In the "Beacon Second Reader" the author has chosen for his stories only
those of recognized literary merit; and while it has been necessary to
rearrange and sometimes rewrite them for the purpose of simplification,
yet he has endeavored to retain the spirit which has served to endear
these ancient tales to the children of all ages. The fairy story appeals
particularly to children who are in the second school year. It has been
proved by our ablest psychologists that at about this period of
development, children are especially susceptible to the stimulus of the
old folklore. They are in fact passing through the stage which
corresponds to the dawn of the human race, when demons, dragons,
fairies, and hobgoblins were as firmly believed in as rivers and
mountains.
As a test of this theory the author asked hundreds of second-grade and
third-grade school children to recall the stories which they had read
during the preceding year, and to express their preferences. The choice
of more than ninety per cent proved to be either folklore stories, pure
and simple, or such tales as contained the folklore element. To be sure,
children like other stories, but they respond at once with sparkling
eyes and animated voices when the fairy tale is suggested. How unwise,
therefore, it is to neglect this powerful stimulus which lies ready at
our hands! Even a pupil who is naturally slow will wade painfully and
laboriously through a fairy story, while he would throw down in disgust
an account of the sprouting of the bean or the mining of coal.
It can hardly be questioned, moreover, that the real culture which the
child derives from these literary classics is far greater than that
which he would gain from the "information" stories so common in the
average second and third readers.