The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1898-01-08
A D FOR CHILDREN.

READING FOR CHILDREN.
CHARLES Dudley Warmers Views On Juvs
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 Wa of the same order. II
is Us bad to put weak thought into
tho 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 III what we
want. So soon as literature for tho
young was wanted shelves were
covered with books about Little
Johnny and the Pig,''Did the Pig
Have a Curly Wig9' and Did John
ny Love the Pig9' Finally we dis
covered that we needed something
else, and at the same time we made
the great discovery that the teacher
himself must know something, a
revelation to many people. The
teachers are 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 I would have
q 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 intoa 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 an
education, but it is the vital sub.
stance of the child's mind. The
sympathy with real literature
should be put into the child's mind
very early, for it is marvellous how
apt the child is to take the wrong
thing. How easy it is when the
child is from 6 to 10 to turn it's mind
to what really develops and calls
out the natural capacity. A child ut
that age is interested in any real
and any real story Is good lit
'erature. l never knew a child in an
Intelligent family who was not alb
sorbed in the story Of the Odyssey
and who did not take all the genu-
inc things with eagerness. Why,
the Little Pig is nowhere, and Jim
my, compared with Ulysses, is no.
where in the interest of an ordinary
child.
1.-The n%onliterary teaching is bad,
not only for the child, but for the
teacher. We should all be idiotic if
we had to read ordinary textbooks
for a year. The teacher, if he is to
grow, must feed on real things, and
the child at once knows the perfume
tory things. He then thinks Of OUT
doors as life, and why should not
life be indoors7 Let John Burroughs
talk, and life is indoors. He does not
write for children. l wish nobody
had ever written a word for chill
drcn. The silly people who try to
write down to children had better
try to write down to themselves. OF
the worst influences of modern
life, one Of the most diluted il what
Is called children's literature. l
would give a child no literature l
did not like myself. Not that chill
dren should read Kant, or John Stu
art Mill, Or even Turgeneff OF
George Eliot. but there is plenty
that is full of life, that will strength
~ aQd invigorate the mind, that q
child con understand and that will
call him, an he goes along, into the
walks of literature. A word
about a kindred subject. While am
4 great advocate of kindergartens,
there is too much babyishness there.
The child ia quick to take impress
and :hey mix colors dreadful
y there. Detroit Free Press.