Some day we shall have a science of education comparable to thescienceof medicine; but even when that day arrives the art ofeducationwill still remain the inspiration and the guide of all wiseteachers.The laws that regulate our physical and mental development will bereduced to order; but the impulses which lead each new generation toplay its way into possession of all that is best in life will stillhaveto be interpreted for us by the artists who, with the wisdom ofyears,have not lost the direct vision of children.
Some years ago I heard Miss Shedlock tell stories in England. Herfinesense of literary and dramatic values, her power in sympatheticinterpretation, always restrained within the limits of the art shewasusing, and her understanding of educational values, based on a wideexperience of teaching, all marked her as an artist in story-telling.She was equally at home in interpreting the subtle blending of witandwisdom in Daudet, the folk lore philosophy of Grimm, or the deeperworldphilosophy and poignant human appeal of Hans Christian Andersen.
Then she came to America and for two or three years she taught usthedifference between the nightingale that sings in the tree tops andtheartificial bird that goes with a spring. Cities like New York,Boston,Pittsburgh and Chicago listened and heard, if sometimesindistinctly,the notes of universal appeal, and children saw the Arabian Nightscometrue.
Yielding to the appeals of her friends in America and England, MissShedlock has put together in this little book such observations andsuggestions on story-telling as can be put in words. Those who havetheartist's spirit will find their sense of values quickened by herwords,and they will be led to escape some of the errors into which eventhegreatest artists fall. And even those who tell stories with theirmindswill find in these papers wise generalizations and suggestions bornofwide experience and extended study which well go far towards makingevenan artificial nightingale's song less mechanical. To those whoknow,the book is a revelation of the intimate relation between a child'sinstincts and the finished art of dramatic presentation. To thosewhodo not know it will bring echoes of reality.—Earl Barnes.
I. THE DIFFICULTIES OF THE STORY
II. THE ESSENTIALS OF THE STORY
III. THE ARTIFICES OF STORY-TELLING
IV. ELEMENTS TO AVOID IN SELECTION OF MATERIAL
V. ELEMENTS TO SEEK IN THE CHOICE OF MATERIAL
VI. HOW TO OBTAIN AND MAINTAIN THE EFFECT OF THESTORY
IV. ELEMENTS TO AVOID IN SELECTION OF MATERIAL
VII. QUESTIONS ASKED BY TEACHERS