The daily Alaskan., 1915-03-04
LITERATURE FOR THE CHILD
Written by Miss Moffat for the
 Parent Teacher Association)
(Continued from page S.)


 world was In its infancy?
 So, let the years of strictly prl- mary literature be full of fairy lore' with plenty of good poetry, not di- iuted and revised, but given whole He will absorb q lot of insprrauoh and love of the beautiful even if he does not understand all the words' nor does not remember His ap- preciation will be keener for It. Make him familiar with the best, for they are the standards of his future Judgment. Then, I think that the mind of the developing boy or girl should be filled with epic tales, hero stories, Old Testament stories, and the old Greek, Roman and Morse myths. Get them to him early for they are stories that belong to youth. They can never mean to him later what they mean when his ideals are just forming.
 First, you may ask why he should study Greek and Roman myths. TO the practical minded may come the question Whats the use?' Per hans none if its matter of dol lars and cents, but the Greek and Roman myths were the religion that moulded the minds and char acters of two nations that have never been surpassed in literature, art and the making of laws. To understand history alright we need to understand the influence that made the men who made history. Again English literature is filled with thousands of allusions and references drawn from Greek and Roman mythology, and understood olly by a knowledge of it. When he pupil comes to high school age he is too old to accept them and appreciate their significance and 1 tco often scoffs and says "Whats the good of that stuff?" And the Morse myths? Why they were the |blcOd and brawn of the race that has produced the stsrdy strength Of the Anglo Saxon people, of whom we. with our literary and moral heritage are the direct decendants' What nation could have produced ;he many-sided Shakespeare with out his Teutonic inheritance?
 What child is not richer for hay ign sat at a rOllicking banquet ol he gods on Asgard, and for having heard the thunder of old Vulcans g forge as he wrought the weapons fir the gods?
 To understand his OWE characte! and his own literature, then, he must know from what they sprang.
 Then I'd advise the epic. ThE i cpic is the oldest literature ot any nation. It grows right out oJ the heart and life of the people. Il is in process of construction foI generations, handed down by bard and minstrel, changed and added to as the people progresses and is finally put In written form. It is always based on some historic fact 1t always has some elemental pas, siou such as, love, hate, jealousy ol love of war for its theme. It truly represents the hero type of the race. It is the younger child that best appreciates it and he has right to know it. He should know the Anglo-Saxon epic, Beowulf. From il he learns the Teutonic love ot Ieasting, love of war and his love oi nature in her somber moods. Among other epic heroes that he should know are Ulysses, Arthur, Roland, Siegfried, and with it the German story of the Nibelungs, and Robin Hood. In these stories we find crude strength, humor, beauty and justice, if not pity. phe Odyssey is the perfect story of adventure, but it must come to the young child who can be thrilled by it's lm- possible deeds. The older child, on :he other hand, is apt to come with "Aw, it isn't true. They couldn't 60 that" The teacher who stands before an older class, stolid and critical, and lacking sentiment has to plead for them to accept it on faith.
 Robin Hood is not q true epic, bu t is in the same class, for the reason that the ball&ds grew out Of the hearts of tie people. Every child loves Robin Hcod and his l Merry Men with their free out-of-dool life, their generosity, their intoler ance of greed, and their chivalry fer the weak and helpless.
 It was the scop and gleem&n, the | trOubadour, minstrel and min ncsinger, who through the Middle