第11章 BOYS'AND GIRLS'READING(5)

Foster in public addresses for supervision of children's reading by teachers and parents,and duplicate copies of books have been placed in the library for school use.In conclusion,Mr.Foster adds:"There has been a gradual and steady advance in methods of cooperation and mutual understanding,so that now it is a perfectly understood thing,throughout the schools,among teachers and pupils,that the library stands ready to help them at almost every point."Mrs.Sanders,of the Free Public Library,Pawtucket,R.I.,writes:"I am circulating by the thousand Rev.Washington Gladden's 'How and What to Read,'published as a circular by the State Board of Education of Rhode Island.I am constantly encouraging the children to come to me for assistance,which they are very ready to do;and I find that after boys have had either a small or a full dose of Alger (we do not admit 'Optic'),they are very ready to be promoted to something more substantial--Knox,Butterworth,Coffin,Sparks,or Abbott.I find more satisfaction in directing the minds of boys than girls,for though I may and generally do succeed in interesting them in the very best of fiction,it is much more difficult to draw them into other channels,unless it is poetry.I should like very much to know if this is the experience of other librarians.My aim is first to interest girls or boys according to their ability to enjoy or appreciate,and gradually to develop whatever taste is the most prominent.For instance,I put on the shelves all mechanical books for boys;works upon adornments for homes--painting,drawing,music,aids to little housekeepers,etc.,for the girls."Mr.Fletcher,of the Watkinson Library,Hartford,Conn.,says,in a recent address on the public library question in its moral and religious aspect:"Many of our public libraries beg the whole question,so far as it refers to the youngest readers,by excluding them from the use of books.A limit of fourteen or sixteen years is fixed,below which they are not admitted to the library as its patrons.But,in some of those more recently established,the wiser course has been adopted of fixing no such limitation.For,in these times,there is little probability that exclusion from the library will prevent their reading.Poor,indeed,in resources must be the child who cannot now buy,beg,or borrow a fair supply of reading of some kind;so that exclusion from the library is simply a shutting up of the boy or girl to the resources of the home and the book-shop or newspaper.

A slight examination of the literature found in a majority of homes and most prominent in the shops is enough to show what this means,and to explain the fact,that the young persons first admitted to the public library at fourteen years of age come to it with a well-developed taste for trash and a good acquaintance with the names of authors in that department of literature,but with apparently little capacity left for culture in higher directions."Mr.Winchester,of the Russell Free Library,Middletown,Conn.,said in his report,last January:"A departure from the ordinary rules governing the use of the library has been made in favor of the teachers in the city schools,allowing a teacher to take to the school,a number of books upon any topic which may be the subject of study for the class for the time,and to retain them beyond the time regularly allowed."In a letter three months later he writes,"I cannot trace directly to this arrangement any change in the reading of young folks.We have taken a good deal of pains to get good books for the younger readers,and I make it a point to assist them whenever I can.I feel quite sure that,if trash is shut out of the library and withheld from young readers,and,if good and interesting books are offered to them,they will soon learn not to care for the trash."Mr.Bassett,of the Bronson Library,Waterbury,Conn.,says in his printed report:"The librarian can do a little towards leading young book-borrowers towards the selection of proper books,but it does not amount to much unless his efforts are seconded by parents and teachers.It is of little use,I fear,to appeal to parents to look after their children's reading.It is possible that they do not know that,in not a few cases,boys and girls from eight to sixteen years of age,even while attending school,draw from three to six volumes a week to read,and often come for two volumes a day.That they fail to realize the effects of so much reading on their children's minds is evident when we hear them say,and with no little pride,too,'Our children are great readers;they read all the time.'Such parents ought to know that instead of turning out to be prodigies of learning,these library gluttons are far more likely to become prodigious idiots,and that teachers find them,as a rule,the poorest scholars and the worst thinkers."He adds an appeal to teachers:

"Give out questions that demand research,and send out pupils to the library for information if necessary,and be assured that a true librarian enjoys nothing so much as a search,with an earnest seeker,after truths that are hidden away in his books.

Do not hesitate even to ask questions that you cannot answer,and rely upon your pupils to answer them,and to give authorities,and do not be ashamed to learn of your pupils.Work with them as well as for them.But,whatever else you do,do not waste your time in urging your pupils to stop story-reading and to devote their time to good books.A parent can command this,you cannot;but you can make the use of good books,and the acquisition of knowledge not found in books,attractive and even necessary,and your ability to do this determines your real value as a teacher.