The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1897-09-25
READING FOR N.

! wax 'Sh.
READING FOR CHILDREN.
Charles Dudley Warmers Views on Juve
nile Literature.
Charles dudley Warner, in a re
cent address before the Public Edu.
cation association, said:
when | went to a district school
as a boy, l got more bad air than
good in the schoolroom, and the in
struction was Of the same order. II
is as bad to put weak thought into
the mind of a child as it is to shut
him up with bad air. The idea OF
beginning the young mind with
something worth while is growing
among teachers. There are always
persons ready to give us what we
want. So soon as literature for tho
young vas wanted our shelves were
covered with looks about Little
Johnny and the Pig,''Did tho Pig
Have a Curly Wig?' and Did John
ny Love the Pigs' Finally VIC dis.
covered that we needed something
else. and at the same time we made
the great discovery that the teacher
himself must know something, u
revelation to many people. The
teachers r beginning to under
stand that they must themselves be
in the stream of literature in order
to teach it properly. Rather than
all the dates in history l would have
a child learn to love one sweet
poem, even a minor poem, that
made him want another. Teachers
are beginning to understand that it
is as we'll to open q door that goes
somewhere instead Of into hole in
the ground. The door should lead
into the world of ideas, which is
the world of history also.
Literature is not an accomplish
ment, something to round off en-
education, but it is the vital sub
stance of the child's mind. The
sympathy with real literature
should be put into the chi}d's mind
very early. for it is marvellous how
apt the child is to take the wrong
thing. Eow easy it is when the
child is from to 10 to turn it's mind
to what really develops and calls
out tie natural capacity. A child 1T
that age is interested in any real
story, and any real story is good lit
eratule. l never knew a child in an
intelligent family who was not alb
solbed in the story Of the Odyssey
and who did not take all tie genu-
inc things with eagerness. Why.
the Little Pig is nowhere, and jim
my, compared with Ulysses, is no.
where in tie interest Of an ordinary
child.
1.-THE nonlitcrary teaching is bad,
not oaly for the child. but for the
teacher. We should all be idiotic if
we hat! to read ordinary textbooks
for Il year. The teacher, if lie is to
grow, must feed on real things, and
the child at once knows the perfume
tory things. He then thinks of ou:.
doors as life, and why should not
life be indoors? Let John Burroughs
talk, and life is indoors. He does not
for children. wish nobody
had ever written r. word for chill.
The silly people who try to
write down to children had better
try to write down to themselves. Of
all the worst influences of modern
life, ole of the most diluted is what
ls called children's literature. l
would give a child no literature l
lid not like myself. Not that chill
lren should read Kant, or John Stu
art Mill, or even Turgenef or
Eliot, but there is plenty
that is full of life, that will strength
On and invigorate the mind, that a
child can understand and that will
,all him, & IS he goes along, into the
walks of literature. A word
about a kindred subject. While am
great advocate of kindergartens,
here is too much babyishness there.
The child is quick to take impress
and they mix colors dreadful.
y there. Detroit Free Press.