The New York herald., 1921-12-18
Needless Fear
OF Fairy Tales

HERE AND NOW STORY BOOK. BY
Lucy Sprague Mitch ELL Experimental
stories written for the children from
to years old OF the City and Coun-
try School or the Bureau of Educa-
tional Experiments. Illustrated by
Hendrix Van Loon. f. p. Dutton &
Co.
A RS. MITCHELL has largely
MI succeeded She has made a
new and beautiful contribu-
ton to children's literature. But that
is only half of her attempt. The stories
illustrate treory following the path
of modern psychology. not that of
past generations of educators. Briefly
the thesis is: Build a chil1's stories
around the things Of the childs i'm
mediate life, which are the only things
he can understand, and so ground him
in realities before taking him into
the confusing realm of the unknown.
approached this sceptically. Was
this but another attempt to make
scientists of us all, to make children
hate books by feeding them dull.
didactic reading? Mrs. Mitchell has
happily escaped these pitfalls by the
catholicity of the subject matter and
by the charm of the presentation.
To make realities more interesting
than dreams is the task Floyd Dell
assigned to education. Mrs. Mitchell
achieves this. notably in one Of the
stories for six and seven year olds
Boris Walks Every Way in New
York; is as exciting and adventurous
as Jack and the Peanstaik,' Boris
little boy from Russia, wants to see
grass. No. not just park grass. but
lots and lots of grass. So Boris ex-
plores. He walks west, ana comes to
a river. He walks cast. and comes to
river. The next day he sets out
anew. He walks north and comes to
a river, and he walks south and comes
to the end oe the land again, Here
there are boats anG docks and East
River bridges and Hudson River tubes
and Manhattan is an island, And be
yond the water surrounding ii is the
wide, green country.
There is the wonder and the joy of
discovery here. told in an adventuring
style, which takes it out of the class
Of international writing Any child
would be just as anxious to emulate
Boris as he is to sail the unknown
seas following Columbus or to ad-
venture with Stevenson and Pyle.
The Childrens. New Dresses" tells
-ot complicated industrial process and
interdependent relationships in the
style Of the earlier cumulative tales
The Old Lady and the Pig" which
halls from-Babylon, is it? Hammer.
Saw and Plane" is but a smaller and
more obvious Robinson Crusoe."
The Little Hen and the Rooster" is a
valuable variation of the surviving
Nursery Rhymes. Roofing these
stories in the past is not an attempI
to disparage them. Rather IL takes
their author out of the class of fad
dists who are incapable of eclecticism.
In fact. with Mrs. Mitchell's positive
selections there is little quarrel. It is
with the things she counsels omitting
that ! would question her. Non
existent things, such as fairies and the
changes they effect contrary to physi
cal law. are banned because they con-
fuse a child who is not yet acquainted
with the scientific bases and relation
ships of his immediate contacts, Mrs.
Mitchell contends. speaking particu
larly of the child under eight. This
on page 3S.
"I have never found that six-year-
old children did not readily discrimi-
nate the actual from the imaginary"
This on page 325.
IL. % III nytt ,t,-n-
diction is really the failure to realize
the double faculty of the child mind
which makes for n love and under
standing of the mysterious and the
actual in great detail. and the imag-
NATIVE and literal Interpretation OF
them. Robert Louis Stevenson tells
this well in his essay "Child's Play
which is also a charming exposition
of the child's way of thinking through
his muscles and by motion rather than
with his mind by thought.
Because I believe that the statement
on page 325 is essentially sound ] am
impatient with this everlasting FEAR
OF the "moderns" OF confusing thH
child. They are always talking oi
protecting him. os appealing to the
little dear" in stories written Tor MIN.
Isnt Mrs. Mitchell ncgatng part ol
her thesis in thus keeping from the
child harshnesses that do come within
the lives of all of us? Isn't she en-
couraging romant!cism when she
wants TO encourage clear. courageous
thinking? A-e there many children
even under seven who arc not sad
dened and confused by the death OF
a NOT or parept. who are not duped or
hullied. who are not the victims or
the causes of economic inequality?
But lot Mrs. Mitchell continue to
write for children; Tor all her preoccu-
nation with science she docs " cor
ouorc. And in so far as she Is inter
esting them in q world outside OF
themselves she has done wei. But she
must not deny the child fairyland
II for no othc~ purpose than for con-
parison. For there arc realities--thc
-..llooaa- ~ oxyn1,ttiop ccgtnaiNS