Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1904-05-02
MRS. BLAINE ON THE DRAMA
She Gives Fortune to Found School of
Elementary Drama.

plea, interesting at least for its
novelty and originality. says the
Dramatic Mirror, has been made in
Chicago by Mrs. Emmons Blaine. who
has given $1.12o.O0O to found an e,e-
mcntiry school in that city under the
auspices of the University OF Chicago.
which, by the way. has become widely
known both for the large sums devoted
to it by John ID. Rockefeller and for
several unconventional opinions on
Shakespeare and other subjects pro-
nounccd by one or two of it's professors.
Mrs. Blaine made her appeal in an ar
ticle entitled The Dramatic in Edu-
cation published in The Elementary
School Teacher, edited by John Dewey,
and unusual as her IDEAS and opinions
may seem, she would be entitled to
make them public even had she not
shown her practical earnestness in her
subject by the large endowment calcu-
lated to assist in the education of the
young.
In her discussion of the effect of the
drama Mrs. Blaine argues that children
should be taught the facts of history by
representation. The school should be
Il stage" she says. I'VE find the dra =
matte already i'm and out of our kinder
gartchs. Little children instinctivcly
lEpcrsonatc in their play We should
continue it every day. Periods of his
tory being studied should be lived. The
children should be Greeks, Romans and
middle aged bnrOns and priests; they
should write the Magma Charta and
discover America and construct our
nation"
This, indeed. is a pregnant idea, at
the first glance. and there can be no
doubt that ii would fascinatinglya appeal
to the child mnid. No doubt, also, it
would have its drawbacks upon prac-
teal application. Mrs. Blaine believes
that as Il result of it children would
show vividnesS OF conception and cx-
preston. History would then be to
them their familiar field. The delights
of imagination, construction and inter-
probation arc untold. The pure joy of
action cannot be Overestimated."
Mrs. Blaine holds that it is impossible
for children prOfitably to study the
drama of today. or in fact any existent
drama, although she believes that if the
right drama were at hand children
could profit from it. Almost nothing
she says, is suited to them. Tragedies
do not come within their comprehensive
range. and las for current tragedies,
heaven forbid that they should She
holds that light operas are heavy with
vulgarity and dullness, and that if the
child We're to be taken to see the plays
of today promscuously the vision
would be distorted before the age of
wish that .some theatres would ignore
what is thought to be public taste and
occasionally serve us CONNECTIONS which
We could give as treats to our children.
not mixed with poison through and
through-if. for instance, a point should
be made of having on Saturdays plays
chosen with school children in view"
This, of course. is not possible in pre-
sent circumstances as to the
theatre, unless is should be realized in
isolated cases of managers as enthuSi-
as Mrs. Blaine is. But it will at least
be interesting if Mrs. Blaine is influ-
entail enough to put her ideas in prac-
tice in the school she has founded.
They would undoubtedly delight the
children. and they might begin move
ment to revolutIoniZe the present crude
and unsympathetic methods that pre-
vail in SO many elementary schools.