Morris tribune., 1885-04-29
READING FOR CHILDREN.
The Necessity for Good Literature.


Radical exception will be taken by
thoughtful and considerate parents, and
by instructors of children generally,
saws the Providence Journal to the Rev.
James Kay Applebee's suggestion that
boys should be allowed to "read almost
everything they came across Untold
injury to Youthful minds will result, as
it has time and again resulted, from the
pursuance of any such unwise and dan
gerous course. The lecturers point as
to the strength and necessity of indi-
yidual Judgment, and that one must de-
eide for himself as to the good and bad
IN reading, is intrinsically correct, but
it is not safely applicable to the unfledg-
ed mind.
The average school-boy is not cap
able of always separating the good
from tho bad, either in the ''silliest
novel; or in any other volume. His
peculiarly impressionable mind will be-
come contaminated, if it be notprudent-
ly protected. Not to speak of the youth
full crimes committed and the down.
ward careers begun, by perusal of the
pernicious flash" literature of to-day
of which lamentable fact evidence
so frequently and alarmingly crops out
there is to be mentioned the import
ance of keeping away from youthful
readers the sensational, trashy, sickly
sentimental and unreal stories of less
pronounced criminality, but of no less
pernicious and far more subtle influence
in destroying legitimate ambition and
noble sentiment, and in imparting un-
real views of life which lead only to
disappointment and discouragement
when the actual struggle for existence
begins.
No, we can not safely allow our chill
dren to be omnivorous readers. A
bad book may only 'have its day. and
90 down to oblivion in general condem-
nation, but in its shortest day it may
SOW in some innocent child's life the
seeds of ruin. There must be, by pa
rents and teachers, careful, thought
full, specially considerate and constant
censorship over the reading of children
during the training period of life, not
only to keep them away from bad books,
but to place before them good books.
And this censorship is not to be con-
spicuous by authority, or to SAVIOR at all
of compulsion; it will be flat failure
if it suggests any such impression to
the child. 1t must succeed by arousing
the child's attention and interest; by
showing that there is an abundance OF
wholesome and instructive books which
are at the same time attractive and en-
tertaining.
1t was but short time ago that we
referred in these columns to the work
which is now so successfully doing in
several of the public schools OF Provi,
dence, in the active direction by the
teacher of the outside home and gener'
al reading of the pupils. This policy
has been pursued in this city for severa
years past, and is not only of marked
benefit in its positive influence upor
youthful character, but; as proved by
specific observation, has been found es
pecially and 1ncalculably valuable ir
counteracting the attractiveness and in
fluence of the pernicious literature
which is sown broadcast and apparently
without protest in so many respectable
communities to-day.
The trouble is that there is not among
parents and teachers, as rule, suffi
cient attention given to this vital matter
of what the children are reading. 1t is
astonishing to find man of intelligence
and experience, and, more than all, {
public lecturer, advising in the face o:
all the dangers in literature that beset
the innocent and easily impressionable
minds of youth, that 'our boys" shoulc
be allowed to be ''omnivorous readers,
trusting to their innate virtues to choose
the good and reject the bad. But W.
are confident that none who care fol
the future of the rising generation will
indorse, preach or practice any sucl
dangerous philosophy.