A Study of Fairy Tales | Page 7

a ludicrous example of the tale built on this very theme of
names and meanings. Especially in the case of foreign children, in a
tale of repetition, such as The Cat and the Mouse, Teeny Tiny, or The
Old Woman and Her Pig, will the repetitive passages be an aid to
verbal expression. The child learns to follow the sequence of a story
and gains a sense of order. He catches the note of definiteness from the
tale, which thereby clarifies his thinking. He gains the habit of
reasoning to consequences, which is one form of a perception of that
universal law which rules the world, and which is one of the biggest
things he will ever come upon in life. Never can he meet any critical
situation where this habit of reasoning to consequences will not be his
surest guide in a decision. Thus fairy tales, by their direct influence
upon habits of thinking, effect language training.
Fairy tales contribute to language training also by providing another
form of that basic content which is furnished for reading. In the future
the child will spend more time in the kindergarten and early first grade
in acquiring this content, so that having enjoyed the real literature,
when he reads later on he will be eager to satisfy his own desires. Then
reading will take purpose for him and be accomplished almost without
drill and practically with no effort. The reading book will gradually
disappear as a portion of his literary heritage. In the kindergarten the
child will learn the play forms, and in the first grade the real beginnings,
of phonics and of the form of words in the applied science of spelling.
In music he will learn the beginnings of the use of the voice. This will
leave him free, when he begins reading later, to give attention to the
thought reality back of the symbols. When the elements combining to
produce good oral reading are cared for in the kindergarten and in the
first grade, in the subjects of which they properly form a part, the child,

when beginning to read, no longer will be needlessly diverted, his
literature will contribute to his reading without interference, and his
growth in language will become an improved, steady accomplishment.

REFERENCES
Allison, Samuel; and Perdue, Avis: The Story in Primary Instruction.
Flanagan.
Blow, Susan; Hill, Patty; and Harrison, Elizabeth: The Kindergarten.
Houghton.
Blow, Susan: Symbolic Education. Appleton.
Chamberlain, Alexander: "Folk-Lore in the Schools," Pedagogical
Seminary, vol. vii, pp. 347-56.
Chubb, Percival: "Value and Place of Fairy Stories," National
Education Association Report, 1905.
Dewey, John: The School and the Child. Blackie & Sons.
Ibid.: The School and Society. University of Chicago Press.
"Fairy Tales," Public Libraries, 1906, vol. 11, pp. 175-78.
Palmer, Luella: "Standard for Kindergarten Training," Kindergarten
Review, June, 1914.
Welsh, Charles: Right Reading for Children. Heath.
CHAPTER II

PRINCIPLES OF SELECTION FOR FAIRY TALES
All our troubles come from doing that in which we have no

interest.--EPICTETUS.
That is useful for every man which is conformable to his own
constitution and nature.--MARCUS AURELIUS.
Genuine interest means that a person has identified himself with, or
found himself in, a certain course of activity. It is obtained not by
thinking about it and consciously aiming at it, but by considering and
aiming at the conditions that lie back of it, and compel it.--JOHN
DEWEY.

I. THE INTERESTS OF CHILDREN
Now that the value of fairy tales in education has been made clear, let
us consider some of those principles of selection which should guide
the teacher, the mother, the father, and the librarian, in choosing the
tale for the little child.
Fairy tales must contain what interests children. It is a well-known
principle that selective interest precedes voluntary attention; therefore
interest is fundamental. All that is accomplished of permanent good is a
by-product of the enjoyment of the tale. The tale will go home only as
it brings joy, and it will bring joy when it secures the child's interest.
Now interest is the condition which requires least mental effort. And
fairy tales for little children must follow that great law of composition
pointed out by Herbert Spencer, which makes all language consider the
audience and the economy of the hearer's attention. The first step, then,
is to study the interests of the child. We do not wish to give him just
what he likes, but we want to give him a chance to choose from among
those things which he ought to have and, as good and wise guardians,
see that we offer what is in harmony with his interests. Any observation
of the child's interest will show that he loves the things he finds in his
fairy tales. He enjoys--
A sense of life. This is the biggest thing in