Baraboo weekly news. [volume] (Baraboo, Wis.) 1912-197?, 1913-03-27
STORY TELLING
At HIGH SCHOOL

urday morning with stories from
Morse Folklore. Mrs. Thomson's
personal appearance belied her great
power. Seemily, without an effort her
voice charged with all shades of emo
ton reached the furthermost parts of
the room and held entranced her large
Juvenile audience. She is a modest,
unassuming woman, almost plain.
without any tricks that are thought to
belong to the stage A critic cannot
see quite how she does it, but he must
acknowledge that she does hold an
audience ranging from the six -year-old
to the middle aged adult spellbound.
In the afternoon she had about one
hundred and twenty-five present,
mostly ladies. These she delighted
with her lecture on Child Literature.
She lamented the large amount of in
ferior literature to which children had
access in these days. Literature of
the best sort, folklore, fairy tales,
legends, should be allowed to tell
their own story and teach their own
lesson. Boys frequently get the notion
that certain sorts of stories are nothing
but sermons in narrative form. When
they get this notion they are apt 10
avoid them. She said many of sthe
greatest and best things were found in
the simplest form and were frequently
passed by ana overlooked by teachers
and parents because of this fact. The
best pieces of literature are frequently
spoiled for the child by unwise use of
this literature in schools.
| The speaker strongly condemned the
using of great literary master
pieces as a basis for sentence analysis.
Children invariably hate literature on
which they have spent weary
hours in analysing, diagraming or
psrsing. frequently masterpieces are
done to death in school and other
wise spoiled for the child by
inartistic handling. The teacher
who is endeav ing TO teach literature
in the grades Or Al@n school has,
therefore, tremendous responsibility
upon her as she may by lack of ,tskill
cause such distaste for that which
she is endeavoring to teach the child
rem to love. Frequently BOY on being
introduced to story says, sob: |
don't care for that. We had that at
school and I hate it," The teacher
should seek to make rich and not TO
wear threadbare the gems of literature.
If the teacher of literature is to be
successful she herself must be an in
splration to her class.
On the other hand the speaker de-
plored the habit of skimming, also the
state of mind which always requires
something new. She believed in the
right sort of intensive work. Tell it
again and again, she said. If done in
the right way the story can be told
again and again or read again and
again without making it nauseating
to the children. Swimming was one
of the great faults of our age.
Among the books she recommended
for children were Smother Goose,
Stevenson's "ChiId's Garden of Yer
ses", "The Posy Ring, "Cinderella",
"The Three Billy-goats Gruff7', Folk
stories and fairy stories She also
recommended "Fifty Famous Stories
Retold", stories from the Bible, stories
from the ODYSSEY and Illiad and
''Robin Hood"
The! speaker strongly condemned
books of the type of the Alger books,
the Henty books, the Motor boy series,
etc. These books have thrills on every
page, abound in impossible situations,
have nothing in them OF permanent
value. When you have read one
you have read them all. If you
love the great things in litera-
ture you will not have to be warned
gainst reading this ordinary trash for
you will have no taste for it.
She also strongly condemned the
reading of the Sunny Page" and the
magazine section of the Sunday news
paper. For herself, she never allowed
q Sunday newspaper to come into the
house.
All in all the talk by Mrs. Thorne-
Thomson was an inspiration to the
mother and teachers present, and it is
to be hoped that she soon will come
a gain.
The school board is to be commend |
ed for making it possible for the peo-
pie of Baraboo to hear this accom- plish-
ed lady.