Ezekiel; Zachariah; Isaiah; Daniel; Jonas; The Delphic Sibyl;
The Cumæan Sibyl; The Libyan Sibyl.
RAPHAEL: St. George and the Dragon.
GUIDO RENI: Jesus and John; St. Michael and the Dragon; Aurora;
Beatrice Cenci; St. Sebastian; The Annunciation; L’Adorata.
ROSSETTI: The Sea Spell; The Blessed Damozel; Ancilla Domini.
ANDREA DEL SARTO: John the Baptist; Virgin in Glory; St. Agnes;
Charity.
TINTORETTO: The Forge of Vulcan; Marriage at Cana; Paradise;
Paolo Veronese; Feast at House of Simon; Feast at House of
Levi; Europa and Jupiter.
TITIAN: John the Baptist; Tribute Money; Titian’s Daughter
Lavinia; Flora; Head of Venus.
TURNER (_Mythological_): Apollo and the Python; Jason in Search
of the Golden Fleece; The Goddess of Discord; Dido Building
Carthage; Ulysses Deriding Polyphemus. (_Historical_): Prince
of Orange; The Death of Nelson; Boat’s Crew Recovering an
Anchor; Hannibal and Army Crossing the Alps; The Field of
Waterloo; Agrippina Landing with the Ashes of Germanicus; The
Fighting Téméraire.
WATTS: Sir Galahad; Orpheus and Eurydice; Endymion.
GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY OF ART STORY MATERIAL
BACON, MARY S. H.: _Pictures That Every Child Should Know_.
CATHER, KATHERINE DUNLAP: _Boyhood Stories of Famous Men_.
COLLMANN, SOPHIE MARIE: _Art Talks with Young Folks_.
DE LA RAMÉE, LOUISE: _Child of Urbino_ (_“Bimbi” Stories_).
ENNIS, LUNA MAY: _Music in Art_.
HARTMANN, SADAKICHI: _Japanese Art_.
HORNE, OLIVE B., and SCOBEY, KATHRINE L.: _Stories of Great
Artists_.
HOURTICQ, LOUIS: _Art in France_.
HURLL, ESTELLE M.: _The Madonna in Art_.
MENEFEE, MAUD: _Child Stories from the Masters_.
SWEETSER, M. F.: _Artist Biographies: Raphael and Leonardo,
Angelo and Titian, Claude Lorrain and Reynolds, Turner and
Landseer, Dürer and Rembrandt, Van Dyck and Angelico, Murillo
and Allston_.
VASARI, GIORGIO: _Lives of the Italian Painters, Sculptors, and
Architects_.
WATERS, CLARA ERSKINE: _Saints in Art_; _Stories of Art and
Artists_.
SOURCES FOR MODERATE-PRICED REPRODUCTIONS OF MASTERPIECES
The Brown Pictures, Milton Bradley Company, Springfield,
Mass.; Emery School Art Company, Boston, Mass.; Maison Braun
et Cie., New York, N.Y.; Frederick A. Stokes Company, New
York, N.Y. (has American rights to many pictures); The Perry
Pictures, Malden, Mass.; The Prang Company, New York, N.Y.; The
University Prints, Boston, Mass.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
DRAMATIZATION
Contemporaneous with what may be termed a renaissance in story-telling
is a strong sentiment in favor of dramatization. Child leaders have
observed that children dramatize spontaneously, and that after they have
heard a tale they often play it without suggestion from an older person.
They impersonate the characters, crudely perhaps, but they represent the
action and portray the story as they understand it.
This they do because the dramatic instinct is a universal instinct.
We are all born imitators, and we like to experience the feelings and
experiences of others. That is why the little girl impersonates her
mother and takes delight in dressing in grown-up attire and playing
lady. It is what actuates the boy to play Indian or soldier or fireman.
He wants to live through the experiences of Indians and soldiers and
firemen; so he goes into the world of make-believe and acts the part.
During that time he is a larger and a different personality. He is not a
little boy who must go to bed before he wants to, and must stay inside
the yard when he longs to be out on the highway; he is a grown man in
a uniform dashing along on an engine; he is a mighty chief in feathers
and war paint, leading his tribe against the enemy or speaking words of
wisdom around the council fire.
There was a time when this sort of play was believed to be of no value
beyond that of a romp that helped to stretch the muscles, but today there
is a very different attitude toward it. Close observation of children
and a more general knowledge of psychology have brought educators to
realize that imitative play is a big factor in mental development. As the
boy impersonates a fireman or Indian he must choose movements in keeping
with the part and reject those not in keeping with it. He must select and
evaluate, and in doing this he is acquiring a power of discrimination
that will be of great value to him later.
The childhood of many famous men of the past was distinguished by an
unusual amount of imitative play, a free expression of the dramatic
instinct. Goethe, in his memories, speaks lovingly of his early years
thus:
From my father I have my stature,
My earnest aim in living;
From little mother, my joyous nature,
My love of story weaving.
Continuing, he tells of the tales he heard, and what they meant to him as
he played them:
Sometimes I was a prince and sometimes a peasant. Now I was
rewarded for being a bountiful and considerate king, then
punished according to the deserts of a wicked and revengeful
giant; and always as I played these parts I was learning the
unchangeable laws of life.
What Goethe learned through acting tales his mother told him, the child
of today is learning as he dramatizes stories, although not always in as
great a measure as was learned by the author of _Faust_ and _Werther_.
But he is learning according to his ability and within his limitations.
When he has played the part, the laws involved in it become fixed
principles with him, and a big step is taken in the direction of his
moral training. Because of a growing recognition of this truth the
present strong interest in dramatization in schools is becoming general
throughout the country. Teachers are beginning to realize that they can
give no more eloquent sermon on truthtelling than to tell the story
of “The Boy Who Cried Wolf,” and then let the children dramatize it.
There is no more effective means of giving a lesson in contentment than
presenting the tale of the pig who thought his life hard and leading the
boys and girls to play it.
Therefore it follows that dramatization should be encouraged, and to
be most far-reaching in its results, it should be done by means of
story-telling, because by proceeding from the story to the action the
child creates the play and makes it his own.
There are many books of plays for children, carefully written and adapted
to their interests in word, style, and theme. But such plays do not mean
as much to the child as those he makes for himself. They are not as much
his own, and consequently they contribute less toward his growth and
development.
The natural way is for the child to hear the story and then act it.
Therefore every story-teller should have in his possession a number of
tales with dramatic possibilities. He should tell one of these vividly
and dramatically, using much dialogue, and then, while it is still fresh
in the minds of the children, encourage them to play it. It is well to
use the published plays also, because there are many excellent ones, but
the narrator should read them over, get the plot, and tell the story,
before putting them into the hands of the children.
Shall dialogue be dictated by the story-teller and the children drilled
in their parts? No. Conversation used in telling the tale will suggest
to the children what to say, and they will make up their own parts. They
must be led and directed, but help from the teacher or leader should be
given in such a way that the children feel they are _making_ the play
themselves. Help them by questions that will lead them to think and act
instead of telling them what to do and say.
Suppose “The Pied Piper of Hamelin” is to be dramatized. After the story
has been told, say to the children, “Do you want to play it?” Of course
they will want to. Then, by questioning, lead them to constructive effort.
How many people shall we need? Immediately the answers will come, and as
the different characters are named make a list, thus getting the cast.
Who can be the mayor, members of the council, the piper, rats, mothers
and fathers, lame boy, etc.?
There will be two divisions, those who are forward, eager to take a
prominent part, and the shy, retiring ones who will not offer. This
latter group must not be ignored, and to draw its members into the work
requires much tact. Sometimes when it is impossible to get a child to
take a speaking part, he can be encouraged to be one of a group of
“supers,” as they are called on the professional stage, because although
he lacks the confidence necessary to make him lift his voice, his
diffidence vanishes in doing pantomime with a number of other children.
He will be a rat or a citizen when he cannot be coaxed or driven into
being the piper, and after many pantomime performances he gains the
confidence in himself that enables him to take a speaking part.
One of the difficulties incident to dramatization in the schoolroom
is that the same children always clamor to take the star parts, and
sometimes sulk if not permitted to do so, or sneer at the efforts of
others. This situation must be met as any other problem in discipline is
met, by skill on the part of the teacher and by inculcating a sense of
fairness and courtesy that holds selfishness in check. Lead the child
to see that what gives him pleasure gives some one else pleasure also,
and that it is the right of each member of the class to experience
that pleasure. Once the boy or girl realizes that well-bred people are
considerate and do not deride the efforts of others, no matter how
imperfect their achievement may be, the dramatization period loses its
greatest bugbear and shy children do not hesitate to take part because of
fear that they will be laughed at. This result cannot be brought about
instantly, but persistence and tact will finally accomplish it.
Do not be discouraged because it seems that some of the shy or less
capable children will never take a speaking part. Sometimes even after
they perform in pantomime they still hang back and will speak only in
chorus. But this last is at least a step in the desired direction. Keep
working them in groups, and gradually from group speaking they will
advance to individual speaking. Sometimes this process is slow and
discouraging, but the teacher should remember that mental development is
never a mushroom growth, and that great achievement is not wrought in a
day. The marble block yields so slowly to the shaping of the sculptor’s
chisel that sometimes it seems it never will take the form he visions for
it, but ceaseless effort always brings results. So it is with the teacher
in molding human material. Results are sure to come if persistence and
patience are unflagging and faith is deep and strong. It is worth much
for a shy, self-conscious child to grow to the point where he can lose
himself in the rôle of a play, and no matter how crudely he does it, he
should be encouraged and given frequent opportunities to express himself,
because as a means of self-development his crude performance is of as
much value as the artistic one of the talented child, although it may be
less enjoyable to spectators.
With little children especially, it is desirable to use some play whose
cast will include every member of the class. It gives the eager child
a chance to be “in it,” as children say, and makes it easier to draw
the diffident child to participate, because he wants to do what all the
others are doing. “The Pied Piper” is ideal for this, because of the
flexibility of groups. There can be enough rats, parents, children, or
council members to include twenty or forty children, and the larger the
groups the more intense the interest.
After the cast is decided upon, plan the scenes, again by questioning
the children. What is the first thing to be done and where is it done?
Thus, by question and suggestion, work up the lines. In other words,
have the children create the parts themselves and they will play them
spontaneously. The production may not be highly artistic, but it will
have greater educational value than one worked out by an adult and
merely acted by the children. After it has been created in this way it
may be put into finished permanent form. Little children may practice
it until they memorize the lines, while those in the grammar grades may
write parts, thus making a play that can be used many times. This sort of
work is very valuable, and may form a composition or language exercise
that will be enjoyed by the class.
Another method is to have the various members suggest lines to be spoken
by the different characters and choose the best for the play. Sometimes
a child who does little in the usual composition work and never gets a
high mark, will suggest an excellent line or sentence, and to have it go
into the play is a tremendous joy to him, especially if he doubts his own
ability. Another plan that makes the class interest keen, is for each
member to plan or write a scene, and without the members knowing the
authorship of the various papers, have them read, and select the best by
vote, whereupon the name of the writer is revealed. This method can be
used in writing parts for one character or for all the characters, and in
several other ways that will be of much value to the children.
Of course the teacher or leader must be the guiding spirit, because a
well-built, correctly proportioned plot is necessary. But her suggestion
should be chiefly by way of question, leaving the children to feel that
they, and not the instructor, are doing the work, although in reality the
teacher’s judgment is the foundation upon which the structure stands, and
she must use it in building the play just as she uses it in telling the
story.
For little people there are many stories with dramatic possibilities,
some of which may be acted wholly in pantomime, some with combined
pantomime and spoken parts, and others entirely of spoken parts. In
working with foreign children it is well to begin with pantomime plays,
as the child who knows he cannot express himself easily in English
will always balk at taking a speaking part. Some of Æsop’s fables lend
themselves particularly well to pantomime, especially “The Lion and the
Mouse,” “The Fox and the Grapes,” “The Dog and His Shadow,” and “The Hare
and the Tortoise.” _The Dramatic Festival_, by Craig, and _Festivals and
Plays_, by Chubb, give valuable suggestions for pantomime work, as well
as a list of plays adapted to it, and the worker with older children will
also find these books to be excellent guides.
There is an equally large amount of material for dramatic work with
older children. _Hiawatha_ never fails to delight fourth and fifth grade
boys and girls. _Robin Hood_ in dramatic form is loved even more than in
story, as are some of the exploits of King Arthur and his knights and of
Pwyll, the hero of the Mabinogion. Any of these tales may be carried out
simply or may be worked into elaborate performances with costumes and
stage settings. If the latter be the choice, much pleasure and useful
experience will come to the children through making the properties. Any
boy who can whittle can fashion spears and swords, and gold and silver
paper is wonderfully effective in supplying glitter. Does a knight need
colored hose to be in keeping with his doublet? Let him borrow a pair of
his mother’s or sister’s white ones and coat them with blackboard crayon
of the desired hue. One laundering will make them spotless again, and
there is no outlay of money for something that must be discarded at the
end of the performance. Helmets, shields, and pilgrim hats can be made by
the manual-training boys, and girls in the domestic-science class will
enjoy sewing the costumes.
The teacher in the ungraded school is particularly fortunate in
opportunities for this kind of work, because she can correlate it with
other subjects in ways that workers in schools using the departmental
system cannot do. One country teacher had her eighth-grade history class
give a pageant portraying the French exploration in the Mississippi
Valley. The class devoted a term to the preparation; the subject was made
the nucleus of their reading, language, history, and manual work, and the
results were most gratifying. Boys who never had written a readable paper
did some astonishingly good work in composition because of their interest
in the play and their desire to contribute to it, and the standard of
class scholarship was raised, to say nothing of the joy the children
derived from it.
Many other historical subjects are equally rich in possibilities. The
Spanish exploration in Florida, the Dutch in New York, the Spanish
settlement of California, the framing and adoption of the Declaration
of Independence, John Smith and Pocahontas, Ponce de Leon seeking the
fountain of youth, the story of Columbus, and many similar themes afford
good opportunities for class play-making and correlation of school
subjects.
Sometimes a picture will suggest an entire scene in a dramatization, or
even an entire play; the following are especially good for this purpose:
BACON: The Burial of Miles Standish.
BALACA: Departure of Columbus from Palos.
BOUGHTON: Pilgrims Going to Church; Pilgrim Exiles; The Return
of the Mayflower; Priscilla.
KAULBACH: The Pied Piper of Hamelin.
PILOTY: Columbus on the Deck of the Santa Maria.
VAN DER LYN: The Landing of Columbus.
Those wishing to make a specialty of dramatization will find the
following books helpful:
CHUBB: _Festivals and Plays_.
CRAIG: _The Dramatic Festival_.
CURTIS: _The Dramatic Instinct in Education_.
The following are excellent stories for dramatic work with little
children, and are included in so many books that they are available to
every teacher:
Three Billy Goats Gruff; The Wolf and the Seven Little Kids;
Chicken Little; The Old Woman and Her Pig; The Pig Brother; The
Gingerbread Boy; The Boy Who Cried Wolf; The Town Musicians;
Mother Goose Rhymes; The Three Bears; The Pancake; The
Discontented Pig.
Many others will be found in the list of story collections for children
in the rhythmic period, and in the bibliography on the following page.
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF MATERIAL FOR DRAMATIZATION
_For Primary Grade Children_
BELL, FLORENCE E.: _Fairy Tale Plays and How to Act Them_.
CHADWICK, M. L. PRATT-, and FREEMAN, E. GRAY: _Chain Stories
and Playlets_.
NIXON-ROULET, M. F.: _Fairy Tales a Child Can Read and Act_.
NOYES, M. I., and RAY, B. H.: _Little Plays for Little People_.
PERRY, S. G. S.: _When Mother Lets Us Act_.
STEVENSON, AUGUSTA: _Children’s Classics in Dramatic Form,
Books 1-3_.
WELLS, CAROLYN: _Jolly Plays for Holidays_.
_For Intermediate Grade Children_
HARRIS, F. J.: PLAYS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE.
SIDGWICK, ETHEL: _Four Plays for Children_.
SPOFFORD, HARRIET PRESCOTT: _The Fairy Changeling_.
STEVENSON, AUGUSTA: _Children’s Classics in Dramatic Form,
Books 4-6_.
_St. Nicholas Book of Operettas and Plays._
_For Grammar Grade Children_
FRANK: _Short Plays about Famous Authors_.
LANSING, M. F.: _Quaint Old Stories to Read and Act_.
LÜTKENHAUS, A. M., and KNOX, MARGARET: _Plays for School
Children_.
RUCKER and RYAN: _Historical Plays of Colonial Days_.
CHAPTER TWELVE
BIBLE STORIES
One of the glaring defects of our modern educational system is that
almost no provision is made for the study of the Bible as a great
classic, and as a result boys and girls complete grammar and high-school
courses without sufficient knowledge of the epic of the Hebrews to enable
them to understand the world’s best literature. The myths of Greece and
Rome are studied because of their cultural value, yet from universities
throughout the country comes the complaint that many of the works of
famous authors are beyond the enjoyment of students because the Biblical
allusions have no meaning for them. What should be as familiar as “Red
Riding Hood” and “Cinderella” is known in name only, and the immortal
book is regarded as a repository of golden texts and maxims instead of as
a glorious artistic creation.
The masses of children know almost nothing of the story of Israel,
because outside of the Sunday school and the exceptional home, it is
rarely told. Yet educators emphasize its need in the intellectual as
well as in the spiritual development of the child, and declare that the
Old Testament tales should be as much a part of the school curriculum
as are the myths of Greece and Rome and the northland. Rein, the great
German educator, advocates using them in the third and fourth grades to
the exclusion of all others, which is done in the state schools of Baden,
while in America Dr. G. Stanley Hall pleads eloquently in behalf of Bible
stories.
“To eliminate the Bible from education,” says this famous psychologist,
“is as preposterous pedagogically as it would have been in the days of
Plato to taboo Homer from the education of Greek youth. It is not only a
model of English, but it is impossible to understand the culture history
of Europe without it, as it has influenced the literature, history, and
life of Western nations as no other book has begun to do.”
The secular narrator, as well as the teacher of religion, should use
the Bible tales freely, that men and women of the future may have a
broader knowledge of literature, history, and life than they can have
without them. This is no impossible task, even for the amateur, because
the Biblical narratives are perfect ones for telling. Nowhere else in
literature do we find such thrilling tales of adventure, such exquisite
idylls, such sublime ballads, such annals of high purpose and noble
achievement, as in the epic of Israel. Nowhere else are there more
spectacular, perfectly constructed plots. Ruskin said, “It would be
pre-eminently the child’s book even though it had no religious value
above other books”; and Dr. Fuchs of Vienna declares that we might, if
we lacked material, give children nothing but Bible stories and yet
satisfy every craving of their natures, because the Bible contains every
type of tale that appeals to the child. From Genesis to Revelation
it is an incomparable record of human desire, human endeavor, human
failure, and human success. In the Old Testament we find myth, fairy
tale, fable, romance, legend, and history, told in simple, elemental
beauty by the Hebrew story-tellers, tinged with that varied color and
imagery so characteristic of oriental literature and so fascinating to
children,—stories that, as Mrs. Houghton says, “are the product of a
child nation, and therefore very close to the heart of the child.”
The Old Testament, rather than the New, is the child’s storybook, because
it is the expression of a primitive people, and its tales picture
primitive, rugged heroes that boys and girls can understand, whereas
the second division of the Bible, except that portion centering around
the childhood and boyhood of Christ, is adult in character. But it is
a mistake to think that all Old Testament tales can be presented with
gratifying results. To tell the story of Ruth and Boaz to tiny tots would
be as absurd as to give them the _Decameron_ of Boccaccio or Goethe’s
_Faust_, because the characters and incidents are remote from their
interest. In using material from the Bible, as from any other source, it
is necessary to keep in mind the story interests of childhood, and to
remember that the skeletons of tales, not the style and vocabulary in
which they are written, must be the test for selection. If the framework
is suited to the period of mental development, the language can be
adapted, while otherwise no amount of simplifying can bring it within the
understanding and powers of enjoyment.