A COURSE IN LITERATURE FOR THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
The list of titles in literature given below must be taken as free
suggestion, not at all as dogmatic requirement; least of all should it
be regarded as an exhaustive and definitive programme. Throughout this
little book there has been a deliberate effort to mention no more
examples and specimens than would serve to support and illustrate the
principles stated or the theories advanced, so as to keep out of it the
wearing atmosphere of interminable lists, and to leave those who might
accept the doctrines quite free to apply them in the selection of their
own specimens. So now in the plan appended the titles have been
carefully sifted and resolutely limited. It should not be necessary to
say that it is not intended that all the specimens mentioned in any one
year should be given within that year in every school--perhaps in any
school; or that they should necessarily be given in the year to which
they are here assigned. They are rather designed to indicate the kind of
thing one would choose for the average classes in the average school,
and to suggest things that go well together. I have even ventured to
hope that those who read the book will also take the pains to read all
the specimens mentioned in the programme, so as to catch their spirit
and atmosphere, and after that choose quite freely for themselves these
or other titles. The field of choice is especially wide among the
folk-tales; all those mentioned are good, and suitable for the places in
which they are put. But there are others good and suitable, which may,
indeed, better satisfy the needs of some special teacher or class. In
some schools, no doubt, it will be well to give a third year of
folk-tales and simple lyrics before beginning the hero-tales. In that
case the whole course would be pushed along a year, making for the last
or eighth year a combination of bits taken from the seventh and eighth
years suggested here. The course is planned for a school whose children
go on into high school; though one can see little reason for a different
course in literature for those children who stop with a grammar-school
education. What we covet for such children is not knowledge of much
literature, nor knowledge of any literature in particular, but a taste
for wholesome books and some trustworthy habits of reading. These
results are best secured when a few suitable and beautiful things have
been lovingly taught and joyfully apprehended. Children thus provided
will keep on reading; if they have been really fed on _Julius Caesar_ or
_The Tempest_ they will hunger for more Shakespeare; if they have taken
delight in _Treasure Island_ they will pursue Stevenson and find Scott
and Cooper. The chances for implanting in them some living and abiding
love of books are much better if we teach them in school the things they
may easily master and completely contain, than if we try to supply them
with what only an adult reader can expect to appropriate, which
therefore takes on the character of a task, or remains in their minds a
mere chaotic mass.
The plan of the course is simple and obvious enough. Indeed, the main
idea is first of all merely that of putting into each year such things
as will delight and train a child of that age in literary ways. With
this is joined the equally simple and reasonable purpose of giving in
each year an acceptable variety looking toward the development of a
generous taste--a story, a heroic poem, a musical lyric or two, a bit of
fun, a group of fables. Throughout the programme there has been a
conscious attempt to use things every teacher knows or may very easily
find, and of associating things that harmonize in spirit.
For the first two years the folk-tales form the core of the course. To
the folk-tales is joined a group of simple lyrics, many of them the more
formal and expressive of the traditionary rhymes. As a matter of course,
in a school where these first- and second-year children have not already
had in kindergarten or in the home nursery the simpler rhymes and
jingles--"Little Boy Blue," "Jack Horner," "There Was a Man in Our
Town"--they should be taught.
In the third year _Robinson Crusoe_ constitutes the large core. As
suggested in another chapter it is well to treat this story as if it
were a cycle, taking it in episodes, and interweaving with it other bits
of literature which harmonize with it, either reinforcing it or
counteracting it. It may easily happen that a teacher would select a
quite different group of poems for study along with _Robinson Crusoe_,
according as he emphasized some other aspect of the story and according
to the maturity of his children. This programme assumes a pretty mature
third-year group. It may be in many schools well to transfer, as I have
suggested, this whole arrangement to the fourth year.
The fifth- and sixth-year work is arranged upon a similar plan--that of
constituting a story or a story-cycle the center of the work, and
associating with it shorter and supplementary bits. While the poems in
both cases are such as harmonize in subject or idea with aspects of the
two stories that will inevitably appear in the teaching, they have not
been chosen solely from that point of view; they are also in every case
beautiful as detached poems, and ideally, at least, suitable for the
children. Every experienced teacher will have other verses and stories
in mind which may be added to those given or substituted for them. Some
of them will be useful, not as class studies necessarily, but as a part
of that "reserve stock" that every teacher has, from which he draws from
time to time something to read to his class which they are not
expecting.
In the programme for the sixth year an alternative is suggested. Many
teachers will find enough in the _Arthur_ stories to form the core of
the literature for the year. Others will find material for the whole
year's stories in the Norwegian and Icelandic sagas. Many will not like
the suggestion of giving the antidote of the chivalric romances--_Don
Quixote_. Many will prefer to drop hero-tales and romances in favor of
more modern stories. Such a group of stories is suggested introducing
the stories that call for interpretation, and the apprehending of a
secondary meaning. This paves the way for the stories of the seventh
year which call for some genuine literary interpretation. In the seventh
year programme the two dramatic bits of Yeats's are suggested, not only
because they are charming in themselves, and are in charming artistic
contrast, but because they can easily be staged and acted, and are full
of suggestion of the kind of thing the children can do themselves. _The
Pot of Broth_ is the dramatization of a well-known folk-droll, and _The
Hour-Glass_ is a morality calling for no complexity of dialogue, of
staging, or of dramatic motive--the kind of play the children can most
easily produce both as literature and as acting.
As suggested in a previous chapter, during this and the following year
each child should be encouraged or required to learn a poem or a story
of his own choosing, which he presents to the class. This will greatly
enrich the class programme. Only one fable is suggested--one of
Fontaine's, the interpretation or moral of which should now be given by
the class; many other fables may be used in the same way, if this
exercise seems to be profitable.
As every observer of schools knows, it is the eighth-year children who
need most accommodation and understanding. The programme offered is
designed for the normal class in the average school--when the children
are really passing into the secondary stage and should be preparing to
go into high school without crossing a chasm. But it may need much
modification for those eighth-year classes in which there are belated
children and unevenly developed children. It is quite possible that
_Julius Caesar_, _The Tempest_, and _Sohrab and Rustum_ may prove
impracticable for such a class, and that something easier would have to
be substituted. In no case can we hope to teach the two plays
exhaustively, either as regards their form or their content. But both
these plays are of that kind of great art that has many levels to which
one may climb in turn, with his growing maturity. And the beauty of both
these plays is that in case the class is precocious and does inquire
deeply into them, there is nothing in the political philosophy of
_Julius Caesar_ or in the spiritual and social philosophy of _The
Tempest_ that may not be safely explained to them. This programme makes
no mention, as may be seen, of the many minor lyrics and bits of drama
and story that will be added from many sources and in many connections:
from their home reading; from the teacher's reserve stock; from their
reading lessons; from their work in other languages; from their
preparation for festivals and celebrations; from suggestions of weather
and season; from occasional current periodicals, and possibly from other
sources.
And when all is said, one must say again that there cannot be a strictly
normalized and fixed curriculum in literature since in this subject more
than in any other the personnel of the class must be considered; their
typical inheritance, their tradition, their social grade, their
community, their other interests, their passing preoccupation and almost
their daily mood, are factors in the problem. The teacher who is
sensitive to these matters in his class will soon emancipate himself
from the fixed curriculum. Let him at the same time be sensitive to the
emphasis and appeal of each bit of art he chooses for them, and he
cannot fail. Whatever his results they will be good.
After so long a preamble follows the list of specimens:
FIRST YEAR
Sagas: "How Arthur Drew the Sword from the Stone."
"How Arthur Got the Sword Excalibur."
Maerchen: _Briar-Rose_, Grimm.
_Snow-white and Rose-red_, Grimm.
_The Elves and the Shoemaker_, Grimm.
_The Musicians of Bremen_, Grimm.
Drolls: _Simple Simon._
_The Johnny-cake._
Accumulative Tales: "The Old Woman Who Found the Sixpence."
_Henny-Penny_.
_The Little Red Hen_.
Fables: "The Crow and the Pitcher."
"The Hare and the Tortoise."
Verses: "I Saw a Ship a-Sailing."
"Sing a Song of Sixpence."
"There Was a Little Guinea-pig."
"Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son."
"Birdie, with the Yellow Bill," Stevenson.
"My Shadow."--Stevenson.
SECOND YEAR
Sagas: "Siegfried Gets the Sword from Mimi."
"Siegfried and the Dragon."
"Siegfried Rescues Brunhild."
Maerchen: _Cinderella, or the Little Glass Slipper._--Perrault.
"Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp," in _Arabian Nights_.
"The Fisherman and the Genie," in _Arabian Nights_.
_Beauty and the Beast._--Madame de Beaumont.
_The Poor Little Turkey Girl._--Cushing.
Drolls: _Hans in Luck._--Grimm.
_Kluge Else._--Grimm.
Chapters from _The Peterkin Papers_.--Hale.
_Little Black Sambo._--Bannerman.
_The Gray Goose._--Pearson.
Accumulative Tales: _The Three Billygoats_, Norwegian.
_Munachar and Manachar_, Irish.
_Titty-mouse and Tatty-mouse_.
Fables: "The Town Mouse and the Field Mouse."
"The Stork and the Log."
"The Fox and the Crow."
Verses: "Three Children Sliding on the Ice."
"Four Brothers Over the Sea."
"The Fairies," Allingham.
"Little Gustava," Celia Thaxter.
"Singing," Stevenson.
"Little Indian, Sioux or Crow," Stevenson.
"The Wind," Stevenson.
"My Ship," Stevenson.
"The Lamb," Blake.
"Piping Down the Valleys Wild," Blake.
"The Pied Piper of Hamelin," Browning.
"The Mountain and the Squirrel," Emerson.
THIRD YEAR
_Robinson Crusoe_.
_Sinbad the Sailor._
_Toomai of the Elephants._--Kipling.
_Rikki-Tikki-Tavi._--Kipling.
_Reynard the Fox._ (Selected stories.)
"_Uncle Remus._" (Selected stories.)
"The Landing of the Pilgrim Fathers in New England," Mrs. Hemans.
"Columbus," Joaquin Miller.
The Twenty-third Psalm. Authorized Version.
"The Idle Shepherd Boys," Wordsworth.
"Spinning Song," Wordsworth.
"The Village Blacksmith," Longfellow.
"Tubal Cain," Mackay.
"The Wreck of the Hesperus," Longfellow.
"The Discoverer of the North Cape," Longfellow.
"The Spider and the Fly," Mary Howitt.
"The Palm Tree," Whittier.
"Hiawatha Builds His Canoe," Longfellow.
Dramatization of a story of some voyager or pioneer.
FOURTH YEAR
_Robin Hood_ (given partly from Howard Pyle's _Robin Hood_,
partly from the Ballads).
"Under the Greenwood Tree," Shakespeare.
"Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind," Shakespeare.
"Waken, Lords and Ladies Gay," Scott.
"Meg Merriles," Keats.
"The Chough and the Crow," Baillie.
"Song of Marion's Men," Bryant.
"My Captain," Whitman.
"Lochinvar," Scott.
"The Shepherd of King Admetus," Lowell.
"Abou Ben Ahdem," Hunt.
"Yussouf," Lowell.
"Sherwood," Alfred Noyes.
"March," Wordsworth.
"When Icicles Hang by the Wall," Shakespeare.
"The Jabberwocky," _Alice in Wonderland_.
FIFTH YEAR
_The Odyssey._--George Herbert Palmer. (Translation.)
_Gulliver's Travels_: "The Voyage to Lilliput."
"The White Seal," Kipling.
"The Coast-wise Lights," Kipling.
"The Sea," Barry Cornwall.
"Sir Patrick Spens," Folk Ballad.
"The Inchcape Rock," Southey.
"To a Waterfowl," Bryant.
"Lead, Kindly Light," Newman.
"The Chambered Nautilus," Holmes.
"The Lake Isle of Innisfree," Yeats.
"Breathes There a Man," Scott.
"Uphill," Christina Rossetti.
"The Long White Seam," Jean Ingelow.
"The Exile of Erin," Campbell.
SIXTH YEAR
Heroic adventures from the chivalric cycles of King Arthur, of
Siegfried, of Roland, and The Cid, and selected episodes from _Don
Quixote_.
or
_The Drums of the Fore and Aft._--Kipling; _Rip Van Winkle._--Irving;
_The Bee-Man of Orn._--Stockton; _Old Pipes and the Dryad._--Stockton;
_The Man Born to Be King._--Morris.
"The Lady of Shalott," Tennyson.
"Hack and Hew," Bliss Carman.
"The Song of the Chattahoochee," Lanier.
"The Cloud," Shelly.
"The Walrus and the Carpenter," from _Alice in Wonderland_.
SEVENTH YEAR
_The Great Stone Face._--Hawthorne.
_The Snow Image._--Hawthorne.
_The Gold Bug._--Poe.
_The Pot of Broth._--Yeats.
_The Hour-Glass._--Yeats.
"A Dissertation on Roast Pig," Lamb.
"The Vision of Mirza," Addison.
"King Robert of Sicily," Longfellow.
"Horatius at the Bridge," Macaulay.
"The Ballad of East and West," Kipling.
"Heroes," Edna Dean Proctor.
"The Yarn of the Nancy Bell," Gilbert.
"The Wolf and the Mastiff," Fontaine.
EIGHTH YEAR
_Julius Caesar._--Shakespeare.
_The Tempest._--Shakespeare.
_Sohrab and Rustum._--Arnold.
_Treasure Island._--Stevenson.
"Old China," Charles Lamb.
_Wake Robin_ (selections).--John Burroughs.
"My Garden Acquaintance," Warner.
"The Goblin Market," Christina Rossetti.
"Each and All," Emerson.
"Hart-leap Well," Wordsworth.
"I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud," Wordsworth.
"The Splendor Falls," Tennyson.
"The Revenge," Tennyson.
"Etin the Forester," Folk Ballad.
"Thomas Rymer," Folk Ballad.
Anyone who has read these eighteen chapters should find himself provided
with a set of maxims and injunctions among which will be the following:
1. Choose the literature for the children under the guidance of those
principles by which you test any literature.
2. Remember that literature is art; it must be taught as art, and the
result should be an artistic one.
3. Never teach a thing you do not love and admire. But learn to suspect
that when you do not love it the fault is in you, and is curable.
4. According to the best light you have, choose those things that are
fitted for the children--corresponding to their experience, or awakening
in them experiences you would like them to have.
5. Teach your chosen bit of literature according to its nature and
genius. Study it so sympathetically that you can follow its hints, and
make its emphases. Teach each piece for its characteristic effect, and
do not try to teach everything in any one piece.
6. Be contented to read with the children a limited number of things.
You cannot read every delightful and helpful thing. You can only
introduce them to literature and teach them to love it.
7. When you have led your class, or half your class, into a vital and
personal love of literature and set their feet on the long path of the
reader's joy, you have done them the best service you can perform as a
teacher of literature.
FINIS