to be resourceful enough to find their 
 own ways and means.- 
 
 In the story of " Bevis " we have an account of how 
 two schoolboys ' ' played ' ' school ; how they played a 
 Roman battle ; how they manufactured a gun, a raft, a 
 boat, and went on a voyage of discovery round a small 
 lake, finding a real island and living on it ; which may all 
 sound commonplace enough as I have described it, but 
 
LITERATURE I29 
 
 which is very far from commonplace as written by the pen 
 of Jefferies in real ''boy" language. Our boys, on read- 
 ing it, were instantly fired with the desire to play it. I 
 must confess, that I was also ! Bevis's first craft was an 
 old wooden packing case, and his scene of operations a 
 brook near his house. Very good packing cases we had 
 in plenty in the school shed, and a brook within ten min- 
 utes of the schoolhouse. The packing cases were heavy, 
 and July days are often hot, but down to the brook we 
 hied us on the hottest day I have ever experienced. The 
 air quivered with heat, and not the slightest particle of 
 shade could we find — - not even a hawthorn bush. But 
 the spirit of adventure was upon us and would not be 
 quenched. A network of brooks and drains separates 
 our town from the seashore. These are spanned at inter- 
 vals by rough wooden bridges for cattle to cross from one 
 pasture to the other. Bridges have always a fascination 
 for children, and we speedily chose the neighborhood of 
 one of them for our base of operations. Naturally we had 
 to experiment a good deal before the packing case behaved 
 itself properly as a raft ; but when it did, and the first 
 passenger gently punted under the bridge, excitement ran 
 high. Soon off came boots and stockings, and we were in 
 the thick of a game. The raft went on voyages to all 
 kinds of places and the chorus sat along the banks to ex- 
 plain matters. One boy found his toes sinking into yellow 
 clay. '' Oh, this is gold ! " shouted he. " Then it must 
 be Africa," cried one of the chorus. " Where I have been 
 it is blue clay," said another. ''Oh, that's diamonds!" 
 
130 THE DRAMATIC METHOD OF TEACHING 
 
 quickly decided the chorus; "it is South Africa." The 
 high temperature supphed a reaUstic touch to the idea of 
 '" Afric's sunny fountains," and soon a '' South African " 
 game was in full progress, some of the little bare-legged 
 boys forming an " ostrich farm." 
 
 There was no lack of interest next morning when we 
 brought out the large map and the geography lesson began. 
 The mere mention of South Africa brought the knowing 
 little twinkles (which practised teachers recognize as their 
 most encouraging sign) into all those suddenly alert eyes ; 
 tongues were loosened and every point of fact regarding 
 that country was referred to the spot by the brooks where 
 we had played. New names and the new facts regarding 
 them were treasured up for naming special places by the 
 brookside, for we had hidden our packing-case rafts in 
 long reeds for future use. I can assure my readers that 
 the one book, " Bevis," had led to more than passing ac- 
 quaintance with good literature, for the book rendered aid 
 to the game, and, inversely, the game lent a halo to the book. 
 
 There was another book which became immensely pop- 
 ular with the children. It is called " Days before History," 
 and describes the life of a boy in prehistoric times. This 
 book provided games which lasted for months and filled 
 all the boys' playtimes and leisure hours. It appealed the 
 more forcibly to children because it dealt with the life of 
 a boy more particularly than with " grown ups." The boy 
 was named "Tig," and to this day the children remem- 
 ber their "Tig" games. They even built a shed, very 
 roughly it is true, in the lane outside the school and 
 
LITERATURE I3I 
 
 named it the " Tig shed." The wood was obtained from 
 the remains of an old disused gallery and its accompany- 
 ing desks. The boys supplied their own tools. At first 
 they had made a hut on the hillside in the real fashion of 
 Tig's relatives, by pulling down the lower branches of a 
 convenient tree and pegging them to the ground, calling 
 it their "rooftree." But they wanted to be near the school 
 premises ; so, utilizing the neighboring trees as much as 
 possible, they built a shed, where they played at prehistoric 
 times. • They read in their '' Days before History " how 
 the first cups and other utensils were made. So after a 
 long and diligent hunt they found a spot where the right 
 sort of clay was to be found, and set to work according to 
 the directions in the book. I need not tell how delighted 
 they were to mix and knead the clay with water, using 
 their hands, nor of the delightful mess they made on the 
 school floor in the region of the fireplace. They proved 
 by painful experience that prehistoric man had evidently 
 nothing to learn from educated folks on the subject of 
 pottery making without tools, for their first rough basins 
 cracked in the baking process, which took place in the 
 hot ashes piled over them. A second attempt resulted in 
 better-shaped cups, which would stand straight and hold 
 water. There was a great ceremony of drinking water 
 from the cup. Subsequently it was placed in the school 
 museum and often passed for a bit of real antique work. 
 
 There is very little difference between this game of 
 making prehistoric pottery and clay-modeling lessons in 
 school. But that bit of difference makes all the difference 
 
132 THE DRAMATIC METHOD OF TEACHING 
 
 in the world. It is a game, not a lesson. It is enthusiastic 
 (not to say impulsive!), not dull. It is voluntary, not forced. 
 It teaches self-reliance, not reliance on a teacher's initiative. 
 It is informal, not formal. 
 
 After we had played at being Stone Age folk, one can 
 imagine that more than a casual and passing interest 
 attached itself to some really good specimens of Stone Age 
 ax heads, flint scrapers, and arrowheads, which had for 
 some years reposed in the school museum. We realized 
 how much men had lost by civilization when we tried, 
 fruidessly, to chip a flint into an ax head — or into any 
 shape at all — much less to polish or grind it ! 
 
 Our attempts at prehistoric cookery met with greater 
 success. Having read directions from the history of Tig, 
 one of the boys smuggled a herring into school, while some 
 one else brought clay. The herring in its clay covering 
 was placed in hot ashes under the fireplace and allowed 
 to remain there during drawing-lesson time. A few pota- 
 toes, dug from the boys' own school garden, kept it com- 
 pany ; but this was an anachronism, since we all knew 
 that potatoes did not grow in England when Tig was a 
 boy. At playtime the herring was sampled, and, of course, 
 voted the best ever tasted — albeit the side nearest the fire 
 was charred. An unlucky visitor who chanced to call was 
 forced to taste the herring, and, being a man who had 
 roughed it in Australia, he did so with very good grace 
 indeed. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 GEOGRAPHY 
 
 THE geography lesson gave us no trouble to dramatize 
 and was particularly well adapted for being played 
 as a game. The geography game began by being played in 
 the desks with sand-modeling trays, and drawing in colors. 
 Children would model a county or part of a country and 
 cut out paper lighthouses, make paper boats and bridges 
 or paper animals, and place them standing upright in the 
 sand. Then, in turn, they would talk about them with 
 their teacher. Again they would make colored drawings 
 (of their own — each child originating according to his 
 own mental impressions) to illustrate the lessons on towns 
 or districts which had been given to them. For instance, 
 one child, to illustrate a lesson on Reading, had drawn a 
 large factory with horses and wagons outside. This, he 
 explained, was a biscuit factory. Another large building 
 appeared at the end of a roadway represented by two wavy 
 lines. This he had labeled a jail — and so on. 
 
 Our next step in the direction of geography games was 
 suggested by a little Grade III pupil. I discovered her 
 one wet dinner hour with the map of the world spread 
 out on the floor and a ring of small, eager children kneel- 
 ing around it. She had a little black doll in a tiny toy boat 
 
134 THE DRAMATIC METHOD OF TEACHING 
 
 on wheels, and she was pretending to bring it on a voyage 
 from South Africa to England. All the while she kept 
 up a string of sentences in squeaky broken English, sup- 
 posed to be spoken by the doll. 
 
 Incidentally and unconsciousl)' she was giving her small 
 audience a splendid idea of the various interesting things 
 and places passed, and even climatic conditions ; for she 
 made the doll shiver when he got into colder latitudes. 
 Funniest of all, when she landed him at the London 
 Docks, she produced a little tin toy railway train (ever so 
 many sizes smaller than the doll !) and, seating him on it, 
 rattled him off to a " woolen " town to buy a cloth over- 
 coat. Quickly some one suggested : ' ' Can we play it again 
 to-morrow and then I '11 bring a little overcoat ? I' 11 make it 
 to-night." Another followed with : " I '11 make him a whole 
 suit." They were as good as their word, and on the fol- 
 lowing morning the whole class joined in the game with 
 great gusto. The little doll was rattled all over the map 
 of England and bought presents at every stopping place. 
 Afterwards, of course, he was treated to a voyage home, 
 by a different route from that taken when traveling to 
 England. He had to show his friends his presents and 
 tell where he bought them. Notice how, unconsciously, 
 the children made use of repetition to strengthen memory. 
 They were really repeating the manufactures of English 
 towns — only they did not do it in the bad old " learning- 
 strings-of -facts " way. 
 
 We played this and other doll games until we quite 
 naturally drifted into substituting real live pupils for the 
 
GEOGRAPHY 135 
 
 dolls, and, once more hanging up the maps, pretended 
 that various parts of the schoolroom, or playground, or 
 neighborhood were the physical features of other places. 
 This I called the geography game proper, and it originated 
 in the classroom set apart for Grades I and II. Their 
 first game dealt with the zones. They pretended that the 
 north side of their room was the north pole — it hap- 
 pened to be the coldest side of the room, and the fireplace, 
 being on the south side, made a very appropriate warmth 
 for the "equator." The "arctic region" was inhabited by 
 boys who pretended to be Esquimaux, Polar bears, seals, 
 walruses, or reindeer. Other children pretended to be ice- 
 bergs. Jack Frost, frozen sea, etc. A bright boy and girl 
 were picked out and allowed to be travelers in the Arctic 
 region, where they held conversations with the Esquimaux, 
 during which the latter described the conditions under 
 which they were supposed to live — climate, seasons, etc. 
 The next day they varied the game by getting into a big 
 ship — the ever-useful soap box on wheels — and being 
 jammed in the ice floes. 
 
 Their method of representing icebergs was novel, being 
 merely two rows of little girls with their white pinafores 
 over their heads. They were quite glad to be anything, so 
 long as they were " in the game," and busied themselves 
 by making up a long speech about the iceberg, finish- 
 ing with an original verse in which, I remember, "ice 
 and snow" rimed conveniently with " Esquimaux." The 
 Esquimau boys had a little scene of their own, pretending 
 to break holes in the ice and spear seals and fish, the two 
 
136 THE DRAMATIC METHOD OF TEACHING 
 
 latter being impersonated by small boys who " swam " under 
 the desks, the tops of which represented ice. The inkwell 
 holes were the breathing holes for the " seals." 
 
 On the third day the "iceberg" was allowed to break 
 away from its surrounding ice under the more genial air 
 of spring and travel to Newfoundland. En route it collided 
 with a " ship," which it wrecked. Of course the "wreck " 
 was the outcome of the " fog " which sprang into being on 
 the approach of the iceberg to the shores of Newfoundland. 
 The " fog " was composed of little girls waving their pina- 
 fores up and down. Then Newfoundland fishermen bravely 
 came to the rescue of the wrecked Englishmen and rowed 
 them ashore in a boat. The little girls who had been a 
 fog now^ most obligingly became " codfish drying in the 
 sun." This time the ever- versatile pinafores were dangled 
 over backs, and their owners stood in a row with their faces 
 to the wall. Of course the rescued men, while being accom- 
 modated in the fishermen's hut, asked questions about all 
 that they saw. First they noticed the " codfish drying in 
 the sun," and the fishermen told them that they caught 
 about " one hundred and fifty millions of codfish in one 
 year." The game then went on in a kind of dialogue : 
 
 Traveler. Are cod the only fish you catch ? 
 
 Fisherman. Oh, no ! We catch plenty of salmon in 
 the rivers, too. 
 
 Traveler. Do the fogs trouble you on the island ? 
 
 Flsherman. The fogs do not come any nearer than the 
 Grand Banks out there, unless a southeast wind blows. 
 
GEOGRAPHY I37 
 
 Traveler. Do you grow pretty much the same crops 
 as we do in England ? 
 
 Fisherman. Well, barley and oats grow everywhere, 
 but not wheat. We have a very even and moist climate, 
 so we grow^ grasses regularly. 
 
 Traveler. How large is this island ? 
 
 Fisherman. Some say it is much larger than Ireland, 
 and it is the nearest American land to Ireland. 
 
 Traveler. I daresay you are proud to belong to the 
 Dominion of Canada } 
 
 Fisherman. \^Indignantl)f\ That is just where you Eng- 
 lishmen show ignorance. We do not belong to Canada. 
 We are a separate colony — Britain's oldest colony ! 
 
 Traveler. Oh, I am sorry I made such a mistake, 
 but I shall make no mistake if I say what a splendid 
 harbor you have here. 
 
 Fisherman. Ah! you may say that with truth. The 
 harbor of St. John's is one of the very best on the Atlantic 
 coast. [^Hcre the rest of the Class stamp loudly on the 
 floor\ 
 
 Traveler. What is that t 
 
 Fisherman. That's the thirty-two pounder. It will go 
 off every half hour in foggy weather. [Class viake pro- 
 longed siren Jioot\ And that's a compressed air trumpet 
 which blows every minute to warn ships. 
 
 The reader can, no doubt, trace the influence of the 
 textbook on geography in this dialogue. The point is, that 
 the dry matter is broken up into dialogue, and, by means 
 
138 THE DRAMATIC METHOD OF TEACHING 
 
 of action, movement, interest, and repetition is rendered 
 easy to memorize. 
 
 Naturally, the first game being a success, another was 
 soon in progress, and this time the travelers set out for 
 the warm end of the room, otherwise the equator and the 
 torrid zone. This time also a boy represented the Emperor 
 Equator, and the torrid zone was his sun palace. Children 
 impersonated elephants, tigers, and serpents. The trav- 
 elers were supposed to be bitten by the latter and to fall 
 ill, etc. They found large butterflies and mosquitoes. 
 One of them caught the fever. One part of the room be- 
 came a jungle, very hot, with no rain for a long time, and 
 then suddenly torrents of rain (imitated by children tap- 
 ping one finger on the palm of the other hand like the 
 pattering of rain). The travelers got into swampy ground, 
 where they found the hippopotamus rolling in the muddy 
 pools, and the rhinoceros. Of course the boys thoroughly 
 enjoyed representing these animals. It was also quite to 
 their taste to be native bearers. They rigged up two 
 bamboo poles with sacking stretched across them and 
 gave the travelers rides across the swampy ground in fine 
 style. During the whole time dialogue was kept up and 
 the various "animals" acted their parts — the travelers 
 asking questions in the style of the previous game and 
 the natives answering them. Crossing the rivers the trav- 
 elers had hairbreadth escapes from crocodiles and alliga- 
 tors. Now and again they stalked and shot an antelope, 
 and a boy with a long neck was selected for a giraffe. The 
 school palm was supposed to be a date palm. Some one 
 
C^EOGRAPHV 139 
 
 brought real dates, which the travelers pretended to gather 
 and eat. As each child was expected to represent some 
 person or thing if possible, they were sometimes puzzled 
 to find something which had not already, been chosen by 
 a companion ; and to show how well they looked up their 
 subject, they chose, in addition to the things already men- 
 tioned, aloes, coffee, gold and gold dust, gorillas, chim- 
 panzees, parrots, and ostriches. 
 
 The other zones furnished games of a similar sort with, 
 of course, the little variations and originalities which chil- 
 dren will introduce into the games they play spontaneously. 
 
 Grade III next essayed the geography game, and (here 
 comes in the benefit to be derived from allowing the 
 scholars to make their personality felt in the choice of 
 means of expression) their game had more of real play in 
 it than of drama. Their first game they styled " Coal and 
 Iron Towns." From their geography books they picked 
 out the names of all the towns in England specially noted 
 for coal or iron produce. These they printed with colored 
 paints on drawing paper, in type large enough to be read 
 by all the children in the class at once when held in front 
 of their desks. The name of the town was printed very 
 large, and underneath appeared the names of the articles 
 for which the town was noted. This occupied but a very 
 short time when each child undertook one ticket. Then 
 they chose boys or girls to hold the tickets in front of 
 the class, having first placed them in positions as nearly 
 as possible approaching the correct geographical locations 
 on the map. The director of the game appointed himself 
 
I40 THE DRAMATIC METHOD OF TEACHING 
 
 a merchant in an ofifice, with a telephone and a type- 
 writer. The telephone, by the way, was a long string with 
 a tin lid fastened at each end. He waited until the whole 
 class had been given time to master fairly well the names 
 of the towns and their produce. Then all the " towns " 
 turned their tickets blank side outwards. The "merchant" 
 telephoned to the "office" (otherwise the class) to "send up 
 Mr. So-and-so," naming one of the boys. Mr. So-and-so 
 duly came up and received his orders. Perhaps they were : 
 " Mr. So-and-so, you are to go to all the ' iron ' towns of 
 England and bring me samples of iron from each. I have 
 written to the principal firms and told them that you will 
 call for samples." 
 
 Mr. So-and-so then had to board a train (a boy's back, 
 of course !), which stopped at every town. If it were an 
 "iron" town, he was to get out, get a sample of iron, 
 and go on again. If it were not, he must sit still in the 
 train until it moved off again. 
 
 The train would start amid much screeching, whistling, 
 and steam-engine noises. Pulling up at the first "station," 
 which would perhaps be Newcastle-on-Tyne, the boy hold- 
 ing the name card would call out " Newcastle ! New- 
 castle ! " Should Mr. So-and-so sit still and impassive, the 
 train would presently move on again ; but should he, from 
 ignorance, alight from the train and demand, "A sample 
 of your iron, please," the holder of the name card would 
 triumphantly turn it round and show "noted for coal, ship- 
 building, machinery, chemicals, glass." A telephone mes- 
 sage would be flashed along to the master : ' ' Your man 
 
141 
 
GEOGRAPHY I43 
 
 wasting his time at Newcastle." Should he pass an 
 "iron" town and fail to alight, a telephone message would 
 be sent: "Your man neglected to call at Middlesbrough." 
 
 The " master " made a note of all these little messages, 
 and when his " man " came to report himself and show 
 his samples, his errors would be pointed out to him and 
 a certain sum docked from his wages. He was some- 
 times told that his services as traveler would not be re- 
 quired again. The fun of the game came next ; for, as the 
 "man" returned from the "master's" office, the "towns" 
 drew up in two rows facing each other, and he had to 
 "run the gauntlet" to the tune of "Newcastle for coal; 
 Middlesbrough for iron," to the accompaniment of playful 
 blows with handkerchiefs. The game would progress until 
 all the chorus had taken their turn at being traveler. 
 
 The class next made out tickets for a game combining 
 "cotton and woolen" towns of England, and played it in a 
 similar way, afterwards making up another game including 
 all the other manufactures which they could find out about. 
 As soon as the manufactures were so well known that the 
 chorus made very few^, if any, mistakes, the class attempted 
 more dramatic geography. 
 
 They would take one county or district and try to repre- 
 sent it in the form of a play. They followed the order of 
 their textbook on geography and began with the northern 
 counties, and not, as one might have supposed, with Sus- 
 sex or London. Their dramatic rendering of Cumberland 
 and the Lake District was interesting and amusing. The 
 choms of litde girls before referred to in this chapter knelt 
 
144 THE DRAMATIC METHOD OF TEACHING 
 
 on the floor, forming an irregular oval as nearly like the 
 shape of Lake Windermere as the space would permit. 
 Each one of them then delivered a speech about the lake. 
 On the whole, the speeches were fairly correct and had 
 the merit of being original. Here is one : 
 
 " We are the lake fairies. We live on Lake Winder 
 mere. It is a beautiful lake of clear water studded with 
 islands. It is the longest, largest, and most beautiful lake 
 in the district, and I am sure it well deserves the name of 
 ' Queen of the Lakes.' It is fourteen miles in length, and 
 in one place it is forty fathoms deep. Look there towards 
 the north and see how it is surrounded by grand peaks 
 and mountain masses. Perhaps you can see the ' mighty 
 Helvellyn.' From its southern end it sends out the River 
 Leven, which runs into Morecambe Bay." 
 
 A party of the older pupils of the class now pretended 
 to be Lancashire people out on an excursion to the Lake 
 District. They arranged a railway station at each end of 
 the room, and a train (two soap boxes — one for engine 
 and one for carriages!); then, after buying tickets, with 
 cardboard coins, they set out for Keswick Station. After 
 alighting, but before going to view the lakes, they decided 
 to look at the black-lead pencil factory and to go down a 
 lead mine. This was splendid fun. They slung a stout 
 rope over one of the schoolroom beams and fastened an 
 old waste-paper basket at one end, several boys holding 
 the other. A small boy now volunteered to descend the 
 mine in the cage. He got into the basket and held on 
 tightly with both hands. Then the boys hauled him up 
 
GEorxRAniY 145 
 
 to the beam and afterwards slowly let him down again. 
 By this time some of the boys had converted themselves 
 into miners, all pretending to work diligently. The visitor 
 was shown over the mine — asking questions all the while 
 
 and on leaving had a lead pencil given to him as a 
 
 souvenir. Leaving Keswick (which they always connected 
 in their minds with lead pencils, the mine, and the waste- 
 paper basket ! ), they again took train to Windermere. 
 Here they had rigged up a grand hotel with the magic 
 sign ''Teas provided " outside. I wondered what this had 
 to do with geography, but later I found out their ingenuity. 
 The travelers admired the lake, hired a boat and were 
 rowed about in it, talked to the boatman and to some 
 fishermen whom they passed, talked and listened to the 
 lake fairies (one of whose speeches is recorded above), and 
 finally went to the hotel. Here they decided to sleep for 
 the night and, sending for the proprietress, they asked if 
 they might have fresh fish for supper. 
 
 Landlady. Oh, yes ! I will send my man to catch 
 some for you. 
 
 Traveler. Does he catch them in the lake ? 
 
 Landlady. No, in the river which runs from the lake. 
 
 Traveler. What river is that .? 
 
 Landlady. The Leven. 
 
 Traveler. Which will be the next nearest lake for us 
 to visit ? 
 
 Landlady. I should say Coniston Water, and there 
 you may see Ruskin's house. 
 
146 THE DRAMATIC METHOD OF TEACHING 
 
 Traveler. Well, if that neighborhood has scenery 
 as grand as this, Ruskin knew where he could study the 
 beauties of nature. 
 
 Landlady. Oh, the lakes are not only beautiful, they are 
 useful, also. There is one called Thirlmere, a very beautiful 
 and clear lake. It supplies Manchester with drinking water. 
 
 Traveler. But Manchester must be at least seventy 
 miles away ! 
 
 Landlady. I'm not good at figures, but I know the 
 water is carried to Manchester in pipes. 
 
 Traveler. Yfakcs out map and, after finding Thirl- 
 mere, moves his finger aside^ I see that Derwent Water 
 is quite near Thirlmere, and here is Skiddaw marked to 
 the north of it. 
 
 Landlady. Some people think Derwent Water the 
 prettiest lake. At all events, the Derwent River is the 
 only one of importance in this district. But Grasmere and 
 Rydal Water are really the most interesting places to visit. 
 
 Traveler. And why is that ^ 
 
 Landlady. Because so many poets and authors have 
 lived there and written about them. You have heard of 
 Wordsworth .? The last years of his life were passed at 
 " Rydal Mount," a beautiful house, and he is buried in 
 Grasmere churchyard. 
 
 Traveler's Little Boy. Yes, father. We have 
 learned a good many of Wordsworth's poems and read 
 a good many more. One is called "The Cumberland 
 Beggar," and another is " The Pet Lamb." There are 
 many about Duddon River too. 
 
GEOGRAPHY I47 
 
 Landlady. There 's hardly a rock or stream or nook 
 about this part which he did not visit and write about. 
 My grandfather often met him out on his long tramps 
 over the hills and dales. Coleridge, a great friend of his, 
 Southey, and De Ouincey also lived in this neighborhood, 
 and. wrote about it. 
 
 Little Boy. Oh, dad, I know something that Southey 
 wrote. It was " The Falls of Lodore." Do take me to 
 see the falls. They must be wonderful. 
 
 Little Girl. When the Spanish Armada came to Eng- 
 land, the people lighted a beacon fire on Skiddaw. We 
 read about it in a piece of poetry called " The Armada," 
 by Macaulay. 
 
 Traveler. Well, we will go to bed now, and to-morrow 
 morning the first thing, we will do what Wordsworth did : 
 we will tramp over hill and dale, and see all we can. 
 
 Landlady. Ah ! that 's if it does n't rain, sir ! 
 
 Traveler. Ha, ha ! That 's a sly hit at the climate. 
 I know you are noted for having the rainiest climate in 
 England. What causes it ? 
 
 Landlady. Some say it is the moist winds from the 
 Atlantic. 
 
 Traveler. I suppose the mountains attract the great 
 rainfall and cause the great lakes at the same time. 
 
 Landlady. Well, we are not so badly off as the people 
 at Seathwaite, near here. They say it rains there every 
 day of the year but one ! 
 
 Traveler. Well, now to bed, and let us all wish for a 
 fine day to-morrow. 
 
148 THE DRAMATIC METHOD OF TEACHING 
 
 This would end the first scene, and the children would 
 next proceed on their "tramp," pretending to visit the 
 places discussed and making up little conversations with 
 the people they found there. They bought picture post- 
 cards of the " Lake District," and appointed a boy or girl 
 to sell them at each place for cardboard coins. Some of 
 their remarks were very apt. For instance, when they came 
 to some supposed rough, rocky mountain paths, they pre- 
 tended to find a primrose, and said: "That must be 
 Wordsworth's ' Primrose of the Rock.' " Then they found 
 a little nook (in the playground which was now their 
 " Cumberland ") with a violet growing in it. It was really 
 a rockery which the)- had made years before for their first 
 nature study. One said : " Oh ! there 's a beautiful water- 
 fall. See how it sparkles and foams!'- And another 
 chimed in, " Look at those great bowlders ' fleeced with 
 moss,' and those shady trees dipping into the water!" 
 " Oh, I am sure," added a third, " this is the nook which 
 Wordsworth wrote of, where ' the violet of five summers 
 reappears and fades unseen by any human eye.' " 
 
 On another afternoon they arranged a most realistic 
 visit to the Falls of Lodore, to take place in their play- 
 time, and prepared for during their dinner hour. Some 
 time before this they had dug a deep trench along one 
 side of their playground in order to drain off the stagnant 
 water which interfered with play and drill. At the lower 
 end of the trench they had knocked a hole in the boun- 
 dary wall and inserted a drainpipe, which, when the trench 
 was full, caused a miniature waterfall into the field outside 
 
149 
 
GEOGRAPHY I 5 I 
 
 the wall. The boys dug away the bank under the drain- 
 pipe to emphasize this. But on the day of the great visit 
 to the Falls of Lodore the weather was cloudless and 
 there was every indication that we should have an empty 
 trench. But there had to be a Falls of Lodore ; so a 
 council was held, and the boys overcame the difficulty. 
 They carried out an old blackboard, placed it against the 
 wall over the trench in a slanting position, and heaped 
 o:reat stones all over it — to hide the fact that it was a 
 blackboard, and also to give an appearance of realism to 
 the "splashing and dashing" mentioned in the poem. 
 One boy filled a tin bathtub with water. At the appointed 
 time, when the travelers, armed with the book containing 
 Southey's poem, arrived at the spot, the boy (who had 
 filled the bathtub and raised it to the top of the wall, 
 where he sat astride holding it) slowly tipped it. over, and 
 behold ! the Falls of Lodore. 
 
 The same part of the playground was admirably suited 
 to the purposes of the older pupils when playing " Switzer- 
 land." They amplified the blackboard idea and carried 
 out the top of a movable platform, which they placed slant- 
 wise against the wall and styled a " glacier," and which 
 they climbed with great difficulty and much display of 
 alpenstock, ice ax, rope, and guides. Needless to say, the 
 " guides " had to be well up in their subjects and know 
 the names and peculiarities of all the "peaks" of the play- 
 ground. The older pupils could construct really good and 
 interesting plays and did not make the textbook source 
 of their information quite so obvious. They had evidently 
 
152 THE DRAMATIC METHOD OF TEACHING 
 
 learned the " art of concealing art." Not only did they rig 
 up a glacier, but they named it and placed it correctly with 
 reference to other physical features. They even had ad- 
 ventures on it. Falling over the edge was tumbling into 
 a crevasse. One of their number fell over, and the guides 
 and others performed a gallant rescue. The Swiss game 
 was not complete without an avalanche, which came while 
 the tourists (who were the life of the game) were sleep- 
 ing in a hillside cottage. Some one who possessed a 
 carved wooden model of a Swiss cottage brought it to 
 school. After that the "cottage" was always the model 
 on a projecting table under which the inmates sat. The 
 Swiss girls (having practiced considerably by themselves) 
 treated us to Swiss " jodeling." Herds of cows and goats 
 were driven along, and the fact elicited from the peasants 
 that the milk was to be condensed and sent to England 
 — probably retailed in our own town. Samples of Swiss 
 milk chocolate were taken (and evidently found up to par !) 
 and questions asked as to the size, government, education, 
 language, and history of Switzerland. 
 
 Of course the older girls could easily arrange "properties" 
 for this game, and they were always giving us little sur- 
 prises. On one occasion it was a nice little dairy that 
 they had rigged up, with clean-scrubbed, red flowerpots 
 for dairy pans. On another occasion it was the decoration 
 of the Swass cottage with gentians and "edelweiss" (make- 
 believe, of course). The boys made up a St. Bernard 
 game with two of their number as St. Bernard dogs with 
 little tin pails strapped in front of them. It was noticeable 
 
GEOGRAPHY 153 
 
 that they always exhausted every available authority in these 
 geography games, and, as they themselves used to say, " If 
 we went over to those countries, we should not feel at all 
 strange now ; we should know what to look for." 
 
 When we played " France" the girls provided a little 
 surprise. Of course, being quite a rural school in an agri- 
 cultural district, French was not a subject in our curricu- 
 lum. But the girls had been much interested in the little 
 lessons in French given in the "Children's Encyclopedia," 
 and they surprised us with a few little phrases such as : 
 oni, madame ; an rcvoir; ban jour, and others relating to 
 the voyage, the weather, etc., all of which I welcomed as 
 stimulating ambition and a step on the right road. 
 
 Canada was found to be particularly well adapted to 
 form the subject of a play of this kind, and several games 
 were made up by the older pupils on the different parts 
 of the Dominion. The important feature was that the 
 pupils avoided monotony by not treating any two districts 
 quite alike. 
 
 In their first Canadian game they dealt with the "lum- 
 bering" district, some of them impersonating animals, 
 set^ders, and Indians. The latter wore striped blankets, 
 rugs, or tablecloths to disting-uish them from settlers and 
 had fearful and wonderful headdresses made of feathers 
 sewed on wide tape. Sometimes they even took the trouble 
 to paint their faces. We possessed one pair of real Indian 
 shoes decorated with the peculiar colored grasswork of 
 the North American Indian, which were worn by the most 
 important " chief." The Indians would hunt the beaver, 
 
154 THE DRAMATIC METHOD OF TEACHING 
 
 sometimes shooting but more often trapping them. They 
 were made to go on the "warpath," uttering strange whoops 
 and shrieks and waving tomahawks and scalping knives 
 (cut from stiff cardboard). They would then make their 
 exit, and the lumbermen would enter. A small tree would 
 be brought into school and fixed upright in a tub. Then 
 the lumbermen would appear and mark out trees to be cut. 
 The trees would be chopped down, and, in conversation, 
 the men would let us know that the trees were being cut, 
 but could not be floated down the river until the ' ' freshets 
 started. These, they explained, were sudden risings of the 
 rivers which occurred very quickly in the springtime, owing 
 to the sudden thawing of the snow and ice. The ice was 
 supposed to break up, and the men would pretend to push 
 the logs into the water. This was great fun, for one boy 
 brought some long pieces of chains, and we pretended to 
 throw the logs into the stream and form rafts. Then the 
 boys gave us a realistic bit of acting, jumping on the 
 rafts and guiding them along by pushing the river bank 
 (floor !) with poles. They really did manage to slide their 
 logs along, much to the joy of the enthusiastic onlookers. 
 Then amid tense excitement they made their logs jam, 
 and the men pretended to break the ice. Some of their 
 number were " injured " at this point and had to receive 
 " first aid " from their companions. They would bring out 
 in their dialogue the names of the rivers, as they floated 
 down them, and of the ports to which they would presently 
 come. The logs would be sawed into "deals" and shipped, 
 the boys who were lumbermen quickly becoming men 
 
c;p:o(;rapii V 157 
 
 working the steam saws at Ottawa. While the men were 
 chopping down the trees, in the " winter " scene, traders 
 would come and bargain for the wood. The talk would 
 take place in the "shanty," rigged up with easels, black- 
 boards, and benches. Then other boys dressed as Indians 
 would steal in and listen outside the shanty. They would 
 offer skins to the lumbermen and exchange them for corn, 
 tobacco, beads, and whisky. Some of the rougher lumber- 
 men would pretend to lie in wait for a trader to rob and 
 kill him ; after a scuffle he would escape on his rough 
 horse. While this was going on the Indians would loot 
 the shanty and steal away. 
 
 What always struck me most forcibly was the fact that 
 nothing — the amount of preparation, the arrangement of 
 multitudinous details, the memorizing of long parts, the 
 making of copious notes — ever seemed to be looked upon 
 as the least trouble. The truth was that all these things con- 
 stituted healthy brain and bodily activity for normal children 
 and developed them equally in all directions. It seems to 
 me that it is only when the balance of nature is upset that 
 boredom, fag, and "it 's-too-much-trouble-itis " sets in. And 
 even adults never confess to weariness when they want to 
 do anything : pleasure outbalances the other sensations. 
 
 When Australia was to be the subject of the play, the 
 form was again slightly altered. This time it was the story 
 of an emigrant. The emigrant's father and mother, an 
 aged couple, were discovered sitting by the fire with their 
 two sons. From their conversation it was made clear that 
 the elder son was off to Australia on the morrow. The 
 
158 THE DRAMATIC METHOD OF TEACHING 
 
 aged father said : "So you 're off, my lad, to-morrow, 
 thirteen thousand miles — 't is a long way to sail ! And 
 do ye tell me, lad, that you '11 be right round t' other side 
 of the world, with your feet pointing toward ours ? How^- 
 ever will ye keep from falling off ? " 
 
 The mother chimed in here with: "Oh, dear! Oh, 
 dear ! To think I brought ye up for this — to go walking 
 around on your head ! " The two sons then explained 
 everything as well as they could — about the world being 
 round and revolving on its axis, and why people neither 
 stand on their heads nor fly off into space. The second 
 scene showed the elder son leaving Southampton, while 
 his parents and brother waved him a tearful farewell. The 
 chorus described Southampton and also the journey, as 
 the " ship " slowly proceeded down the room. Maps were 
 produced here — on the children's own initiative — and the 
 places stopped at, as well as the port where the emigrant 
 was to land, were correctly named and described. Arriving 
 in the new country, the settler pretended to hunt for work. 
 He got addresses of farmers who w^anted hands from a 
 boy who represented an agent. Calling on the first farmer, 
 he asked for work. 
 
 Farmer. Where do you come from .? 
 
 Emigrant. Oh, from Sussex. 
 
 Farmer. Ah ! you are just the lad for me. Do you 
 know anything about sheep ? 
 
 Emigran'j\ Why, yes ! The South Downs are noted 
 for them. 
 
GEOGRAPIIV 159 
 
 Farmer. Then perhaps you can shoot a rabbit or two ! 
 I wish you 'd help me to get rid of a few. I am fairly 
 overrun with them. 
 
 Emigrant. Ah! many 's the young wild rabbit I've 
 brought back for supper at home in Sussex. 
 
 In conversation like this the "farmer" engaged the 
 "emigrant," and the conditions, climate, flora, fauna, 
 etc., of the district were pointed out to him. 
 
 Another scene showed the emigrant, after several years 
 had elapsed, with a sheep farm of his ow^n. His "brother" 
 from Sussex arrives on the scene, having come out to assist 
 him. On his first day the emigrant and his brother take 
 a ride round part of the farm (splendid opportunity to ride 
 on another boy's back !), and we learn a little more, for as 
 they ride they converse. 
 
 Visitor, ^\l"ly, \'ou seem to have no grass here. 
 
 Emigrant. Ah, we are having a long, dry season, and 
 it has been long enough to make every blade of grass dry 
 up and wither away. 
 
 Visitor. Then how do you feed your hundreds of 
 sheep ? 
 
 Emigrant. Oh, they eat those scrubby-looking desert 
 shrubs that even the drought cannot kill. It is astonishing 
 how nature provides those plants with the means to resist 
 the dry weather and burning heat. 
 
 Visitor. You appear to be glad of rain and do not call 
 rainy weather "bad weather" as we often do in England. 
 
l6o THE DRAMATIC METHOD OF TEACHING 
 
 Emigrant. Ah ! you should see it when it docs rain. 
 Torrents — bucketsful ! Rivers overflowing — floods every- 
 where — sheep drowned ! It is a treat to stand out and 
 soak in it. 
 
 Visitor. Those are fine trees. What are they } 
 
 Emigrant. Eucalyptus, or gum trees. Some of those 
 are two hundred fifty feet high and as much as twenty 
 feet round the trunk. Those pretty trees near the house 
 are acacias, or w^attles. The eucalyptus trees look strange 
 to you because their leaves are vertical instead of paral- 
 lel to the ground, and they shed their bark instead of 
 their leaves. 
 
 V^isiTOK. 1 know why tlieir leaves are twisted so. It is 
 to present the smallest surface to tlie scorching sun, other- 
 wise the leaves would be burnt up and the tree would die. 
 There are dwarf beans which grow in our gardens at home 
 in Sussex that turn their leaves so during the hottest part 
 of the day for the same reason. 
 
 Emigrant. I fancy there 's another reason. Leaves so 
 turned allow every drop of rain to fall close to the tree 
 and keep none from the ground. Besides, the leaves in 
 that position ofler no lodging place for dust, which clogs 
 the pores of leaves, and we sometimes have dreadful sand- 
 laden winds, brickdust winds they are called. 
 
 Visitor. You have some queer animals about ; what- 
 ever is that creature .? 
 
 Emigrant. Oh, our native animals are queer, and, like 
 the native plants, of no use to man. That 's a kangaroo 
 with a young kangaroo in its pouch. I '11 show you a 
 
GEOGRArilV l6l 
 
 platypus — an animal which has feet and bill like a duck 
 and which lays eggs. We have beautiful birds — one is the 
 lyre bird — but you will not hear the song birds of old 
 England, What would n't I give to hear a missel thrush 
 sing again ! 
 
 Visitor. Well, at any rate, I see one familiar friend 
 here ! 
 
 Emigrant. Who 's that ^ 
 
 Visitor. The Scotch thistle. 
 
 Emigrant. Yes, however it got here, it means to stay. 
 The government is spending pots of money in trying to 
 get rid of it. Probably it came over with the Scotch cattle 
 and won't go until they do ! 
 
 Visitor. There go more rabbits ! Upon my word the 
 whole place is alive with them. 
 
 Emigrant. Yes, in ten years they did $15,000,000 
 worth of damage in Victoria, and the sparrows are nearly 
 as bad. But we send millions of rabbit skins to England 
 to be used in making felt hats and furs. 
 
 Visitor. When I came to the railway terminus on my 
 way to Southampton to join the ship, I saw a lot of frozen 
 sheep sewed up in white cloths ready to be put in the train 
 for London. The cloths were stamped with the name 
 '' Barnes & Downey." 
 
 Emigrant. Well, I never! That's the name of the 
 firm to which I send my sheep. They are both Sussex 
 men, and it so happens that I expect them to-day. There 's 
 a trap driving up to the gate of our farmhouse now. You 
 will soon meet an Englishman. 
 
l62 THE DRAMATIC METHOD OF TEACHING 
 
 {They trot back to the end of the room, e ailed tJie farni- 
 Jioiise. Barnes and Downey drive in, seated in a 
 soapbox " buggy y They shake hands witJi the Emi- 
 grant and his Brother] 
 
 Visitor. Why, I remember )ou ! Are n't )ou old 
 Teddie Barnes, who went to school with me, and used to 
 help us act our lessons so well ? 
 
 Barnes. Oh, yes ! But you mustn't call me that now, 
 you know, for I 've grown to be a man. 
 
 Visitor. [Langhijig] Ah, well, I 'd like to make closer 
 acquaintance with you ! 
 
 Downey. Well, what haYc we for dinner to-day — 
 sheep, mutton, ram, or lamb .? 
 
 Emigrant. ['To younger Brother] That's an old joke 
 of ours, but it is pretty nearly true ! 
 
 Visitor. Well, in old England it seems to be mutton 
 and beef, beef and mutton. 
 
 Then, in course of conversation, it is shown that the 
 "emigrant," who is now called a "squatter," owns ten 
 thousand sheep, and as the pasturage is scantier than in 
 England, this means many thousands of acres of land. 
 The " shepherds " are mounted men who spend all day in 
 the saddle. The "agents" tell of the hundreds of frozen 
 sheep and bales of wool which pass through their hands 
 yearly. So the game ends for the day, to be varied on 
 another occasion by taking the divisions of Australia sep- 
 arately and showing, among other things, the famous 
 "Broken Hill" silver mine. 
 
GEOGRAPHY 163 
 
 Just as the children were interested in playing their 
 ''Australia" games a friend visited the school, fresh from 
 a tour in New Zealand. Such an attentive audience surely 
 never listened to geographical lecturer before ! Those 
 eager children had quickly grasped the fact that there 
 was "copy" — otherwise games — to be secured, and no 
 sooner was the visitor's back turned than they were busy 
 concocting a "New Zealand" game. They planned out 
 three scenes, namely : 
 
 1 . New Zealand and visit of Captain Cook ; mur- 
 der of Captain Cook ; cannibals eating human flesh ; 
 introduction of pigs ; natives converted from canni- 
 balistic tastes, owing to superior flavor (!) of pigs. 
 
 2. Early settlers civilizing the natives. 
 
 3. Present-day conditions ; sheep farms ; descrip- 
 tion of flora and fauna ; frozen-meat exports ; native 
 customs as shown by funeral ceremony of Maoris, in- 
 cluding Maori "crying lady" (who shed tears from a 
 small bottle of water hidden in a large handkerchief). 
 
 This game included some fine realistic effects, for one 
 boy brought a tame jackdaw which did duty for the 
 quaint native wingless bird, the apteryx. As a grand finale 
 the boys constructed a model volcano, which " worked " 
 satisfactorily with the aid of a heap of sand and some 
 fireworks. 
 
 New Zealand would not have been complete without 
 some references to hot springs and mud lakes. The way 
 the boys introduced them was funnv. The\' supposed 
 
164 THE DRAMATIC METHOD OF TEACHING 
 
 themselves to be travelers mounted on ponies, and rode 
 up and down the room, pointing out the scenery in this fash- 
 ion : ' ' What a splendid bit of scener}' ! What is that snow- 
 covered mountain?" "Oh, that is Mount Cook, named 
 
 after Captain Cook, who Oh — h — h ! " Here the 
 
 "pony" reared suddenly, almost throwing the boy off its 
 back, and refused to go forward. Its rider tried to force 
 it on. The other riders dismounted and ran toward him. 
 One of their number fell prone on the floor and appeared 
 to struggle, as though in the water. " Help, help, drag 
 me out!" he yelled. "What is it .^ " they all cried, as 
 they pulled him out. "A mud lake, I expect," answered 
 the victim. '' What was it like ? " they all asked. " Hot," 
 replied the muddy one; "/should have been cooked if 
 I had stayed in there long." The whole -game, in fact, 
 teemed with incidents extremely funny to an adult spec- 
 tator (although perfectly serious so far as the pupils were 
 concerned). For instance, when " Captain Cook " was 
 overwhelmed by the "cannibals" and just about to die, he 
 called out to his men : " Escape for your lives, men ! You 
 can do me no good. Farewell ! Tell them in England 
 that I died a 7ioblc man .'' " As if Captain Cook would 
 have found time to brag, or that there could be anything 
 noble in being ignominiously eaten by degraded canni- 
 bals ! Not that this was in itself funny ; it was the melo- 
 dramatic strut and pose of the juvenile "Cook" which 
 almost convulsed one. 
 
 The " savages " were made to speak a kind of broken 
 English, interspersed with squeaks and " wows." They 
 
GEOGRAPHY 165 
 
 devoured " human " arms made of brown paper, stuffed. 
 When persuaded to abstain from such dehcacies, in favor 
 of stuffed brown -paper pig, they had an eye to the 
 main chance, for they said: "No let us eatee mans any 
 more. We catchee mans and eatee them. But p'r'aps some 
 day mans catchee us and eatee ?is. Not safe. Better all 
 eatee pig ! " 
 
 Very comical, too, was the boys' attempt to show how 
 natives were civilized. They pretended to chop down trees 
 for wood with which to build houses. The "natives" gath- 
 ered round and watched them from a distance. Soon the 
 "setders" beckoned to the natives and held out colored 
 cloth and strings of beads, etc. The natives pressed for- 
 ward, saying, " Me .? Me .? " and holding out their hands. 
 The settlers handed them the axes and pointed to the 
 trees, making signs to them to "chop-chop," and then point- 
 ing to the beads, etc. But the savages, taking the axes, 
 turned to attack the settlers, who, after a struggle, drove 
 them back and once more showed them what they wanted 
 them to do before they could have the beads. At last they 
 made them do the work and duly rewarded them. Observe 
 that the childish idea of civilizing was by means of teach- 
 ing handicraft, or, shall we say, of utilizing handicraft to 
 the advantage of the more civilized. 
 
 The funeral ceremony of the native Maoris had been 
 described at length by our visitor, but much had been left 
 to the imagination, as, for instance, the spoken words. 
 The boys enacting the scene blacked their faces — shall 
 I confess it } — bv rubbing their hands up the chimney. 
 
1 66 THE DRAMATIC METHOD OF TEACHING 
 
 They laid the dead ''chief" on a bench and then ceremoni- 
 ously brought mats instead of wreaths, — again I hesitate, 
 but truth will out, — the school doormats, which they placed 
 over the chief ! (I must remark that the mats were well 
 shaken.) They laid the "spear" of the dead chief be- 
 side him. The head of this spear was a hollow beef 
 bone, to remind us that there is a lack of minerals in 
 New Zealand, and that the cannibals utilized human bones 
 instead. The children also brought to school other small 
 bones, which they pretended were native needles, fish- 
 hooks, and other things formed from human bones. From 
 the "Children's Encyclopaedia" they found how to cut 
 out boomerangs. Imagine their joy on discovering a real 
 boomerang in our Free Museum ! 
 
 The part which taxed their ingenuity considerably was 
 reached when the chiefs attending the funeral had to 
 speak. The "crying lady" (albeit a boy!) could perform 
 her part to a nicety, so she was told to howl loudly when- 
 ever the chieftains failed for lack of words. What they 
 did say, I remember, was something like this : 
 
 First Cmief. Oh, he was brave and he was noble ! 
 Second Chief. He had the heart of a lion. 
 Third Chief. And the legs of a fox ! 
 Fourth Chief. He had the appetite of an ostrich. 
 First Chief. He slew many enemies. 
 Second Chief. Yea, he slew his thousands ! 
 Third Chief. He could throw the boomerang. 
 Fourth Chief. He could climb the gum trees. 
 
GEOGRAPHY 16/ 
 
 All this was punctuated by solemn marches to and fro, 
 while spears were rattled on the ground at intervals, and 
 the '' crying lady " howled in the pauses. 
 
 Then the chiefs had a feast cooked in the native way, 
 as described to them by the visitor. 
 
 When w^e had finished our " New Zealand " games I 
 realized that, personally, I knew far more of that place 
 than I had ever known before. Of course names of places 
 had been duly noted, as well as manners, customs, and his- 
 tory. And while mentioning history, it may interest my 
 readers to know that our " Captain Cook " managed to 
 introduce, in an ingenious way, the history of the places 
 he explored. In calling at Tasmania he said : " Oh, this 
 island was discovered by the Dutch. I remember that 
 Tasman called here. He named it Van Diemen's Land." 
 And when he "sighted" the next land, he said: "This 
 must be the land discovered by those clever Dutchmen 
 again. They called it New Zealand, after their home." 
 All this was brought out in a conversational way by the 
 " Captain" and his " First Mate." 
 
 Occasionally, to be quite sure that all they said was 
 understood, the " producers " of the play would call upon 
 the chorus to " come out and see if you can go through 
 our parts." 
 
 Co?i/d ihGy ? It was just a case of rushing for the chief 
 parts, regardless of the difficulties. Of course this only 
 spurred the older pupils on to make their parts fuller and 
 more nearly perfect, and in this way a healthy rivalry was 
 promoted between the different classes. 
 
l68 THE DRAMATIC METHOD OF TEACHING 
 
 Frequently, too, the older pupils would write out in 
 their recreation time little geography plays, abridged and 
 adapted from their own plays, for the lower-class pupils. 
 I would allow them to conduct these, — quite by themselves, 
 — and so a new school "tone" or tradition was formed. 
 I would often hear the younger pupils saying, "When I 
 get up in the ' big room ' I am going to be Captain Cook, 
 and you can be a cannibal," and such things. 
 
 In my opinion, the best result of this method of study- 
 ing geography was the way in which the pupils — left to 
 themselves — connected geography and history details with 
 real persons and real deeds. When they studied Africa, 
 they played games about Livingstone and other explorers, 
 and in this way gradually unfolded the history and geog- 
 raphy of Africa, 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 ARITHMETIC AND COMPOSITION 
 
 ARITHMETIC may become a delightful subject when 
 ^ taught largely by means of plays. We first made 
 our arithmetic games correlate with the week's nature 
 study, taking care that they did not become haphazard 
 and purposeless. For instance, it is quite possible, when 
 the weekly nature lesson happens to be on " acorns and 
 oak trees " and the arithmetic lesson deals with the " six 
 times table," to blend the two into a game rather than 
 to play some purposeless game with acorns alone. The 
 teacher may be quite methodical — as it behooves one to 
 be in a subject like arithmetic — and yet, with the art of 
 concealing art, she may prevent her method from obtrud- 
 ing itself upon the pupils' mental vision. 
 
 In a subject like arithmetic it is necessary that the 
 teacher should "lead" a little more than in other subjects. 
 From its very nature it is evident that the children cannot 
 be allowed a perfectly free hand, or chaos would result. 
 But after a good beginning has been made, they may quite 
 safely be allowed to help and suggest in the preparation 
 of plays almost as much as in such subjects as geography 
 and history. Here is an example of a simple game which 
 
 Grade I children helped to " make up " : 
 
 169 
 
I/O THE DRAMATIC METHOD OF TEACHING 
 
 Six boys pretended to be oak trees. They filled their 
 pockets and hands with acorns. They pretended that their 
 outstretched arms were branches. Another boy represented 
 the north wind, and ran round puffing and shaking the 
 "trees." Down fell the acorns ! Harr)^ pretended to be a 
 little boy with a basket gathering acorns. Two other boys 
 were pigs and ate up the acorns which were left. They 
 merely pretended to eat, and in reality pocketed them. 
 
 " How many have you eaten .? " asked the teacher. 
 
 The class wTote down the answers of both boys. 
 
 " How many have you, Harry ? " 
 
 Harry duly counted and his answer was jotted down. 
 
 " Now, how many are left on the trees ? " 
 
 This was noted, too. 
 Then, if Harry gathered so many, and the pigs ate a 
 total of so many, and so many were left on the trees, how 
 many acorns were there at first ? ■ How man)^ fell from the 
 tree ? " etc. 
 
 Then all the class worked out the answers and wrote 
 down the sums in the correct form. 
 
 Tables can easily be learned when " played " with 
 bunches of snowdrops or other flowers. A little girl sell- 
 ing snowdrops at so much a bunch with so many in each 
 bunch — say six (the children having made up one bunch 
 each) — may teach her companions the " six times table " 
 unconsciously. 
 
 Girl, Buy my snowdrops to-day, lady ? Only one cent 
 a bunch ! 
 
ARITHMETIC AND COMPOSITION 171 
 
 Lady. How many are there in a bunch ? 
 Girl. Six_, lady. 
 
 Lady. Then I will have two bunches and that will make 
 twelve snowdrops. 
 
 Enter Mother ivitJi three little Children 
 
 Girl. Snowdrops, lady 1 Only one cent for a bunch 
 of six ! 
 
 Mother. Oh, how pretty they look ! Yes, I will buy 
 a litde nosegay for each of my three children. How many 
 snowdrops shall we have altogether then } 
 
 Children. Three sixes — that will be eighteen. 
 
 Mother. And if I have a bunch, too t 
 
 Children. Four sixes ! Why, that will be twenty-four. 
 [Girl goes to greengroeer s sJiop kept by small Boy] 
 
 Girl. Can you take some of my snowdrops to-day, sir } 
 You can have them at five bunches for four cents — six 
 in a bunch. 
 
 Boy. Yes, I '11 have four cents' worth. Looks a small 
 lot for thirty snowdrops, does n't it ? 
 
 Girl. You can count them, sir. [ Waits'] All correct } 
 
 Boy. If I had six bunches, it would n't look much more, 
 and yet there would be — let 's see — thirty-six flowers. 
 
 And so on, varying the conversations until the table is 
 complete. The same game may supply a good mental 
 arithmetic lesson in dealing with short money sums. 
 
 We all know how, as children, we delighted in playing 
 with dough or putty. Acting on this knowledge, I always 
 
1/2 THE DRAMATIC METHOD OF TEACHING 
 
 taught the earhest lessons of arithmetic with the aid of 
 some flour and water dough. With this children can play 
 at making little loaves. It is not difficult for a child to 
 master the fact that "ten units equal one ten," when he 
 has made ten little dough loaves out of a piece of dough 
 the same size as one big loaf. He soon learns addition 
 and subtraction if he collects all the "little loaves" and 
 makes one big loaf out of every ten small ones, for he 
 sees the "answer" before him in the concrete. 
 
 The next game naturally suggests itself, namely, play- 
 ing store. Our first store was a dry-goods shop, and I 
 left the girls to prepare the details. They threw a great 
 deal of enthusiasm and energy into their work and pre- 
 pared a game which interested all of us for several lessons. 
 They made cabinets and chests of drawers with the aid of 
 cardboard boxes, using brass buttons for handles and mak- 
 ing the drawers so that they could be pulled in and out. 
 Fathers and brothers became interested and sent worn-out 
 silk ties and frayed collars for the " Gendemen's Depart- 
 ment." Mothers sent treasures in the shape of any small 
 garments, now out of use — all washed clean — for the 
 Ready-made Department. " One of the older girls achieved 
 a triumph, for she spent several evenings plaiting raffia or 
 mat (such as is used in tying up lettuce) in a good imitation 
 of straw plait. The "plaits," when sewed together, made 
 splendid French creations in dolls' hats, especially when 
 plumed with chickens' feathers. Later she became more 
 ambitious and made hats large enough for children to wear. 
 These the "mothers," who were prospective purchasers, 
 
ARITHMETIC AND COMPOSITION 1/3 
 
 tried on their "' children's " heads and bargained for. The 
 saleswomen displayed the charms of the hats, and the 
 cashier at the desk took the money and gave change 
 — using cardboard coins, of course. A feature of this 
 game was the set of real billheads, such as are used 
 by real stores, which were supplied me by a well-known 
 firm for advertisement. 
 
 From some source or other the children procured the 
 long strips of white and colored paper which paper hangers 
 cut off wall paper, called trimmings. These they made up 
 into neat rolls and styled ribbons or tapes. One girl care- 
 fully cut out white paper " embroidery " by folding the 
 strips several times and then cutting nicks and curves 
 which, when the paper was unfolded, showed an imitation 
 of a lace pattern. Others begged from the dry-goods 
 stores the ribbon rolls with white paper interlinings (the 
 paper which is rolled up with the ribbons on the roll) of 
 various widths. The clerks in the stores, sympathizing 
 with the object for which the rolls were intended, kindly 
 saved both paper and rolls for the children, who colored 
 these " ribbons " by means of crayon and paint. The 
 object of all this trouble, they explained to me, was to 
 enable them to ask for various colors and lengths, and be 
 served properly without too much make-believe. When 
 real ribbon was used, it could not be cut and then used 
 again. With paper an exact length could be measured, 
 cut, and taken away. A yard measure was fixed on 
 the counter (desk) by means of drawing pins, and by its 
 aid the children mastered the diflficulties of yards, halves. 
 
174 THE DRAMATIC METHOD OF TEACHING 
 
 quarters, and eighths. They received practice in calculat- 
 ing the prices of different lengths at so much per yard, 
 in making out the bills correctly, and in giving the correct 
 " change." 
 
 To add the necessary touch of realism the girls borrowed 
 the school screen (an old four-fold one), so that they could 
 have a proper door to open and shut. From the top corner 
 of this door they hung a hand bell on string, so that 
 each " customer's " arrival was duly announced by the 
 tinkling of the bell, and everything was quite proper and 
 " shoppy." I hardly need say that, since all this took place 
 immediately in front of the class, there was no need for 
 the teacher to tell the children to " pay attention," nor 
 did she need to have any fears that the class was not thor- 
 oughly keen about adding up the various sums when they 
 paid for their " goods." The pupils would not have been 
 real children if they had not been desperately anxious to 
 catch the cashier giving the wTong change. 
 
 A miniature post office, with tiny note paper and envel- 
 opes, stamps, telegram forms, and postal orders, gave rise 
 to another game, w^hich combined the writing of letters 
 (composition), directing of envelopes, a little geography in 
 the correct placing of the various towns, and arithmetic. 
 
 Land measuring with a real chain made a good game 
 for the older boys, who by this means actually measured 
 off and made a wheat field (to scale) in the playground. 
 After watching it grow they had a real harvest (one boy 
 brought his tame rabbit and hid it in the cornfield, so that, 
 when the corn was cut, a real rabbit might be found !) and 
 
ARITHMETIC AND COMPOSITION 1/5 
 
 got a neighboring farmer to have their wheat threshed 
 with his. The grain which he sent back they measured 
 and then reckoned by proportion the amount which might 
 have come from an ordinary-sized wheat field — prices, 
 profits, etc. Further, they sent the bag of grain to the 
 miller's to be ground, and the girls baked a loaf of bread 
 out of the resulting flour. Could boyish enterprise do 
 more ? And, remember, the wheat field was planted on 
 what had previously been hard, flinty playground — beaten 
 down by generations of little children with sturdy legs and 
 good strong boots ! The young pioneers removed about 
 two tons of flint and marl, with which they repaired the 
 lane leading to the school, and filled the space with road 
 drift and leaf mold of their own collecting. Thus the 
 wheat field was quite a serious game, such as bigger boys 
 would find to their taste. 
 
 Liquid measure was attacked by means of a milk shop, 
 with (do not laugh !) chalky w^ater for milk. Sea sand, 
 when dry, answered admirably for sugar, and when wet 
 might be cut out for butter, etc. So pounds, ounces, and 
 drams soon presented few difficulties. 
 
 This short account by no means disposes of the arith- 
 metic games, but it outlines a few^ of the most typical ones. 
 We found out that very few children were naturally accu- 
 rate when using weights and scales, but not a few corrected 
 themselves of carelessness and clumsiness by these means, 
 so that we were learning something besides arithmetic. 
 
 On ''shopping" mornings the pupils would arrive much 
 earlier than usual, shortly after 8 a.m., and on my arrival 
 
176 THE DRAMATIC METHOD OF TEACHING 
 
 I would find the "store" set out finely, looking quite like 
 a real shop, with lines hung with goods on display, every 
 window ledge spread with goods, and the proprietor or pro- 
 prietress — positively bursting with importance — ticketing 
 goods and generally taking stock. 
 
 The older girls invented a game to improve composition 
 and teach letter writing. Its plot was briefly this : A mer- 
 chant, seated in his office, soliloquizes on his need of an 
 office boy. He decides to advertise in a local paper, and, 
 taking up his pen, writes an advertisement enumerating 
 the qualities he expects to find in the boy. He talks all 
 the while he is writing, so that the class "hears" his letter 
 being written, and all jot it down as he speaks. (This kept 
 all the class employed, and really was an exercise in dicta- 
 tion as well.) After sealing, addressing, and stamping the 
 envelope, he dropped it into our tiny post office. Another 
 boy, who was postman, collected it and delivered it to the 
 office of the newspaper. There the editor read it aloud, 
 and, in dumb show, the advertisement was printed, the 
 newspapers were given out to several small newsboys (who 
 ran about crying, "Paper! Paper-r-r ! "), and were duly 
 bought by different boys supposed to be looking for situ- 
 ations. Three of these decide to apply for the position, 
 and we follow the writing and composition of their letters, 
 as was done with the merchant's letter. The boys were left 
 quite to themselves to compose, and those who were wait- 
 ing to write, went outside the door, so as not to hear the 
 letters of the others. All these letters were posted and de- 
 livered, and the merchant read them aloud in his office. 
 
ARITHMETIC AND COMPOSITION 177 
 
 He selected the best and wrote letters appointing an inter- 
 view. The boys came and were questioned, etc. Finally, 
 he engaged the one who wrote the best letter — as regards 
 spelling, composition, and writing. The class used to help 
 him in his choice from the letters they had jotted down. 
 \\1ien the game was finished the teacher would turn the 
 blackboard, on the back of which she had also written 
 the letters, and, in a short talk, would point out defects or 
 mistakes. The object of making the class, as well as the 
 actors, write all the letters was that they might be better 
 prepared, when their turn to be clerks came, to write an 
 intelligible letter without wasting time. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 NATURE STUDY NEWLY APPROACHED 
 
 EVEN nature study, which we had long made full use 
 of in the form of direct stud}^ of nature, w^as newly 
 approached by the children when the}' took matters in 
 hand. They first made up a form of game which would 
 supply the place of a nature ramble on the mornings when 
 the weather was unfavorable for a real ramble. 
 
 One of the boys would impersonate the schoolmaster. 
 A few of the other children would pretend to be flowers 
 then in season and stand at intervals down the room, 
 holding in their hands some specimens of the flower they 
 impersonated. The rest of the class were the " class (of 
 pupils) out for a ramble." They formed in twos and, set- 
 ting out from one end of the room, arrived at the first 
 " flower." On one occasion this happened to be a sweet-^ 
 pea. The following dialogue then took place : 
 
 Pupil. Oh, here is a pretty sweet pea hanging over 
 this garden fence ! 
 
 Sweet Pea. He is wrong. I am not Jianghig over it 
 at all ! I climbed up here on purpose to look over at the 
 sun. If he tries to pull me down he will find I am holding 
 on quite firmly. 
 
\ i n'"{ }i4 r- 
 
 79 
 
NATURE STUDY NEWLY APPROACHED l8l 
 
 Second Pupil. Good morning, pretty flower ! We want 
 to know more about you. Can you tell us anything? 
 
 Schoolmaster. Look well and carefully at the flower 
 and it will tell you its secrets. 
 
 Sweet Pea. [/;/ a JiigJi-pitcJied, iveak voice] I belong 
 to a very large family. There are over four thousand seven 
 hundred of us ! 
 
 Children. [/;/ cJioriis\ Just fancy ! 
 
 Sw^eet Pea. My family were always rather helpless, 
 for they never grew a strong, upright stem among them. 
 Years ago Queen P^lora took pity on them and sent her 
 court physician to examine their poor weak backs. He 
 invented a way to hold their heads up by fitting them out 
 with some little ropes to twine round a firm support — just 
 as poor cripples have crutches. Now they are able to hold 
 themselves up and climb mucli higher than most garden 
 flowers. 
 
 Third Pupil. I know one reason why you want to 
 climb so high. 
 
 Sweet Pea. You may guess, and I will tell you if you 
 are right. 
 
 Third Pupil. You want to shoot your seeds as far 
 away as possible in all directions. I remember you twist 
 your pods in two spirals, giving a little jerk and twist at 
 each turn, and so shoot your seeds out. If you are higher 
 up, the seeds, of course, shoot farther. 
 
 Sweet Pea. Very good guess, little boy ! I believe 
 you are right. But now, little visitors, look at my tendrils. 
 Can you guess what they are and wliere tliey came from } 
 
l82 THE DRAMATIC METHOD OF TEACHING' 
 
 Fourth Pupil. I think I can guess. They grow where 
 leaves ought to be, and they look like " leaf bones " with- 
 out the " flesh." Were they once leaves .? 
 
 Sweet Pea. Clever boy ! Yes, they are the remains 
 of leaves. But instead of doing the work of leaves, they 
 now work at clinging and holding on tightl)-. 
 
 Fifth Pupil. But you have a veiy funn\- stem. It is 
 more like a leaf than a stem. " 
 
 Sweet Pea. I wonder whether some little boy or girl 
 can explain that. Think hard, and then try. 
 
 Sixth Pupil. I know. When the green "flesh" of 
 some of your leaves stopped growing, there was then less 
 leaf work being done ; and you did not want /(^ss nourish- 
 ment to help you climb, but more ! So the material of 
 which those leaves would have been made was used to 
 make your stem wide and flat, so that it could do the work 
 of a leaf. 
 
 Sweet Pea. Right again ! You see, nature never 
 wastes anything. 
 
 Schoolmaster. Do you ever have any exciting times 
 here in the garden ? 
 
 Sweet Pea. Just at present there is the Sweet Pea 
 and Blue Cornflower race on. 
 
 Pupils. Oh, tell us about that ! 
 
 Sweet Pea. Well, the White Sweet Pea and the Blue 
 Cornflower wanted to find out which could grow the taller. 
 The Blue Cornflower took great pains to strengthen her 
 stems, for she knew how the strong winds blow even in 
 June. The Sweet Pea waited for the Cornflower to grow, 
 
i8- 
 
NATURE STUDY NEWLY APPROACHED 185 
 
 inch by inch ; and then, artfully throwing out a tendril, 
 she wound it securely round the Cornflower and drew 
 herself up level with her rival. Look ! You can see for 
 yourselves, White Sweet Pea has thrown all kind feeling 
 to the winds and has reared her head quite a foot above the 
 Cornflower, and has cruelly twined her tendrils round even 
 the Cornflower's blossoms, forcing them to support her. 
 
 Schoolmaster. I have known some children like that. 
 They will let others work and learn for them, and, instead of 
 using their own brains and powers, they borrow from others. 
 
 The class would then pass on to the next flower, and 
 another dialogue would take place. These plays were 
 always the children's own. Generally the dialogue was im- 
 promptu, and went on in a kind of debate, during which 
 many interesting things were discovered. For instance, 
 in the early springtime one of the children impersonated 
 the hazel catkin, and to illustrate the way in which the 
 catkin is first stiff and almost upright, but afterwards limp 
 and pendent, she held a string of beads pressed up so 
 tightly on the string that they could be held in an upright 
 position. Then she relaxed the string and showed how 
 it immediately hung downward. 
 
 In the short specimen play which I have quoted, the 
 "schoolmaster," in conjunction with the "flowers," had 
 prepared his matter beforehand. But, none the less, the 
 play was their own. 
 
 In connection with their nature study, and as a variant 
 of the "Ramble" play, the girls used to make very pretty 
 
l86 THE DRAMATIC METHOD OF TEACHING 
 
 ''Fairy" plays, introducing stories on nature, which had 
 been compiled from their nature study for the week. Gen- 
 erally these were written in verse, each fairy talking in 
 couplets composed by herself. Into these plays they would 
 weave the Morris dance, and generally they would borrow 
 the folk music for their couplets. 
 
 One such game was called " Spring." A girl repre- 
 sented Queen Flora asleep in an empty garden. Suddenly 
 a bright little girl, dressed to represent Sunshine, sprang 
 in, touched the sleeping Queen Flora with her wand, and 
 said : "Awake ! I am the Fairy of Springtime, and I come 
 to bid you awake ! ' 
 
 The queen slowlv got up, and, seating herself on a 
 throne (chair with curtains draped over it), said : " Call 
 Fairy Aconite." Crinkled paper had been freely used in 
 getting up costumes for the little crowd of "spring flowers " 
 — correctly called by the queen in the order in which the 
 spring flowers are expected to arrive. Each "fairy" had 
 prepared a verse descriptive 'of her own personality and 
 peculiarities, which she either said or warbled. When all 
 were assembled, a dialogue ensued, summing up all they 
 knew of spring and spring flowers ; any verses of good 
 poetry from standard authors bearing on the subject were 
 repeated, something original in the wa\- of dances or 
 tableaux was arranged, and the "fairies" tripped off. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 MANUAL WORK 
 
 MUCH stress is now being laid on manual occupa- 
 tions in school, and, as I have previously remarked 
 in this book, I nearly always found that the children's 
 games connected themselves naturally with some form of 
 handwork. I deemed this sufficient for children of the 
 elementary-school age ^ that they should be able to use 
 their fingers and hands without awkwardness in making 
 for themselves such things as could not be more economi- 
 cally bought. This also had the double advantage of tend- 
 ing neither to spoil any one trade nor to neglect unduly 
 any other. I have described how the children built their 
 own shed when they played being "Tig," and how they 
 excavated flint and marl from their playground to form a 
 garden. In this way they formed a large vegetable garden 
 in which the)' grew wonderful marrows, beans, peas, pota- 
 toes, cabbages, etc. They also planted cuttings of fruit trees, 
 begged from their fathers, and in time had a very good 
 fruit garden, with gooseberries, raspberries, black currants, 
 strawberries, a peach tree, and a young apple tree. When 
 they needed a glass seed frame, they made a crude one 
 out of a packing case. Later, to encourage them, we bought 
 one out of the school funds. Our object was not exactly 
 
 187 
 
l88 THE DRAMATIC METHOD OF TEACHING 
 
 to teach children hving in an enUghtened country Hke 
 England that they must make, by tedious amateur proc- 
 esses, everything they needed. To that, on principle, I 
 objected. I merely wanted to see how they set about to 
 make something which would answer their purpose sup- 
 posing they had not the wherewithal to buy the correct 
 article. In the same w^ay they made a little wooden fence 
 for their vegetable garden (subsequent to a nocturnal visit 
 from a cow, who ate up all their young cabbages and 
 trampled everything else !) out of some old desks. To do 
 them justice, the posts of that fence were "w^ell and truly" 
 driven home, for they stand there to this day. 
 
 Besides all this, the boys gradually made little semi- 
 circular plots for separate flower gardens all round the 
 playground, and in time converted a strip of ground under 
 a south wall into a very fine herbaceous border, wath an 
 extremely good collection of flow^ers for every season, 
 including some especially fine hollyhocks of every color 
 and description. Thus the children's nature study called 
 forth the accompanying manual work of simple carpentry 
 and gardening, although these subjects ivere not tajigJU. 
 
 The girls had their own form of handwork. Naturally 
 this consisted chiefly of some branch of needlew^ork, cro- 
 chet, or knitting. Occasionally it took the form of cook- 
 ery. At Christmas time they made ''Christmas puddings," 
 which were boiled and partaken of by the whole school on 
 the day of breaking up for the Christmas holidays. 
 
 At another time pancakes were made in school, and, 
 after being fried (each girl taking part by being allowed 
 
MANUAL WORK 1 89 
 
 to beat the batter and fry one cake), they were eaten with 
 great gusto. Other informal cookery included cake mak- 
 ing, everything except the actual baking being done in 
 school (the baking had to take place in the kitchen of the 
 teacher's dwelling house), bread making, simple puddings, 
 a molasses tart, and other delightful things. All these 
 "dainties" were needed for games and were made as part 
 of the play. On one occasion the girls wanted something 
 more elaborate to answer the purpose of a wedding cake. 
 I therefore showed them how to ice a cake, letting them 
 assist me. One of the girls who assisted profited by the 
 lesson, for she went home and practiced it again. Less 
 than a year afterwards she gained a prize for an iced cake 
 in a competition open to the count}\ A few years later 
 she made and iced her own wedding cake. I tasted it and 
 can testify that it left nothing to be desired — but another 
 helping. 
 
 In their needlework the girls did a good deal of doll 
 dressing, and the garments thus made were always cut out 
 correctly to scale, being quite practical affairs in miniature. 
 I never limited them as regards the " fancy " stitches, if 
 they liked to use them. The trimmings were knitted by 
 the children themselves, which led them to appreciate 
 daintiness and neatness, and promoted a desire to make 
 garments and lace for themselves as well as for the dolls. 
 I am now convinced that children learn to dislike needle- 
 work only when it is presented t(j them in the form of 
 large, unwieldy garments of ugly appearance, with long, 
 tiring, monotonous seams. With miniature garments they 
 
190 THE DRAMATIC METHOD ()E TEACHINC; 
 
 get variety, and more quickly see a finished result of their 
 labors. We permitted the use of the sewing machine for 
 certain work in school — notably the long, tedious seams. 
 The girls frequently dressed a doll, making for it a com- 
 plete outfit suitable for a young working girl, even to out- 
 door garments and fashionable hats, and doing all the 
 work, except the buttonholes, on the sewing machine. If 
 I allowed them a free hand, it was delightful to find how- 
 many dainty little knickknacks they would make — tiny 
 pocket handkerchiefs beautifully hemstitched, with the 
 dolls' initials worked in the corner. 
 
 Sometimes we would play at dressmakers' shops, and 
 little girls would come to be measured. Patterns of gar- 
 ments to measure would then be drafted and fitted, amid 
 the criticism and advice of the onlookers. This gave rise 
 to investigations into prices and quantities of material ; 
 and, naturally, the questioning came, not from the teacher, 
 but from the children who were playing " dressmakers." 
 
 Of course we had included in our library some good 
 books on pattern making and cutting, so that the girls 
 soon found out how to get a good pattern and preserved 
 all their successful ones for future use. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 AFTER SCHOOL AGE 
 
 THUS far I have dealt with the dramatic method as 
 used in the elementary school for pupils under four- 
 teen years of age. In this short chapter I should very much 
 like to outline briefly the way in which the work, begun 
 in the schoolroom, entered the home and after-school life. 
 
 Just as the nature-study movement filtered through the 
 children's conversations at home until the parents imbibed 
 it and went for nature rambles on Sunday afternoons with 
 their children, so the dramatic method soon took hold on 
 the home life. 
 
 It was not many years before older pupils, remembering 
 the interesting plays in which they had joined at school, 
 and wishing to do more than help their younger brothers 
 and sisters to make properties, came and asked me to 
 assist them during their winter evenings to act some suit- 
 able plays. The result of this was that we organized a 
 sort of dramatic club for men, and after one or two false 
 starts in the choice of plays, we hit upon a Shakespearean 
 play suitable to be played by men. We first essayed to 
 act one scene from Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar" — -the 
 
 murder scene. Our cast consisted entirely of workingmen 
 
 191 
 
192 THE DRAMATIC METHOD OF TEACHING 
 
 of the village — some were fathers of pupils, others, them- 
 selves old pupils. It was quite an inspiration to observe 
 how really interested they all were in learning their parts, 
 in discussing them, in studying them so as to bring out 
 all that Shakespeare intended. They would frequently 
 have long discussions over the meanings of words and 
 allusions in the play, and went so far as to buy histories 
 of Rome to clear up doubtful points and to get their 
 costumes and properties correct in detail. 
 
 When one scene was mastered, however, the men were 
 enthusiastic and demanded more. So we added another 
 scene, and so on, until the complete play, minus the scene 
 introducing Portia and Calpurnia, was well known. Then 
 we engaged a hall and gave the play to an enthusiastic, 
 overflowing audience. But the actual performance of the 
 play is not the point I wish to emphasize ; it is the fact 
 that the men were educated enough to find ample amuse- 
 ment in one of Shakespeare's least droll plays. So much 
 were they really interested that on one wet Saturday they 
 spent eight consecutive hours (with a short interval for 
 tea) in rehearsing in their Roman costumes. At the out- 
 set we had intended to meet one evening in the week. 
 Toward the end the men would hardly be content without 
 five meetings a week. 
 
 Their properties, although mostly of their own making, 
 were quite correct ; and the scene in which Brutus and 
 Cassius quarrel, and where Caesar's ghost appears, was so 
 artistically gotten up, and so well acted, that it called forth 
 
-a 
 
 - i 
 
 ;4 -5 
 
 -2 '3 
 2 f^ 
 
 193 
 
AFTER SCHOOL AGE 195 
 
 the admiration of old and hardened newspaper critics on 
 big London daihes. 
 
 The matter did not end there, for the motJicrs of the 
 village not only acted plays but invented them. They, 
 too, met at the school — which thus becam.e a real center 
 of light and learning — and there practiced plays written 
 by one of their number. The first of these was entided 
 "A Cup of Tea," and contained some good local hits. 
 Another play was patriotic and written in verse I The 
 mothers also practiced the Morris dance and dramatized 
 folk songs just as the scholars in the day school were doing. 
 In the latter art they excelled, for they had a good store 
 of the Sussex folk songs. 
 
 Comical in the extreme was their " band " of various 
 instruments, which they managed to play tunefully. Really 
 it seemed as if we had reached the ideal state of village 
 life, and had made one or two steps toward reintroducing 
 " Merrie England." Whether this was a result of the 
 school method I leave others to judge, but let no one be 
 afraid that the result of such teaching will be to set the 
 whole community ''acting mad." I have heard of none 
 of the everyday work of the village being neglected, but 
 I did observe that there were a few more cheerful faces 
 to be seen among those who took part in the work. 
 
 Certain it is that one result of this kind of education 
 will be to foster the good taste of our people, developing 
 the capacities of our children and enabling them to find 
 their propensity in choosing their life's career. 
 
196 THE DRAMATIC METHOD OF TEACHING 
 
 It seems to me that children trained on the Hnes indi- 
 cated very inadequately in this book will be well fitted to 
 take their part in the world. They will at least have had 
 a fuller childhood than some of their predecessors, and, 
 having acted well their parts in school, we will send them 
 forth confidently, remembering that '".all the world 's a 
 stage." 
 
INDEX 
 
 Adapted plays, 25,27,44-55, 91-100 
 Africa, geography plays on, 130, 16S 
 Alcott, L. M., "Little Women," 
 
 126 
 Arithmetic, 169-177; combined 
 
 with nature study, 1 69-1 71 ; 
 
 taught with ''dough," 171-172; 
 
 playing store, 172-174; the post 
 
 office, 1 74 ; land measuring, 1 74 ; 
 
 pounds, ounces, drams, 174 
 "As You Like It," 102, 106 
 Austr-alia, geography plays on, 
 
 157-162 
 
 Battle scenes, 36, 37, 81 
 "Bevis" (Jefferies), 35, 126-130 
 Business qualities, developing, 72 
 
 Canada, geography plays on, i 53 
 " Charles I," 61-68 
 Children as teachers, 26-27 
 Chorus, the, 34, 44, 75, 78, 81,82, 
 
 91, 100, 119, 129, 178 
 "Christmas Carol" (Dickens), 
 
 120-124 
 Clay modeling, 131 
 Clerical work, 27 
 " Coal and Iron Towns," game of, 
 
 139 
 
 Coleridge, S. T., 147 
 
 Conversation, encouraging natu- 
 ral, 8 
 
 Cookery, teaching, 132, 188-189 
 
 Costumes, 38, 39, 40, 56-58, 81, 
 102-103, 107, 116 
 
 De Quincey, Thomas, 147 
 Dickens, Charles. See " Christmas 
 Carol" and ''Pickwick Papers" 
 Discipline, free system of, 31, 
 
 Drawing, developed through the 
 play, 88 
 
 Elizabeth, play on the reign of, 
 
 44-55 
 
 English language, taught through 
 plays, 25, 74, 103-106 
 
 English literature, taught through 
 plays, 1 18-132; Wordsworth's 
 "Daffodils," 119; Dickens's 
 " Christmas Carol " and " Pick- 
 wick Papers," 120-124, 125- 
 126; Alcott's "Little Women," 
 126; Jefferies's" Wood Magic" 
 and "Bevis," 126-130; "Days 
 before History," 130-132. See 
 also under Scott, Shakespeare, 
 Tennyson, Wordsworth 
 
 France, geography plays on, 153 
 
 Gardens, school, 174-175, 187-188 
 Geography, taught through plays, 
 
 130, 133-168 
 Geography games, 133-168 
 Gesture, natural, 75, loi 
 Girls' plays, 27, 109-117, 119, 126 
 
 Handicraft, developed through 
 plays, 88 
 
 " Henry V," 77-84, 91 
 
 " Henry VI," 91 
 
 Historical plays, why evolved, 4 ; 
 based on historical novel, 10; 
 first, 18-19; teaching history 
 through, 18-43; "Ivanhoe," 19- 
 20, 42; played outdoors, 42; 
 "Wolfe on the Heights of Abra- 
 ham," 42 ; " Queen Elizabeth 
 and Raleigh," 44-55 ; " Charles 
 I," 61-68 
 
 197 
 
THE DRAMATIC METHOD OF TEACHING 
 
 History, taught through plays, 25, 
 
 41, 68, 130-132, 192 
 Humanities, teaching the, 14- 
 
 Indian scenes, 153-154 
 
 " Ivanhoe," 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 27, 
 
 Jefferies, Richard. See " Bevis " 
 "JuHus Caesar," 86, 191-192 
 
 " Jvenilworth," 44, 52 
 " King John," 87 
 
 Letter writing, 174, 176-177 
 Library. See School library 
 "Little Women" (Alcott), 126 
 Livingstone, David, 168 
 
 Macaulay, T. B., 147 
 
 Manual work, 187-190 
 
 " Mary Queen of Scots," a play, 
 
 109-116 
 Memorizing, developed by school 
 
 plays, 20, loi, 1 18, 157 
 Mendelssohn, " Spring Song," 
 
 119 
 " Merchant of Venice," 101-102. 
 Method vs. the child, 3 
 " Midsummer Night's Dream, A," 
 
 85, 102, 108 
 Monotony in present methods of 
 
 teaching, 68-71 
 
 Nature study, an aid to dramatic 
 teaching, 4 ; furnishes material 
 for singing, drawing, etc., 4 ; an 
 aid to self-expression, 8; and his- 
 tory plays, 41-42 ; and arithme- 
 tic, 169-171; newly approached, 
 178-186; flower dialogues, 17S- 
 185; and manual work, 188; for 
 parents, 191 
 
 New Zealand, in the geography 
 play, 163-167 
 
 Original investigations, 84 
 Original plays, 56-76, 178-186 
 Originality, encouraging, 7-8 
 
 Perseverance, developed by plays, 
 
 72 
 "Pickwick Papers" (Dickens), 
 
 125 
 
 Plays, school, theories concerning, 
 10, 13, 15; "Ivanhoe," 19, 42; 
 " Wolfe on the Heights of Abra- 
 ham," 42; "Queen Elizabeth and 
 Raleigh," 44-55 > " Charles I," 
 61-68; "Henry V," 77-84; 
 " King John," 87 ; " Wat Tyler's 
 Rebellion," 92-100 ; " Merchant 
 of Venice," 101-102 ; "A Mid- 
 summer Night's Dream," 102- 
 104; "As You Like It," 106- 
 108; "Mary Queen of Scots," 
 109-116; "Christmas Carol," 
 120-124; "Pickwick Papers," 
 125; "Little Women," 126; 
 " Cumberland," 1 43-1 51;" Switz- 
 erland,"! 51-152; "France," 153: 
 "Canada," 153; "Australia," 
 157-162 ; " New Zealand," 163- 
 164; "Africa," 168; arithmetic, 
 170-171; nature study, 178-185; 
 for grown-ups, 191 -196 
 
 Post office, play, 174 
 
 Properties, stage, 34-41, 81-82, 
 102, 1 16, 152, 172-T74 
 
 Resourcefulness, how developed, 
 
 21, 72-73, 102 
 Ruskin, John, 145, 146 
 
 School library, 10, 28, 31, 190 
 Scott, Sir Walter. See " Ivanhoe " 
 
 and " Kenilworth " 
 Sense of humor, development of, 
 
 16-17 
 Sewing, 38, 39, 134, 189-190 
 Shakespeare, plays of, .77-108; 
 " discovered " by the children, 
 jj ; " Henry V," 77-84 ; outside 
 study of, 84-86 ; girls and, 87 ; 
 "Julius Caesar," 86, 191-192^ 
 " King John, "87 ; original treat- 
 ment of, 88; "Henry VI," 91; 
 modeling on, 91-100; "Mer- 
 chant of Venice," 101-102 ; "A 
 Midsummer Night's Dream " 
 
INDEX 
 
 199 
 
 and "As You Like It,"- 102 ; as 
 English lessons, 103-106; cos- 
 tumes for, 107 
 
 Singing, dramatic, 42-43, 75 
 
 Southey, Robert, 147 
 
 Spelling, learned through the play, 
 28 
 
 Spontaneity, 82 
 
 Stevenson, R. L., quotation from, 
 16 
 
 Style, in writing, 28 
 
 Switzerland, geography play on, 
 151-152 
 
 Tasmania, in the play, 167 
 Teacher, relation of, to pupils, 9 
 Tennyson, Alfred, 119 
 Textbooks,proper use of,32, 83, 137 
 
 " Wat Tyler's Rebellion," an 
 
 adapted play, 91-100 
 Wheatfield, school, 174-175 
 " Wolfe on the Heights of Abra- 
 ham," an historical play, 42 
 Wordsworth, William, 1 19, 146, 148 
 Workingmen, and Shakespeare, 
 85-86, 191-195 
 
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