The Delta independent., 1921-10-21
THE EpUcATIvE VALUE
OF MOTHER GOOSE
By ANNA MAE BRADY

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well illustrated copy of Mother Goose,
not only because these little jingles
represent the heart beats of the race
| but because they have within them
great educative value. The tiny babe
is lulled by their rhythm, to which all
the primitive in him responds and his
| eye is caught by the pictures long
/ before he is able to interpret them.
Grown-ups never outlive them. Poor
indeed is the child who is denied this
foundation of the classics.
Mother Goose represents the first
attempt of the race to give us a liter
ature Away back in the beginning of
time, long before the days of books,
these verses developed. The race no
doubt was in that rhythmic stage
where people loved to swing and
sway their bodies to music. Queer
music it was too, for we hear that it
was often made by beating stones or
sticks together, but always the
rhythm was the appealing thing. So,
too, the sounds of rhyming words
| tickled their ears and when they first
developed these jingles they were so
pleased with them that they repeated
them over and over, handing them
down from generation to generation,
each generation refining yet leaving
! the plot unchanged.
These rhymes while but sentence
or two in length are well-nigh perfect
| in construction. They will pass any
test to which we subject adult litera-
ture. There is a plot, introduction.
climax. and conclusion. The charac-
ters dance on and off again, yet so
clearly are they represented that as
long as life lasts we have clear pic
ture of them. With only few words
to describe them. Little Bo Peep, Jack
and Jill, and Little Miss Muffet have
as well defined places in our minds
as Othello. Hamlet or Lady Macbeth.
Our children of the pre-school and
kindergarten age are in this same
stage of development. They too are
susceptible to rhythm, they love to
swing and sway and hop to music, and
their ear is also caught by the sound
of rhyming words. They need ma
terial like Mother Goose. for it is to
them what Shakespeare is to the
adult. Because these rhymes are the
product of many minds they are
richer than anything one person can
give them.
Many of US used to think that
| Mother Goose made up these rhymes
in Boston Town long ago. and we
liked to think of them as distinctly
American, but such is not the case
These jingles came down to us from
the primitive races and Mother Goose
was only very clever teller of these
tales-a woman who made so many
children happy that in her honor we
call them Mother Goose rhymes.
The child who is brought up on
Mother Goose learns to read natural
". He memories the jingles from
hearing mother say them and locates
them by the pictures. Finally he sees
them as word units and is able to
recognize the same words in different
rhymes. This equips him with a
working vocabulary which is or in
estimable value when he enters
school. Best of all, it has not been
work but only play.
| A list of Mother Goose collections
| is appended:
| A Book of Nursery Rhymes; edited
by Chas. Welsh: published by d. c.
Heath & Co., Chicago: rs cents.
The Nursery Rhyme Book; edited
by Lang; illustrated by Leslie Brooks;
published by Frederick Warne & Co.
New York: SS.
Mother Goose: illustrated by Kate
Greenaway: published by Frederick
warne & Co.. New York; 81.
Mother Goose Annual: illustrated
by Blanche Fisher Wright: published
by Rand McNally & Co., Chicago;
SITS.
The Volland Mother Goose; illus
trated by Frederick Richardson; pub
lished by The volland Co., Chicago.
Mother Goose: illustrated by Jessie
Wilcox Smith: published by Charles
Scribner's Sons. New York; small
size, 81: large size, sS.
National Rhymes of the Nursery;
edited by Saintsbury: published by
F. A. Stokes Co, New York; S2.25.