PATER'S CHATS WITH THE BOYS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2895, 8 September 1909, Page 84

PATER'S CHATS WITH THE BOYS.

HOW TO INTEREST OUR CHILDREN , IN GOOD LITERATURE. j Last .week I .gave the .first part m oi a ! leries of cancyeeted extnfets from a long j article with the -above title,, and bow give , the -coßckwimg section. Perhaps I might ! mention liere that an admirable series of ' bcobs called "Told Through the Ages" contains wha>fc Miss Thomson asks for in the opantag Daragraph. , The .series ife pufiHsbed by G. Harrap and Co., -of New York emA London.i ' ' One of the poi&t* discussed by Mi«s Thomson ie the introduction to children of standard literature in a, simplified form, (Such as tbe stories of the^ "Iliad/ ' tbe "Odyssey," '"Fairie Queene/' or the "Canterbiwy Tales," and" she asks : "Mttst ■wte delay introducing ouir children to these glorious stories, which, from their .peculiar qualitiec of romance and mystery, make so particular am appeal to them, because the language is which they arc expressed is l>ey«nd the comprehenisioa of dhildasa years? Another argument I hare eeen put forward is itihait to read these stories in a modern, •paraphrase blunts the enjoyment of the first perasal in the original form. I think these arguments ignore the importance of Association in all literary appreciation. Do we not all love tbe beat' the poets <faliat were familiar to its in onr youth? f Can any poems leplace in the affection I of those/who were brought up on them| those of ' Tennyson and- Browning? In the saane way, perhaps, we- may account for the enthusiasm .shown by some old people for Byron, who was pre-eminently t&e »oet of the early Victorian period. It is because 'these authors are associated in our minds with the enthusiasms aaid as- J parations of oar youth tfcat they can never lose their , hold on our affections. • !An ajlusion to "Maud" or "Paracelsfus" , •will conjure up a whole vista of eunny days. And so when we let out children read — even in a paraphrase- — about Circe or Una, or PaLtmon and Arcite, we are (preparing for them associations which will only make tihexr later acquaintance with the original- poems all the more delightful. But, of course, the paraphrases must be carefully made, and must themselves be expressed in literary language." The historical novel comes* in for brief reference. It lias often struck me what an absurdity it is to supply a school edition of a novel, and to charge perhaps 3s for this abridgment, when the complete edition, can be obtained, in paper covers for 6d, and decently bound in cloth from 6d upwards. Sometimes, however, vit is necesary to have not an abridgment exactly, but an expurgated edition. On $his question Miss Thomson write*: — I How far are we to trust our children , Jffith books written for grown-up people, and i •dealing sometimes with unpleasant things? : iMy own feeling is this. If we have, told our children in a simple and pure-minded fashion the elementary facts of life, merely Qoarse- allusion*, such as occur in. Shakeppeare, will not corrupt them ; if tihey under- ; stand them they will probably think them J Jmecely disgusting and pass onj if they db not understand them they will probably i kvot notice them at all. But if we have )tept these facts of Nature hidden as if they c something wicked, the most innocent k may be made the subject of morbid iosity. With regard to Shakespeare, :t is easy to get expurgated copies for children, and I suppose "ew parents would do fee the mother of one of my pupils did — , give her daughter an ordinary copy with the objectionable lines blacked out, with the J

natural result that the girl found another copy in the original state, and looked out. the deleted passages ! Such a method only draws attention to what we want to conceal. The- books, then, which aTe^most to ba avoided for children are not those which ! are merely coarse- with the ooairseness of I an earlier and simpler time, but those j which treat flippantly the sacred things of [ life ; those that talk frivolously of flirta- > tions, fofr instance, or treat lightly the mar- ! riage tie. One- modern novel of this kind — [ and you will no doubt .be aflblo \o recall many among . those recently published — will do our girls more harm than & hundred! "Othellos." , The cultivation of a taste for essays, ' commsneing with :Addison and Lamb, is recommended, and I would add Macaulay. - In one of our public schools the Articles on Sir Rodger de Covea-ley were- read some time ago, and were relished, as giving an insight into country life in tbe days of Addison ; two or three ol Lamb's Essays axe equally interesting to Fifth and Sdxt/h Standard children; and selections from Macaulay'* Essays are always sure of a welcome. Miss Thomson, in her programme of reading, is, however', thinking more of secondary sahool pupils. Biographies present a difficulty because they are co often of inordinate length, but tbe various cheap series now com- ; mon contain abridgments which will serve | a useful purpose. By tbe bye, the in- ! terestmg biography of Baton the misJ sionary. written by his brother, is now- ' f issued- afi a sixpenny. - , There is nothing perhaps in "which people dafler so much as in their apjvre- < ciation of verse, and a delight in prose does not necessarily predicate a delight m poetry. Some lw/tle children show intense enjoyment of verbal melody at a very early age, and will learn readily and repeat gleefully poems which they do not in the least understand 1 . To others, the very form will be distasteful, and a.n added difficulty in undterstanding the. subject maifcter. li we want to cultivate a love of poetry. I think we ghould aot expect too much, and we should choose as the subject of the first recitation lessons those which have a story, and in which the human element is predominant. Sam.? poetry, such as mucb of ( Wordsworth's, ia pure philosophy ; we should not give a child of nine a philoso- ' phical treatise to read, but "We are S-aven' ased to be considered a suitable pcem to be learned at this age, with the result that fche child thought it simply silly and Inconsequential ; for how | couldi he uTKlerstand that Wordsworth wanted to portray the child's incapacity to understand the idea of death? And I think we should make it a rule never to let children learn poems wihich exalt childhood ; such verses encourage morbidity and intrct-p'€ction." I Poams about flowers, trees, animals — Nature generally, but without any philosophical bask — and narrative poems, happily interest childi'en. Longfellow seams a favourite with Mies Thomson, for she writes of him #s follows, and add-s some good advice: — j Longfellow' 6 poems for etudy by children of 12 or 13. Well/ I suppose none of us would put Longfellow in the first rank of poete; but his simple and lucid language make him especially the children's ' poet, and if tihey arte to love poetry and j not to associate- memories of drudgery and \ difficulty witE their poetry lesson, we must . give them at first something within their ' comprehension. Every poem that is given ! a child to learn by^ heart should be carefully , explained to him 7 or, rather, the teacher should put judicious questions to make the pupil find out the meaning for himself. . I am glad to know from my own know-

ledge that many of our boys and girls are building up libraries of sixpennies; thoe will lead to buying th>» cheap and dainty little cloth-bound ■voluan«B being issued by the Nelsons, Dent, Newnes, Hutchinson, Frowde, anidi others for from 6d upwards. I conclude witib^liss Thomson's reference to the story of Alfred's , desire to read, and how his step-mother, ' Jwditih, encouraged him, &nd> with the ! means Miss Thomson, adopts to encourage t)he building up of libraries. Perhaps we \ can do in a small way what Miss Thorn; son. does : ' In conclusion, there is one device, at , least as old as the- time of Alfred the Great, ; which, by appealing to their pride of pos- ' session, may make children love books. You will remember how, . when Alfred's -step- ', mother Judith -wished to teach hiaa to read, she showed hirn^ a book of poetrY with a ! bsautifully-illumJHated initial letter, and told him that 'When he coold read the contents he should have it for his awn. The story is apocryphal, but I have found it a good plan to lend children boots, and when they have read them to give- them to them ' for themselves, thus enabling them to form , the nucleus of ia really good library. I , hare «lso found it advisable to uae for the ' reading lesson, in school prettily bound and - nicely-printed books, which the pnpiis like to keep afterwards as possessions. Then it is a good plan to encourage boys and girls to make collections of standard «ditioHS of Shakßspeare, Dickens ox Scott. They lifce | to see the growing line of uniform bindings . on their shelves, and every or , Christmas Day enables fihem to prolong in. And this plan encourages them io think of books ac things to be kept and treasured and returned to, not as loans from a circulating library borrowed for an hour's amusement and forgotten as soot as that purpose is accomplished.