Storytelling in the playgrounds of New York City is considered an
important feature of the work of playground assistants wherever
the conditions are favorable to carrying it on.
In the Parks and Playgrounds Association the leader of the Guild
of Play tells stories herself and is supplemented by regular
assistants and volunteer workers with whom she holds conferences
on storytelling. The work of the Guild of Play is extended to
hospitals for Crippled Children, to homes for Destitute Children
and to settlements. (See Handbook and Report of Parks and
Playgrounds Association.)
In the playgrounds and vacation schools maintained by the Board
of Education, storytelling is carried on by the supervisors and
assistants. The Nurses' Settlement, Greenwich House, Union
Settlement, Hartley House, and Corning-Clark House, report weekly
story hours, frequently held on Sunday afternoons. Storytelling
is carried on in other settlements and by several church houses,
St. Bartholomew's Parish House reporting a well attended story
hour following a mid-week church service.
In the New York Public Library, storytelling, under the general
direction of the supervisor of work with children, is in special
charge of a library assistant who has been a student of dramatic
art as well as of library science. Storytelling is not required
of library assistants. Any assistant who wants to tell stories is
given an opportunity to do so and to profit by criticism. Her
trial experience is made with a group of children. If she proves
her ability to hold their interest, she is then allowed to make
up her own program for a series of story hours, basing it upon
her spontaneous interests, her previous reading, and the special
needs of the library where the story hour is to be held. The fact
that storytelling has been regarded as a potent factor in the
unification of work with children in the rural districts, as well
as in the congested centers, where branch libraries are situated,
has greatly influenced the present organization of the work.
Racial interests have been considered, and on such festival days
as are observed by the Hungarians, the Bohemians, and the Irish,
special story hours have been held. In each case a volunteer
storyteller of the nationality concerned lent interest to the
occasion.
Weekly story hours are now held in most of the branch libraries.
In some of them, two or more story hours are held. Story hours in
roof reading-rooms are held irregularly during the summer.
Marked results of storytelling after three years are shown by a
very great improvement in the character of the recreational
reading done by the children, and in their sense of pleasure in
the children's room.
The keen enjoyment of the library assistants who have been
telling stories, and the interest of other workers in the
library, indicates a valuable contribution to the work, by
bringing its people together in their conception of what the
library is trying to do for children.
Repeated requests for library storytellers have been received
from institutions for the Blind, the Deaf Mutes, the Insane, from
Reformatory institutions, as well as from settlements, church
houses, public and private schools, parents' meetings, and
industrial schools.
Three branches of The National Storytellers' League hold meetings
in New York City. (A full account of the National Storytellers'
League is given by its founder Richard T. Wyche, in the
Pedagogical Seminary, volume 16.) Courses in storytelling are
given at several schools and colleges, at The Summer School of
Philanthropy, and at The National Training School for Young
Women's Christian Associations.