文档介绍：Stories To Tell Children
Stories To Tell Children
1
Stories To Tell Children
Concerning the fundamental points of method in telling a story, I have
little to add to the principles which I have already stated as necessary, in
my opinion, in the book of which this is, in a way, the continuation. But in
the two years which have passed since that book was written, I have had
the happiness of working on stories and the telling of them, among
teachers and students all over this country, and in that experience certain
secondary points of method e to seem more important, or at least
more in need of emphasis, than they did before. As so often happens, I had
assumed that "those things are taken for granted;" whereas, to the beginner
or the teacher not naturally a story-teller, the secondary or implied
technique is often of greater difficulty than the mastery of underlying
principles. The few suggestions which follow are of this practical, obvious
kind.
Take your story seriously. No matter how riotously absurd it is, or how
full of inane repetition, remember, if it is good enough to tell, it is a real
story, and must be treated with respect. If you cannot feel so toward it, do
not tell it. Have faith in the story, and in the attitude of the children toward
it and you. If you fail in this, the immediate result will be a touch of
shame- facedness, affecting your manner unfavorably, and, probably,
influencing your accuracy and imaginative vividness.
Perhaps I can make the point clearer by telling you about one of the
girls in a class which was studying stories last winter; I feel sure if she or
any of her fellow students recognizes the incident, she will not resent
being made to serve the good cause, even in the unattractive guise of a
warning example.
A few members of the class had prepared the story of "The Fisherman
and his Wife." The first girl called on was evidently inclined to feel that it
was rather a foolish story. She tried to tell it