EDUCATIONAL STORY TELLING BY DR. CHARLES A. McMURRAY

Good story-telling is no longer a matter of mere entertainment. It is steadily growing into an important instrument of education. Children in earlier years, before they can use books freely and independently, are capable of receiving a strong contribution to their spiritual life and equipment by hearing the rehearsal in fitting form, of the world’s best stories. It is not merely that in this manner many of the large culture ideas can best be transmitted from generation to generation, but the mental awakening, the planting of seed-thoughts, the stimulation of mental energies are brought about. The monotony and drudgery of school work are apt to produce a sluggish mental life; the oral handling of the best stories is like a trumpet call to many a young soul awakening it out of its sluggishness and putting the vital forces into a stronger movement. It is first of all necessary that teachers should catch this spirit and receive the full force of this awakening, but a study of the stories themselves have proven in many cases to produce this result.