Episode Transcript
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hello this is a reading of the junior classics volume one
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Fairy and wonder tales introduction the
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purpose of the junior classics is to
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provide in ten volumes containing about five
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thousand pages a classified collection of tales
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stories and poems both ancient and
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modern suitable for boys and girls from
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six to sixteen years of age thoughtful
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parents and teachers who realised the evils
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of indiscriminate reading on the part of
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children will appreciate the educational value of
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such a collection a child's taste in
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reading is formed as a rule in
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the first ten or twelve years of
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it's life and experience has shown that
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the childish mind will prefer good literature
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to any other if access to it
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is made easy and will develop far
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better on literature of proven merit than
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the trivial or transitory material the
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boy or girl who becomes familiar with
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the charming tales and poems in this
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collection will have gained a knowledge of
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literature and history that will be of
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high value in other school and homework
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here are the real elements of imaginative
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narration poetry and ethics which should
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enter into the education of every english-speaking
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child this collection carefully used by parents
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and teachers with due reference to individual
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tastes and needs will make many children
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enjoy good literature it will inspire them
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with love of of good reading which
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is the best positive possible result of
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any elementary education the child himself should
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be encouraged to make his own selection
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from this large and varied collection the
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child's enjoyment being the object in view
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a real and lasting interest in literature
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or in scholarship is only to
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be developed through the individual's enjoyment of
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his mental occupations the most important change
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which has been made in american school
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and colleges within my memory is a
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substitution of leading for driving leading for
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driving of inspirational four drill of personal
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interest and love of work for compulsion
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and fear the schools are learning to
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use methods and materials which interest and
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attract the children's themselves the junior classics
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will put into the homes the means
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of you use of happy methods committing
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to memory beautiful pieces of literature either
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prose or poetry for citation before a
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friendly audience acting charades or plays and
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reading aloud with with vicinity and sympathetic
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emotions are good means of instruction at
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home or at school this collection contains
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numerous admirable pieces of literature for such
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use in teaching english and english literature
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we should place more reliance upon process
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and acts which are weaken emotion stimulate
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interest proved to be enjoyable for the
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actors and result in giving children the
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power of entertaining people of blessed others
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with noble pleasure which the children create
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and share from the home chaining during
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childhood they're shaved result in the child
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a taste for interesting and improving reading
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which will direct and inspire it's subsequential
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intellectual life the training which results
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in this state for good reading however
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unsystematic or eccentric it may
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have been has achieved one principal aim
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of education and any school or home
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chain which does not result in implementing
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this permanent state has failed in
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every important respect guided and animated by
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this impulse to acquire knowledge and exercise
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the imagination through good reading at the
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adult will continue to educate him all
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through life the story of the human
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race through all it's slow development should
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be gradually conveyed to the child's mind
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from the time he begins to read
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or to listen to his mother's reading
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with the description of facts and actual
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events should be mingled charmingly and uplifted
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but be mingled charmingly and uplifted products
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of the imagination to try to feed
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the minds of children upon facts alone
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as undesirable and unwise the immense product
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of imagination in art and literature is
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concrete fact which every educated human being
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should be made somewhat familiar with that
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product being a very real part of
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every individual's actual environment the right selection
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of reading matter for children is obvious
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of high importance some of the mythologies
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old testament stories fairy tales and historical
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romances on which earlier generations were accustomed
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to feed their childish minds contain
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a great deal that is barbarous perverse
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or cruel and to this infiltration into
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children's minds generation after generation of immoral
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cruel or foolish ideas is probably to
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be attributed in part the slow ethical
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progress of the race the common most
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justification for this thoughtless practice is that
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children do not apprehend the evil in
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the bad mental pictures which with which
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we foolishly supply them but what would
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we think of a mother who gave
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her children dirty milk or porridge on
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the theory that the children would not
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assimilate the dirt should we be less
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careful about the mental and moral food
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materials the junior classics have been selected
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with this principle in mind without losing
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sight of the fact that every developing
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human being needs to have a vision
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of rough and thorny road over which
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the human race is slowly advancing during
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thousands of years whoever has committed to
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memory in childhood such bible extracts as
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gen of Genesis i the ten commandments
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Psalm xxiii Matthew v 8-12
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the lord's prayer the corinthians such english
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prose as lincoln's Gettysburg speech bacon's
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essay on truth and such poems as
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byron's waterfowl addison's divine owed milton sonnet
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of his blindness wilton How happy
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is he born or taught emerson's rhodesia
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homes chambered nautilus and grey Elegy Elegy
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as an has stamped on them his
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brain by frequent repetition repetition will have
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set up in his mind high standards
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of noble thought and feel being true
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patriotism and pure religion he will also
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have laid an invaluable store of good
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english while the majority of the tales
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and poems are intended for children who
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have begun to do their own reading
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there will be there will be found
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in every volume selections fit for reading
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aloud to younger chilled aaron throughout this
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collection the authors tell stories in their
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own words so that the salt which
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gave them savor is preserved there are
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some considerations however such as any good
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teller of borrowed stories would make but
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as a rule consideration has been applied
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only in the a case of long
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works which otherwise would not have been
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included the notes which proceed the consideration
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supply explanations and answers questions which experience
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has shown boys and girls are apt
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to ask about the works can densest
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or their authors the junior classics constitute
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a set of books whose contents will
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delight children and at the same time
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satisfy the legitimate ethical requirements are those
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who have the children's best interest at
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heart Charles W. Eliot
