A Study of Fairy Tales | Page 6

11, in the section, "The
Fairy Tale as Literature," and the training of the memory and the
exercise of the reason in connection with the treatment of various other
topics later on, these subjects will be passed by for the present. Every
day the formation of habits of mind during the process of education is
being looked upon with a higher estimate. The formation of habits of
mind through the use of fairy tales will become evident during
following chapters.
Fairy tales extend and intensify the child's social relations. They appeal
to the child by presenting aspects of family life. Through them he
realizes his relations to his own parents: their care, their guardianship,
and their love. Through this he realizes different situations and social
relations, and gains clear, simple notions of right and wrong. His
sympathies are active for kindness and fairness, especially for the
defenseless, and he feels deeply the calamity of the poor or the
suffering and hardship of the ill-treated. He is in sympathy with that
poetic justice which desires immediate punishment of wrong,
unfairness, injustice, cruelty, or deceit. Through fairy tales he gains a
many-sided view of life. Through his dramas, with a power of
sympathy which has seemed universal, Shakespeare has given the adult
world many types of character and conduct that are noble. But fairy
tales place in the hands of childhood all that the thousands and
thousands of the universe for ages have found excellent in character
and conduct. They hold up for imitation all those cardinal virtues of
love and self-sacrifice,--which is the ultimate criterion of character,--of
courage, loyalty, kindness, gentleness, fairness, pity, endurance,
bravery, industry, perseverance, and thrift. Thus fairy tales build up
concepts of family life and of ethical standards, broaden a child's social

sense of duty, and teach him to reflect. Besides developing his feelings
and judgments, they also enlarge his world of experience.
In the school, the fairy tale as one form of the story is one part of the
largest means to unify the entire work or play of the child. In
proportion as the work of art, nature-study, game, occupation, etc., is
fine, it will deal with some part of the child's everyday life. The good
tale parallels life. It is a record of a portion of the race reaction to its
environment; and being a permanent record of literature, it records
experience which is universal and presents situations most human. It is
therefore material best suited to furnish the child with real problems.
As little children have their thoughts and observations directed mainly
toward people and centered about the home, the fairy tale rests secure
as the intellectual counterpart to those thoughts. As self-expression and
self-activity are the great natural instincts of the child, in giving
opportunity to make a crown for a princess, mould a clay bowl,
decorate a tree, play a game, paint the wood, cut paper animals, sing a
lullaby, or trip a dance, the tale affords many problems exercising all
the child's accomplishments in the variety of his work. This does not
make the story the central interest, for actual contact with nature is the
child's chief interest. But it makes the story, because it is an organized
experience marked by the values of human life, the unity of the child's
return or reaction to his environment. The tale thus may bring about
that "living union of thought and expression which dispels the isolation
of studies and makes the child live in varied, concrete, active relation to
a common world."
In the home fairy tales employ leisure hours in a way that builds
character. Critical moments of decision will come into the lives of all
when no amount of reason will be a sufficient guide. Mothers who
cannot follow their sons to college, and fathers who cannot choose for
their daughters, can help their children best to fortify their spirits for
such crises by feeding them with good literature. This, when they are
yet little, will begin the rearing of a fortress of ideals which will
support true feeling and lead constantly to noble action. Then, too, in
the home, the illustration of his tale may give the child much pleasure.
For this is the day of fairy-tale art; and the child's satisfaction in the

illustration of the well-known tale is limitless. It will increase as he
grows older, as he understands art better, and as he becomes familiar
with the wealth of beautiful editions which are at his command.
And finally, though not of least moment, fairy tales afford a vital basis
for language training and thereby take on a new importance in the
child's English. Through the fairy tale he learns the names of things and
the meanings of words. One English fairy tale, The Master of all
Masters, is