Library Work with Children Part 28

ST. LOUIS

In the playgrounds one regularly employed storyteller, who also a.s.sists in directing the games, tells stories throughout the season. Storytelling is also carried on by playground a.s.sistants and by volunteer storytellers. The interest shown by parents who frequently join the story hour groups in the parks, is considered a significant gain in sustaining neighborhood interest in the playground.

In one settlement house, the head worker meets the storytellers at the beginning of the season and plans and directs the work for the entire year.

Storytelling in the St. Louis Public Library has been carried on for several years by children's librarians of branch libraries who have visited playgrounds, settlements, and public schools, as visiting storytellers, and have told stories at mothers' clubs and teachers' meetings. Since February, 1910, it has been under the direction of the supervisor of work with children, who was formerly one of the visiting storytellers and a.s.sistants to the supervisor of work with children in the New York Public Library.

Storytelling is regarded by her as a valuable aid in the unification of the work with children in a system of libraries.

STORYTELLING IN OTHER COMMUNITIES

The reports received represent only a small part of the storytelling that is being done in different parts of the country.

In New Jersey, the organizer of the State Library Commission has found her ability to tell stories and to choose books containing a direct appeal to the people who are to read them, or to listen to the reading of them, an open sesame in the pine woods districts, the farming communities, and the fishing villages, where grown people listen as eagerly as children. In a paper ent.i.tled, "The Place, the Man, and the Book," Miss Sarah B. Askew gives a vivid picture of the establishment of a library in a fishing village. (Proceedings of the American Library a.s.sociation. 1908.)[4]

[4] Reprinted as a pamphlet by The H. W. Wilson Company.

Recognizing a similar need for the interpretation of books to the communities where libraries had already been established, the Iowa Library Commission appointed in 1909 an advisory children's librarian, who is also a professional storyteller and lecturer upon children's literature.

In the Public Lecture courses of New York City, it has been found that storytelling programs composed of folk tales draw large audiences of grown people who enjoy the stories quite as much as do the children.

In various inst.i.tutions for adults as well as for children, where the library has been a mere collection of books that counted for little or nothing in the daily life of the inst.i.tution, storytelling is making the books of living interest, and is giving to children, and to grown men and women, new sources of pleasure by taking them out of themselves and beyond the limitations of a prescribed and monotonous existence. Just as the games and folk dances are making their contribution to inst.i.tutional life, so storytelling is bringing the play spirit in literature to those whose imaginations have been starved by long years of neglect, and is showing that what is needed is not an occasional entertainment, but the joy of possessing literature itself.

Professional storytellers who have recently visited towns and cities of the Pacific Coast, the Middle-Western, the Southern, and the Eastern States, not covered by this report, bear testimony to an interest in storytelling that seems to be as genuine as it is widespread. It is apparent that more thought is being given to the subject than ever before. Wherever storytelling has been introduced by a "born storyteller" who has succeeded in kindling sparks of local talent capable of sustaining interest and accomplishing results, storytelling is bound to be a success. All reports testify to the need of a well defined plan for storytelling related to the purpose and the aims of the inst.i.tution which undertakes it, and to the varying capacities and temperaments of the persons who are to carry it on.

THE SPECIAL STORYTELLER AND THE REGULAR a.s.sISTANT

The professional storyteller has played a large part in the successful establishment of storytelling, and is destined to play a still larger part in the future development of the work in playgrounds and other inst.i.tutions, by raising the standards of the playground library, or settlement worker, who is expected to tell stories. This she will do not by elaborating methods and artifices to be imitated, but by frank criticism of native ability, by inspiring courses in story literature, and by proper training of the much neglected speaking voice.

The sooner we cease to believe that "anybody can tell a story"

the better for storytelling in every inst.i.tution undertaking it.

A candidate for a given position may be required to have storytelling ability, but no a.s.sistant should be required to tell stories as a part of her duties unless she can interest a group of children who have voluntarily come to listen to her stories.

Repeating simplified versions of stories is not storytelling.

Exercises in memorizing may be as helpful to the storyteller as the practice of scales to the piano player, but neither is to be regarded as a source of pleasure to the listener. Listening as one of a group is a valuable experience in the training of an a.s.sistant who is telling stories in the playground, the library, or the settlement. Herein lies the advantage of a visiting storyteller who does not take the place of the playground or library a.s.sistant, but who enlivens the program for the children and makes it possible for the regular a.s.sistant to listen occasionally and to profit by the experience. (The professional listener is delightfully characterized in "Miss m.u.f.fet's Christmas Party," by Dr. Samuel McChord Crothers.)

LIST OF FIFTY STORIES AND A LIST OF BOOKS FOR READING ON THE PLAYGROUND

The outline sent to the members of the Committee on Storytelling called for the mention of specific stories and for personal experience in group formation, taking into account age and s.e.x, time and place, and for a statement of results, in so far as such results could be stated. From five hundred different stories mentioned a composite list of "Fifty Stories for the Playground"

has been made. This list is chiefly composed of fairy and folk tales, Indian legends, and animal stories, as making the strongest appeal to playground groups and to library groups unaccustomed to listening to stories.

It also represents the story literature most easily commanded by the storyteller who has not read widely. Stories from the Norse and Greek Mythology, from the Niebelungen Lied, the Arthurian legends, and from Robin Hood; stories of Roland and of Charlemagne; stories from the Faerie Queene, and from the Canterbury Tales; historical and biographical stories are generously represented in the five hundred t.i.tles, but such stories should not be attempted without sufficient reading and feeling for the subject to enable the storyteller to bring it vividly and naturally before such a group as she is likely to meet in her daily experience.

Satisfactory festival stories are reported as exceedingly difficult to find. Several stories growing out of personal experiences, such as a "Christmas in Germany," a "May Day in England," "Fourth of July in the Garden of Warwick Castle," (The Warwick Pageant of 1900) are mentioned. Atmosphere and festival spirit are often lacking in stories listed under Festivals and Holidays.

Poetry and verses are repeated or read at many of the library story hours. Lear's nonsense rhymes and certain rhythmical story poems are especially enjoyed by the children. Outlines of stories or selections from books designed to lead to the reading of an entire book are mentioned in connection with d.i.c.kens, Kipling, Stevenson, Scott, Victor Hugo, and other authors.

In addition to the list of "Fifty Stories for the Playground" a list of "Books to Read on the Playground" has been prepared.

Nearly all of the public libraries mentioned in the report send books to playgrounds when the playgrounds desire it. The use of books in the roof reading-rooms of libraries is very similar to their use in the playgrounds. Here and in children's reading-rooms boys and girls are free to choose the books they really want to read. In his book ent.i.tled "The American Public Library," Dr. Arthur E. Bostwick makes this statement: "There are no intellectual joys equal to those of discovery. The boy or girl who stumbles on one of the world's masterpieces without knowing what anyone else thinks or has thought about it, and reading it, admires and loves it, will have that book throughout life as a peculiar intellectual possession in a way that would have been impossible if someone had advised reading it and had described it as a masterpiece. The very fact that one is advised to read a book because one ought to do so is apt to arouse the same feeling of repulsion that caused the Athenian citizen to vote for the banishment of Aristides just because he had grown so weary of hearing him always called 'The Just.' "

EXPERIENCES IN STORYTELLING

Groups for storytelling are usually a.s.sembled in separate rooms in the libraries and are made up by an approximate but variable age limit, dividing the children under ten or eleven years old from the boys and girls above that age. In the settlements the group is usually determined by the club organization. On the playgrounds, the experience of a storyteller in Providence is probably typical of many other workers and is quoted as suggestive for group formation in playgrounds.

"During the summer of 1909 the stories I told on the Davis Park Playground were costly fairy tales and folk stories. 'Grimm's Fairy Tales' was the favorite of both boys and girls and through the summer I told every story in the book. The boys also liked 'The Merrie Adventures of Robin Hood,' 'The Three Golden Apples,'

'The Golden Touch,' 'The Golden Fleece,' and all the old Indian legends. While the girls, if offered a choice, always called for a fairy tale with a Prince Charming in it. Neither boys nor girls would listen to historical stories saying they were too much like school.

"The first day to gain an audience I went up to a group of children who were playing together and asked them if they would like to hear a story. Four or five replied that they would, while some fifteen or twenty disappeared as though by magic, and I decided that they were not interested. I then took the children who wished to listen, over to a large tree in one corner of the grounds, and told them that for the rest of the summer that tree would be known as 'the storytelling tree.' They would, I told them, find me there every day promptly at half-past one, and that I would tell stories for a half hour to the whole playground.

Then from half-past two until three I would tell stories to the older girls. The first day I had a very small audience, the next day it doubled, and then increased daily until I had from eighty to a hundred children in a group. As to forming a group, I think it is impossible in playground work, for a group worth having must form itself, the reputation of the storyteller being the foundation of its formation, and this reputation can only be gained through constant systematic labor, and a thorough knowledge of your daily audience. That is why I think a professional visiting storyteller would be a failure in playground work, as in visiting each playground once or twice a week it would be impossible for her to gain that intimate personal knowledge of her audience, which is so necessary to the playground storyteller, as she must appeal to a different cla.s.s of children on each playground.

"The experience of a professional storyteller with a group of boys, already a.s.sembled as a club, is also quoted for its valuable suggestion and independence of method in gaining the interest of boys who had been much experimented upon.

"The most interesting experience I have had in a developed series of stories was with the Boys' Club of Greenwich, Connecticut, last year. The club is supported by the wealthy women of the place, and is an outgrowth of a rather serious and perplexing boy problem. A number of picture shows, pool rooms, cheap vaudevilles, etc., have crept into the town, and life on the street is most attractive.

"The head worker of the club wrote that they had failed to hold the boys in everything but manual training and baseball; that the boys were insubordinate and unresponsive, and that their school reports were very poor. I found the conditions even worse than I had antic.i.p.ated. It was necessary to train eighty boys to listen, as well as to interest them, and so, I told very short stories at first. I chose the ones that were full of dramatic action, that had little or no description, and a good deal of dialogue. The stories were strongly contrasted, and there was no attempt at literary or artistic finish. I used a great many gestures and moved about on the platform frequently; it is the quickest way of focusing laggard attention. To be absolutely honest, I had to come very close to the level of the moving picture show, and the ten-cent vaudeville, at first.

"The fourth night I eliminated all but a few gestures, and told the stories sitting down. I also used less colloquial English; and from then on, until the end, when I told the stories from Van d.y.k.e in his own words, there was a steady growth in literary style. I append the programs in the order they were given:

STORY PROGRAM

1. Irish Folk-tales. 2. Stories from Scandinavian Myths. 3. The Rhinegold Stories. 4. German Folk-tales.

5. Arthurian Tales. 6. Stories of Charlemagne and Frederick Barbarossa. 7. Tales of American Indians. 8.

Negro Tales. 9. Stories of the Carnegie Heroes. 10.

Kipling--Captains Courageous, Jungle Stories. 11. Van d.y.k.e--A Friend of Justice, The Keeper of the Light. 12.

Irish Folk-tales (Requested).

"The practical results were very satisfactory. The books in the club library were used more, the boys' composition and recitation work at school improved, and they acquired the habit of polite, attentive listening."

SUGGESTIONS

The importance of a definite time and place for the story hour, for a prompt beginning and for an ending before it becomes tedious, cannot be too strongly urged. The storyteller should "size up" the conditions and suit the story hour to them. If she is simple, natural and unaffected, and sufficiently resourceful to vary her program to suit the interests of the children, the story hour will be successful.

Various practical forms of co-operation have been suggested, notably in the visits of library storytellers to playgrounds wherever the public library is actively interested in storytelling, and such visits are desired by the playground.

The story hour season in most libraries ends in April, making it possible in some libraries to release a.s.sistants once or twice a week to visit playgrounds. The benefit derived from such visits is mutually endorsed by playground and library a.s.sistants.