Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1908-09-21
WOULD DANISH
FAIRY STORIES
PR0SAIC DUTCHMAN RAISES
STORM OF PROTEST
BELIEVES, WITH GRADGRlND,
ONLY IN FACTS
Local Educators with One Voice De-
nounce Vandal Who Proposes to
Destroy chlldren's Time-
Honored Wonderland

tales have sprung up in legions and
asserted in no faltering voice the right
Of CHILDHOOD to have fairy tales, folk
lore and legends. All this tempest in
a teapot has been aroused over the
statement of Harry A. Hettema, a
school trustee of the Second ward of
Passaic, N. j.
Mr.. Hettema Is a descendant of the
Dutch, who do not believe in fairy
tales, and he says they have no place
in the public schools, inasmuch as
many of the children leave at the age
of IA years to become bread-earners.
In that case according to the theory
of Mr.. Hettema, any child who is I'M
fortunate enough to have to enter the
work world is to be deprived Of all
imagination. To those who are des-
tined to a life of labor no fairy god
mother can hold any hope.
At one fell swoop this man would
deprive childhood of one of it's most
precious rights.
Mr.. Hattema might be compared to
Gradgrind in Dickens Hard Times"
when that worthy schoolmaster says:
Nov, what 1 want is facts. Facts
alone are wanted in life. Plant moth
ing else and root out everything else.
You can only form the minds of reason
ing animals upon facts; nothing else
will ever be of any service to them.
This is the principle on which 1 bring
up my own children, and this is the
principle on which I bring up these
children. Stick to the facts, sir!"
Facts are exactly what Mr.. Hettema
advocates. He would have all chill
dren put on the same basis as the lit
tie tots Of Holland, with whom hardly
any one could associate fairy tales.
Their wooden shoes would lend them
fy n
story.
Facts, and no DOGGY man, no good
fairy and no more wonderful tales told
in the cleaning at mothers knee is the
ideal child life as outlined by Mr.. Het-
tema.
Their Reading RevoIutionized
Eight per cent of the children of Los
Angeles who take out books from the
public library would have to right
about face in their ideas, for 80 per
cent of all the books taken from the
juvenile department are fiction.
During the past month 75O books of
fairy tales have been taken out in
Los Angeles out of a total number of
8079, which goes to show the trend of
the young mind. Howard Pyle's books
and principally "King Arthur's Court"
works by Eva Marsh Tappan, Flora
Anna Steel and Charles F. Lummis'
MAN Who Married the Moon are
prominent, as well as the tales by Hans
Christian Andersen, the. Grimms, An
drew Lang and Frank Baum. These are
among the most prominent in the local
library.
Hans Christian Andersen, who has
been childhood's friend, would be
barred according to the theory ex-
pressed by the New Jersey man. Nc
more would the "Ugly Duckling" ex-
cite sympathy in the young mind for
both animals and human beings not
beautiful.
But 1t might seem that a good fairy
had waved it's wand and turned all
thoughts to themselves, for in Los An
geles the leading educators and those
who have to do with large numbers of
children speak in the highest terms of
fairy tales for the young.
DR.. e. G. Moore, superintendent OF
city schools, when asked his opinion on
the subject said:
eff any one has ever read Dickens
Hard Times he knows the proper
answer to make to this sort of doc
trine.
Facts, facts. facts was Gradgrind's
rule, but nothing but facts makes
pretty fiat and Improbable sort of be-
ing. That fairy tales are useful is
abundantly proved by the place they
have made for themselves in human
history. In measure they should be
supplied to every growing mind. Selec-
ton is necessary, but with the proper
selection only the best results will
come from them"
Joseph Scott, president of the board
of education, is a friends of the fairies,
otherwise how could he tell such Won
derful fairy stories to the six little
SCOTS who gather about his knee to
hear the latest from fairyland? Mr..
Scott says that he has never run out
of fairy stories yet, and he thinks he
has had pretty good experience.
Miss Bessie Stoddart, who is promi-
nent in the playground commission and
other good works, said: at seems that
the whole modern trend is to let the
little ones have fairy tales and folk
lore. Childhood is the proper time for
those things. The Carnegie library of
Pittsburg, which is pre-eminent In
Juvenile work, has made story telling
and folklore a special study in the
juvenile department, and has paid spe-
cial attention to that. In our local
playground work the knights of King
Arthur has been one of the popular
hero tales"
DR.. Hugh K. Walker. pastor Of
Emmanuel Presbyterian church and
president of the board of trustees of
Occidental college, takes his place on
the side of the fairies.
Imagination in childhood is a neces-
sity," said, DR.. Walker. "The most
practical thing is sentiment, and the
child, if brought down to hard facts, is
robbed of the best part of it's life"
DR.. G. F. Bovard, president of the
University of Southern California, be-
lieves in a discreet use of fairy tales
and says that certain numbers have
place in child life.
"The more imagination the better for
the child" said Rev. Dana w. Bart
lett of the Bethlehem institutions.
1.-The imagination should be cultivated
in this material world"
All the leading educators, with per-
haps a "Reminiscences of their own childr
hood, when the fairies did wonderful
thin;s which are now done by prosaic
means, side with the fairies and fairy
land. That wonderland where the
streets are candy and the fountains
are of soda water, according to the
poet, seems likely to continue to De
told and retold to childish hearers Tor
many a day to come.
LION r . HlJEX ADDRESSES