The professional storyteller has played a large part in the
successful establishment of storytelling, and is destined to play
a still larger part in the future development of the work in
playgrounds and other institutions, by raising the standards of
the playground library, or settlement worker, who is expected to
tell stories. This she will do not by elaborating methods and
artifices to be imitated, but by frank criticism of native
ability, by inspiring courses in story literature, and by proper
training of the much neglected speaking voice.
The sooner we cease to believe that "anybody can tell a story"
the better for storytelling in every institution undertaking it.
A candidate for a given position may be required to have
storytelling ability, but no assistant should be required to tell
stories as a part of her duties unless she can interest a group
of children who have voluntarily come to listen to her stories.
Repeating simplified versions of stories is not storytelling.
Exercises in memorizing may be as helpful to the storyteller as
the practice of scales to the piano player, but neither is to be
regarded as a source of pleasure to the listener. Listening as
one of a group is a valuable experience in the training of an
assistant who is telling stories in the playground, the library,
or the settlement. Herein lies the advantage of a visiting
storyteller who does not take the place of the playground or
library assistant, but who enlivens the program for the children
and makes it possible for the regular assistant to listen
occasionally and to profit by the experience. (The professional
listener is delightfully characterized in "Miss Muffet's
Christmas Party," by Dr. Samuel McChord Crothers.)
LIST OF FIFTY STORIES AND A LIST OF BOOKS FOR READING ON THE
PLAYGROUND
The outline sent to the members of the Committee on Storytelling
called for the mention of specific stories and for personal
experience in group formation, taking into account age and sex,
time and place, and for a statement of results, in so far as such
results could be stated. From five hundred different stories
mentioned a composite list of "Fifty Stories for the Playground"
has been made. This list is chiefly composed of fairy and folk
tales, Indian legends, and animal stories, as making the
strongest appeal to playground groups and to library groups
unaccustomed to listening to stories.
It also represents the story literature most easily commanded by
the storyteller who has not read widely. Stories from the Norse
and Greek Mythology, from the Niebelungen Lied, the Arthurian
legends, and from Robin Hood; stories of Roland and of
Charlemagne; stories from the Faerie Queene, and from the
Canterbury Tales; historical and biographical stories are
generously represented in the five hundred titles, but such
stories should not be attempted without sufficient reading and
feeling for the subject to enable the storyteller to bring it
vividly and naturally before such a group as she is likely to
meet in her daily experience.
Satisfactory festival stories are reported as exceedingly
difficult to find. Several stories growing out of personal
experiences, such as a "Christmas in Germany," a "May Day in
England," "Fourth of July in the Garden of Warwick Castle," (The
Warwick Pageant of 1900) are mentioned. Atmosphere and festival
spirit are often lacking in stories listed under Festivals and
Holidays.
Poetry and verses are repeated or read at many of the library
story hours. Lear's nonsense rhymes and certain rhythmical story
poems are especially enjoyed by the children. Outlines of stories
or selections from books designed to lead to the reading of an
entire book are mentioned in connection with Dickens, Kipling,
Stevenson, Scott, Victor Hugo, and other authors.
In addition to the list of "Fifty Stories for the Playground" a
list of "Books to Read on the Playground" has been prepared.
Nearly all of the public libraries mentioned in the report send
books to playgrounds when the playgrounds desire it. The use of
books in the roof reading-rooms of libraries is very similar to
their use in the playgrounds. Here and in children's
reading-rooms boys and girls are free to choose the books they
really want to read. In his book entitled "The American Public
Library," Dr. Arthur E. Bostwick makes this statement: "There are
no intellectual joys equal to those of discovery. The boy or girl
who stumbles on one of the world's masterpieces without knowing
what anyone else thinks or has thought about it, and reading it,
admires and loves it, will have that book throughout life as a
peculiar intellectual possession in a way that would have been
impossible if someone had advised reading it and had described it
as a masterpiece. The very fact that one is advised to read a
book because one ought to do so is apt to arouse the same feeling
of repulsion that caused the Athenian citizen to vote for the
banishment of Aristides just because he had grown so weary of
hearing him always called 'The Just.' "