LITERATURE FOR ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS 5 



The center of this education is the pupil, who should learn 

 self-control and self-guidance. He should gradually be led 

 to make conscious and self-earned advances. 

 Let him read with unconscious happiness 

 and interest what has been selected, enjoying with childish 

 abandon story or biography; but when another choice is 

 made, lead him to consider the opportunity of broadening 

 out into new fields of thought and knowledge as well as 

 exploring more thoroughly the old ones. By this means, he 

 will learn to choose books more judiciously and to lay a more 

 systematic foundation in all subjects. 



In the first two grades the stories are told to the children 

 by the teacher. Compared with reading, this method in- 

 volves some loss of time and literary style ; 



Presentation ^ ut ** means on * ne P art ^ tne P U P^ S deeper 

 interest, closer attention, greater concentra- 

 tion, more sympathetic response ; on the part of the teacher 

 it means more careful preparation, through which comes a 

 stronger fellow-feeling in the presentation, and the cultiva- 

 tion of the art of story telling, a power with children. In 

 the third grade stories may be read, although telling is still 

 preferable. A short story should be told as a whole. This 

 is demanded by the natural longing to get to the end, which, 

 fortunately, aids the teacher in cultivating the sense of a 

 complete thought or narrative. In long stories there are 

 natural divisions which should be observed, for young minds 

 retain best a short, connected recital. These breaks do not 

 destroy continuity of thought or interest, for every portion 

 of a well written story has within itself certain elements of 

 completeness ; on the other hand, long narratives are con- 

 fusing and tend to weaken continuity of thought. Every 



