Ten years have passed and the story hour is now an established feature in the work of children's libraries.Miss Shedlock came to America to tell stories to children and to their fathers and mothers.She returned year after year to remind the schools and colleges,the training schools and the kindergartens,as well as the public libraries,of the great possibilities in what she so aptly called "the oldest and the newest of the arts."In her lectures upon "The Art of Storytelling;""The Fun and the Philosophy;The Poetry and the Pathos of Hans Christian Andersen,"and in the stories she told to illustrate them,Miss Shedlock exemplified that teaching of Socrates,which represents him as saying:"All my good is magnetic,and I educate not by lessons but by going about my daily business."The story as a mere beast of burden for conveying information or so-called moral or ethical instruction was relieved of its load.The play spirit in literature which is the birthright of every child of every nation was set free.Her interpretation of the delicate satire and the wealth of imagery revealed in the tales of that great child in literature,Hans Christian Andersen,has been at once an inspiration and a restraining influence to many who are now telling stories to children,and to others who have aided in the establishing of storytelling.It is now three years since Miss Shedlock was recalled to England by the London County Council to bring back to the teachers of London the inspirational value of literature she had taken over to America.
Interest in storytelling has become widespread,reaching a civic development beyond the dreams of its most ardent advocates when a professional storyteller and teacher of literature was engaged to tell stories to children in the field houses of the public recreation centers of Chicago.Mrs.Gudrun Thorne-Thomsen has been known for some years in this country as a storyteller of great power in the field of her inheritance,Scandinavian literature.It is very largely due to her work that the city of Chicago has been roused to claim the public library privileges so long denied to her children,and to make the claim from a point that plants the love of literature in the midst of the recreational life of a great city.
No one who was present at those meetings of the New York Playground Congress,conducted by Miss Maud Summers,will ever forget her eloquent appeal for a full recognition of the value of storytelling as a definite activity of the playground.She saw its kinship to the folk dance and the folk song in the effort to preserve the traditions of his country to the foreign-born child.
And she saw the relation of the story to the games,the athletics,and the dramatics.More clearly than anything else,perhaps,she saw the value of the story in its direct appeal to the spiritual nature of the child.Miss Summers'interest and enthusiasm made the work of the present committee possible.As one of her associates,its chairman pays grateful tribute to her memory and links her name with a work to which she gave herself so freely in life,that her death seems but the opening of another door through which we look with full hope and confidence upon childhood as "a real and indestructible part of human life."There is a line of Juvenal that bids the old remember the respect due to the young.It is in that attitude,and with some appreciation of what it means to be a growing boy or girl of the present time,that the subject of this report has been approached and is now presented for the consideration of the Playground Association of America.We know only too well that we cannot give to childhood in great cities the simple and lovely ways we associate with childhood.We CAN give to it a wonderful fortification against the materialism and the sensationalism of daily life on the streets,against the deadly monotony of the struggle for existence,by a revival of the folk spirit in story,as well as in song and in dance,that will not spend its strength in mere pageantry,but will sink deep into our national consciousness.
It should be clearly stated that the field of storytelling,investigated,relates to children above the kindergarten age and to boys and girls in their teens.The investigation lays no claim to completeness and has not included storytelling in public nor in private schools.
An outline covering the main points of this report was sent to representative workers in thirteen different cities,to several persons professionally engaged in storytelling,and to other persons whose critical judgment was valued in such connection.
The outline called--First,for a statement of the extent to which storytelling is being carried on in playgrounds,public libraries,settlements,and such other institutions,exclusive of schools,as might come to the notice of the members of the committee.Second,for information concerning the persons who are telling stories,whether their entire time is given to storytelling and preparation for it;whether it forms a part of the regular duties of a director or an assistant;and,finally,whether volunteer workers are engaged in storytelling.
Replies to these inquiries with a brief statement of results have been grouped by cities,[3]as follows:
[3]Owing to space limitations,in general the formal reports from cities represented in the discussion are omitted in the body of the report.
