第13章 BOYS'AND GIRLS'READING(7)

The current report of the Cincinnati public schools gives a full account of the celebrations of authors'birthdays in the last two years,and the superintendent,the Hon.John B.Peaslee,LL.D.,in an address on moral and literary training in school,urges that the custom,so successfully begun,shall be kept up,and that children in all grades of schools shall be required to learn every week a few lines of good poetry,instead of choosing for themselves either verse or prose for declamation.Mr.Merrill asks in his last report for coooperation between the school and the library,and says in a letter:"I read a paper some time ago which was published in a teachers'magazine,and have addressed our Cincinnati teachers.We purchased a number of the catalogues of the Young Men's Library of Buffalo,and have written in our corresponding shelf numbers.A few of our teachers have also obtained these catalogues.I judge that the children are beginning to take out better books than formerly.The celebration of authors'days in the schools has been very beneficial in making the children acquainted with some of the best literature in the libraries as well as with the use of books of reference."Miss Stevens,of the Public Library,Toledo,Ohio,says:"We are fond of children,and suggest to them books that they will like.

Give a popular boy a good book,and there is not much rest for that book.Librarians should like children."Mr.Poole,of the Chicago Public Library,writes:"I have met the principals of the schools,and have addressed them on their duties in regulating the reading of their pupils,and advising their pupils as to what to read and how to read.My talk has awakened some interest in the teachers,and a committee has been appointed to consider what can be done about it."Mr.Carnes,of the Odd Fellows'Library Association,San Francisco,fires this shot in his report:"Even the child knows that forbidden fruit is the sweetest on the branch.If you wish to compel a boy to read a given book,strictly forbid him even to take it from the shelves.The tabooed books will somehow be secured in spite of their withdrawal."Mr.Metcalf,of the Wells School,Boston,who told at the conference of 1879of his work in encouraging a love for good,careful,and critical reading,writes:"My girls have bought Scott's Talisman,and we have read it together.I have now sent in a request for forty copies of Ivanhoe.My second class have read,on the same plan,this year,Mrs.Whitney's We Girls,and the third class have finished Towle's Pizarro,and are now reading Leslie Goldthwaite.The City Council refused,last year,to appropriate the $1,000asked for.When we have the means,all our grammar and high school masters will be able to order from the library such books as are suited to their classes.This plan introduces the children to a kind of reading somewhat better than would otherwise reach them,and,best of all,it gives them great facility in expression."Hartford,which has now no free circulating library,but hopes for one within two years,still keeps the old district system of schools,and several of these schools have a library fund.Mr.

Barrows,principal of the Brown School,writes:"Our library contains the usual school reference-books.Recently we have added quite a number of books especially adapted to interest and instruct children,such as The Boy Travellers,Miss Yonge's Histories,Butterworth's Zigzag Journeys,Forbes's Fairy Geography,etc.The children are not permitted to take these books away from the building.Pupils are invited to bring such additional facts in geography,or history,as they may obtain by reading.Topics are assigned.Should spices be the topic,one pupil would read up concerning cloves;another nutmeg,etc.