The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1903-06-10
"FIBs" A MARK OF GENIUS.
Chicago Teacher Finds Good in Child
Provaricatione.


Chicago Teacher Finds Good In Child's
Prevarications.
"Let children fabricate; it is a mark
Of literary genius"
In these words Mrs. Ella Adams
Moore, of the University Of Chicago,
condoned the habit children form Of
imagining things, and then telling them
as gospel truth. She was speaking on
"The Place of Literature in Child
Life"
The creation of Invisible com3an.
ions" said Mrs. Moore. sis common
phenomenon among children. When
the child reaches this stage-the stage
where the real world and the imagin.
ary world become merged into one in
the child mind-it needs careful hand
ling. The child draws on its magma
tion to such an extent that it begins
to fabricate.
"This wholesale prevarication often
causes the chiid's elders 70 become
alarmed lest it will grow uD untruth-
full and no a law-abiding citizen. But
this tendency to fabricate is often
sign of literary genius. How many
literary geniuses have been crushed
by stern parents who feel If their chill
dren fabricate they will fall from
grace and grow into bad MEN. They
tell them they mustn't faDricate: that
their innocent stories do not please
Cod; and by doing that the parents
probably are smothering genius
Mrs. Moore declared that the child
mind is ready for imaginary stories
such as Little Red Riding Hood
sThe Three Bears" and Jack and
JILL" at the age of two and q half
years.
1T is the parents duty" she said,
"to teach the child a connection be-
tween the real ard the imaginary. A
good way is to bring tine story home to
them by suggesting that perhaps the
vacant lot across the street may have
been the woods which Red Riding
Hood frequented This develops the
Imagination, and the imaginative tend
ency is what makes the children able
to write stories. I. should be cult.
vated."
Mrs. Moore advised mothers and
kindergarten teachers to read to their
children only such literature as can he
thoroughly comprehended and absorbed
by the child mind.
Don't read anything" she said, lin
which the thought is involved. First
of all. literature must be understood
by the child. Fresh air, play. the
sounds and sights of nature are better
than stories for children. They are
the stuff that stories are made Oft Is
the child's 'birthright to be permitted
to enjoy them.
activity is the only thing on earth
the child wants. It wants wider and
fuller experience through literature
than 1t finds in its every day existence.
Feeling the need of wilder and fuller
life Is often what drives the boy to
the cheap novel. 1t Is high impulse
that sends a boy to bad theatre; 1t Is
O high impulse that sends him to the
bad novel. He wants and Graves for a
broader experience, and he finds that
through these two agencies lie can en-
large his sphere Of vision. 1t is narrow
ness in the home and the school that
usually drives the boy to the yellow
backed novel and the melodrama."
A teacher declared that, in her be-
lief, the characters IN the literature
read In the kindergartens are so soody'
goody that they should have died be
fore they were born.
Everything is negation IN the
stories" she said. "The boys are 100
good to be spanked and there is moth.
ing in the stories that will make the
good shine out against the bad. The
stories should be stronger"
"For young children meaningless
phrase Is better than soothing sirup."
declared Mrs. Moore. ''If child be
gins to cry. say something meaningless
which will at once appeal to Its sense
of humor, The child will laugh when
it would have cried" ."-Chicago Tri.
bune.