The Story in Primary Instruction

gidity, no teacher can afford to become hampered by the requirements of a too rigid system or a too formal method of instruction. Yet there must always be a con

TREA

estive and begin to trench on the legitimate province of the teacher. In order to avoid this unpardonable sin, the treatment of some of the stories has been elaborated quite fully, to show the work en

2

In the treatment of the two elements, the ethical and the nature material have been separated from each other and from the other parts. This is for the purpose of emphasizing them in the teacher's

in most cases, be all that is undertaken in one period of fifteen minutes. This is as long as young children should be kept to on

ODUC

ld be encouraged to attempt it. There will be a strong temptation to allow the brilliant story tellers to do most of the reproducing. Each child should be thrown wholly on his own responsibility. Let him tell what he can in his own way and reserve corrections until he is done. The story itself should be kept fluid. It should not be a

REPAR

ch the story is to take. Some such hint seems a pedagogical necessity. Nothing is so tiresome to an adult, even, as to listen to a di

(apperceived) by the old. That which has been once assimilated enters into and modifies old concepts; these in turn classify the new material and reduce it to order and unity. It is therefore important that, before a s

NARR

n short divisions. Each such division should be as far as pos

will feel amply repaid for any effort to cultivate the art of story telling. On this point few suggestions can be given. The main elements of good story telling are int

2

DEEP

so that reproduction of the story will more readily follow. The amount of such questioning must be determined by

TURE-M

f childhood, most children have a considerable body of nature experience which can be used as interpretative concepts for new and similar material. Careful teaching will always aim to discover what experience the individual members of a class have h

never do more than bring into explicitness what is really in the mind in a vague way. Yet, when we consider that the possibilities of all science and, in fact, of all knowledge, are implicit in th

that may serve, when properly used, as an excellent basis for mental growth in these directions. In making sure that ide

recommend formal object lessons. The main purpose should be to see that the allusions to natural objects and to industrial

ICAL MA

] and allowing children to express their judgments upon concrete facts of conduct. The latter is all that should be attemp

the experience of the race. The duty of the school to give occasion for the exercise of ethical judgments is greater than its duty to train the merely i

AD

ue in itself, the judicious teacher will welcome any suggestion toward minimizing routine drill. Instead of attempting to fix the visual form of each word, she will limit the formal instruction to giving the child a

the letters and an acquaintance with the groups into which words may be separated according to similarity of sound. Thu

le, and to give it natural expression. To make this connection between the two elements as close as possible, the sentences to be given visual form should be taken from the ch

cabulary rapid and, in part, unconscious. Moreover, the anticipation of the meaning of what is about[31] to be read will result in a natural expression of it. If the child has even a provisional grasp of the meaning of the whole sentence before attempting to read i

necessity of using isolated and unfamiliar topics as well as those having no value in themselves. From the first t

ING,

he form, it should be the spontaneous portrayal of the child's own imagery. However crude the product may be, if it is a genuine attempt at such expression, it has the essential ele

ren and is a form of school art that rapidly gives definiteness to the images of natural objects. It brings o

e the place of the many forms of meaningless "busy work" that a misdire

ATIZ

in throwing striking situations into dramatic form. This exercise also should be undirected. If the story

TRUC

ntaneous impulse toward embodying in a suitable[33] form the child's o

s called work. This side should not be neglected. Children are to live in a real world, where the purpose of activity is not always in the activity itsel

h the whole, yet, under present conditions, they offer the only means practicable. Children will take a

" by Worst, where measurements and directions can be found for the const