the kind of content proper to early childhood is determined by the nature of the child himself. it is the child that is to be educated. the teacher must take him as he is, with full trust that the strengthening of those powers at present active will result in his highest good. all attempts to improve on nature has been abortive. every normal child is active in those ways which the race experience has embedded in him. his activities are echoes of those by which the race has been successful. the conception of the child standing over against the real subject matter of education and in direct antagonism[12] to it, between which and him there is no intrinsic relation and into which he must be introduced by external means, is not in harmony with an optimistic philosophy or with a correct understanding of pedagogical principles.
there must be, in the nature of things, a relation between the activities already functioning in the child and the material the assimilation of which will constitute him not only a thoroughly equipped individual but also a socially efficient factor. it is a mistaken view to suppose that the exercise and the development of the activities dominant in early childhood will lead away from the best interests of the individual or endanger his efficiency as a member of society. it is anomalous to assume that the impulses and interests of childhood must be suppressed or eradicated in order to fit him for participation in social life. these impulses have been implanted in his nature by actual participation in a social life on the part of his ancestry, and they are the possibilities of a worthy social development.
while this is true, while the determining factor in the selection and arrangement of the subject-matter of education is the child himself, yet the undoubted parallelism between his growth and that of the race widens the scope and furnishes the broader basis for such selection and arrangement. it matters little to what extent such a parallelism is accepted. the principle once established makes it a matter of indifference[13] whether we proceed from the individual or from the broader standpoint of the psychological history of the race. this psychological history is made out by a study of the literature products left behind in the ascent from the lower levels of development to the higher, as represented in modern civilization.
phase of mind activity in early civilization.
a survey of the literary remains of the past gives conclusive proof that the characteristic phase of mind activity in the dawning periods of civilization is the imaginative or mythical. the earliest literary product of every people is the epic, whose chief elements are legends, myths and the heroic, and whose authorship is not individual but of the race itself. such a product, not the creation of any one mind, but slowly fashioned through the centuries by the poetic genius of the race, however trivial it may seem, has strong claims on our deepest veneration. it should receive most careful study and consideration.
these epic remains come from the innermost life of a people. they are the expression of this life. they are eloquent witnesses of a strong imagination dealing with the mysteries of earth, of sky, and of life itself. they tell of the morning of history, when man was close to nature—a part of nature. the earth, trees, waters, animals—all forms, animate and inanimate,[14] had voices for him. he communed with them. he treated them as of equal rank with himself.
a third element of the race products.
but, in addition to their imaginative character and their closeness to nature, these race products have still a third element of the utmost value for use as material for primary instruction. while they “enforce no moral” they tell “a story, and the moral in solution with the story.” each tale is a narration without comment. the ethical teaching involved is in the most concrete form. it is not set out and emphasized, but lies wrapped up in the movement of the narrative itself and awaits the exercise of the child’s ethical judgment.
viewed from our ethical standpoint, folklore does not always come up to the highest standard. there are objectionable features in many tales. in this respect they reflect the uncritical and even crude morals of the time. while this is true of some of the tales, in many the ethical teaching is pure, lofty and wholesome, and furnishes an element greatly needed in our primary schools. we have here held up for esteem and veneration these virtues of head and heart and action that lie at the base of a happy, considerate and industrious home life. baseness, cruelty, ingratitude, and laziness are brought home to the individual in their consequences. the corresponding[15] virtues are shown in their true relation to happiness and well being. this may not be the highest form of ethical activity, but it is the only kind of ethical teaching on a level with child thought. the morality of the stories is set forth in the concrete as a principle of action found valuable in the race’s history.
that such a content is a great desideratum for purposes of ethical instruction in our schools all will admit. the condition of religious thought is such as to preclude the use of sacred literature. perhaps it would not afford so many advantages for purposes of ethical teaching in the first year of school life as literature closer to the childhood of the race in its origin. some subject-matter that affords opportunity for the exercise of the ethical judgment is an imperative demand for our time. what is there more suitable than this embalmed judgment of the race as to what is valuable in conduct and character? here are stored up in a form that appeals to the child material for generalizations as to the conditions of well-being and of happiness, as well as of a moral and a useful life. all that the race has thought, felt, and experienced is here at the service of the child. one is almost tempted to use the expression of hegel and say that, in assimilating the ethical teaching of these racial literatures, the child is being suckled at the breast of the universal ethos.
[16]
the legendary and the mythological the child’s natural food.
even to casual observation there is close correspondence between child nature and the characteristics of the early literature of the race. children are wholly in the imaginative on mythical level of thought. they are immersed in the sensuous. they refuse to be bound by the hard matter of fact. they will away and claim the world as their own through which to roam on the unfettered wing of fancy. they claim freedom to construct their own world and to people it with creatures of their own fabrication, independent of the shackles of time and space.
the child also feels himself a part of nature, not as something standing over against it. the separation has not yet come. he ascribes an equal and like personality to animate and inanimate objects. he is at home among animals and plants. there is spontaneous interest in all phases of nature, and inborn love for her creatures; and as to the ethical element, the child is not without points of contact for it. he is born with social impulses. he is not only to be a social creature, but is one at all stages of development. he is nothing if not social. the fiction of original, independent individuality which must be thrown off, given up, or eradicated before becoming a social being, is fast giving way to the natural or[17] organic theories of social origin and growth. the very impulses which are sometimes cited to show the natural depravity of childhood are the vigorous reaching out of his nature toward a participation in the social life.
thus there can be little doubt as to the fitness of legendary and mythological material for the needs of the child. it is his natural food. it fits in with his forms of thought—is in obvious relation to them. it meets the needs of activities already functioning. it discloses a world in which he can be at home. it falls in with his interpretation of this world, while the simple social life therein depicted appeals to his interest.
how are we to discriminate as to material to be selected?
if this position is granted, how then, out of the vast richness of the material, are particular selections to be made? what principles should govern in our choice? as already hinted there are degrees of value, for purposes of instruction, in the immense treasury of folklore, myth and fable. it will be readily conceded that what is known as folklore has qualities rendering it of greatest value, for the first years of school life. it is simple and direct. its conception of the world is that of pure naturalism. the formal myth and fable belong to later stages of mental development. the fable, too, has the objection of being explicitly didactic in its enforcement of the moral.
[18]
narratives selected and the basis of selection.
in the following narratives, for the most part consisting of german m?rchen, the principles of selection given below have been kept in mind:
1. the story must be simple, direct, and imaginative.
2. it must have strong ethical significance and must avoid cruel situations. stories dealing with happy home life—emphasizing industry, thrift, and usefulness—are to be given preference.
3. it must offer a content rich in social allusion, in outdoor life, and in references to natural objects, animate and inanimate.
4. it should be of such abiding worth that it will bear repetition and hold interest.
5. it must be dramatic; that is, there should be movement, activity, dialogue, interesting and even humorous incidents, but all subordinate to a central unity. only such a dramatic unity can work a deep and lasting impression.
these principles of selection are in the main those enunciated by william rein in his excellent manual, das erste schuljahr, a book with which every primary teacher should be familiar. the stories here presented have the sanction of such eminent students of pedagogy as william rein, ziller,[19] just, and hiemish—all leaders of educational thought in germany.
the text of the first fourteen tales has been translated with a few adaptations from the german of hiemish, as found in his das gesinnungsunterricht. to these have been added andersen’s fir tree and miss harrison’s hans and the four big giants.
the order here given is not essential, but on the whole it will be found a rational one. the succession could be determined by many points of view. the one here chosen is that of relation to home life. the series begins with the simplest home relations of parents and brother and sister. it gradually broadens into the wider circle of companionship, and contact with the world external to the home. it culminates in miss harrison’s fine story, hans and the four big giants, where the separation from home is complete and the child is brought into contact with the highest industrial and scientific phases of modern civilization. transition from the more simple situations to the more complex and longer narratives have also been kept in mind.
the four story groups.
thus the stories fall into four groups. the first group comprises the seven little goats, the star dollars, red riding hood, sweet rice porridge, mother frost, and rose-red[20] and snow-white. these stories are confined chiefly to the home circle and deal with the relation of parent and child.
the second group is the cock and the hen, the death of the cock, and birdie and lena. these are partly inside and partly outside the family circle. there is contact with persons outside the home.
the third group is the wolf and the fox, the street musicians, the straw, the coal and the bean, the wonderful traveler, and cinderella. this group extends the relationship further into the external world.
lastly, in the story of hans and the four big giants, the horizon is widened so as to include the separation from the home and an independent career among strangers. the fir tree is added for use as a christmas story for those who desire it. in fact, many of the stories could be taken out of their order and be used as introductions to the study of the seasons. the cock and the hen is an autumn story, while several others might be used as dealing with spring time.
