HISTORIC PAGEANTS.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1878, 11 October 1913, Page 11

HISTORIC PAGEANTS.

THEIR EDUCATIONAL VALUE,

[CONTMOTTED.]

The word " pageant "—pronounced with a short or a long "a" according as one bails from south or north of the' Border —has the same origin m " page." iW« speak of an additional "leaf" to a table, and this meaning of leaf or •page is practically identical with that of " pagen"—tho old fo'fm of pageant— namely a portable platform or stage. From this wo get to "that which iB presented on a stage, "usually in grand and showy dress. The first of the modern Berioß of pageants was that at Sherbourne, produced by Louis . Parkor to commemorate tho 1000 th anniversary of tho town. Then followed Warwick, Oxford, St. Albans, Bury St. Edmunds, with scenes from their civio history; audi after nearly every town in England and Scotland had made into stage pictures the lowed a third phase when the Church and tho Army each sot forth in pageant form the history of its growth and development.

Lifting the Curtain to Knowledge. jßccent years-have seen a'change in educational method. The old idea that a child had got merely to be * stuffed like a roast turkey with certain stereo-, typed kinds of knowledge is dead. It is realised nowadays that far bettor and more rapid results can bo achieved by securing tho co-operation of the pupil; and this can 'only be done by interesting him or her. Instead of trying aB the old-time master did to imprint barely understood facts on a child's memory direct, modern systems utilise tho senses and above all aim to search the memory through the eye. - Can we not remember what a dull subject geography wa sas learnt by rote with atlas and lists of strange names P And then how our whole mental attitude changed as travel enabled us to visualise and call up in memory pictures of wharves and Btreets and beautiful _ scenery. Similarly contrast the impression made iy practical demonstrations in eleotri-

city, dynamics, or chemistry, with the drudgery of trying to absorb cold formulae from books.

This fact was realised by the clergy iof,the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries,' and to their system of teaching religion and history by means of the mystery and tho morality play wo owo our Elizabethan drama. Biblical and allegorical | figures, the vices, the virtues, spirits of good and evil as. characters in a mask were the illustrated toxt-book for the learners of that day. Old Worlds Made New. And so it is with pageants. It is not & coating of jam to conceal a_ nasty pill. This appeal to tho eye'is intended to show that what it aims at teaching is. in itself pleasurable. Many of us are accustomed to , consider history a dull subject. A pageant lends colour and life to the dry bones of names and dates. It stimulates the imagination and sends us away eager to take lip again the lorig-laid aside printed page, and ablo to seo fis wo read tho old world dress and colour and courtly oraco ■of manner. It makes us realise, {hat history is engrossing in its interest,' and that the studv of it is not Wearisome or irksome, but a pastime and a recreation. It is hoped that tho pageant to bo hold in Newtown Park on October 26 n.nd 27 will bo hut the forerunner of many, and that thoy will •" -<vo a great educational factor in tho •' ■/.'jnunity.