In the home the tale is the mother’s power to build in her little children ideals of life which will tower as a fortress when there come critical moments of decision for which no amount of reasoning will be a sufficient guide, but for which true feeling, a kind of unconscious higher reasoning, will be the safest guide.  In the library the story is the greatest social asset of the librarian, it is her best means of reaching the obscure child who seeks there some food for his spirit, it is her best opportunity to lead and direct his tastes.  In the school it is the teacher’s strongest personal ally.  It is her wishing-ring, with which she may play fairy to herself in accomplishing a great variety of aims, and incidentally be a fairy godmother to the child.

Story-telling is an art handling an art and therefore must be pursued in accordance with certain principles.  These principles govern:  (1) the teacher’s preparation; (2) the presentation of the tale; and (3) the return from the child.

I. THE TEACHER’S PREPARATION

1.  The teacher’s preparation must be concerned with a variety of subjects.  The first rule to be observed is:  Select the tale for some purpose, to meet a situation.  This purpose may be any one of the elements of value which have been presented here under “The Worth of Fairy Tales.”  The teacher must consider, not only the possibilities of her subject-matter and what she wishes to accomplish through the telling of the tale, but also what the child’s purpose will be in listening.  She may select her tale specifically, not just because it contains certain interests, but because through those interests she can direct the child’s activity toward higher interests.  She must consider what problems the tale can suggest to the child.  She may select her tale to develop habits in the child, to clarify his thinking, to give a habit of memory or to develop emotion or imagination.  She may select her tale “just for fun,” to give pure joy, or to teach a definite moral lesson, to make a selfish child see the beauty of unselfishness or to impress an idea.  The Story of Lazy Jack, like the realistic Epaminondas, will impress more deeply than any word of exhortation, the necessity for a little child to use “the sense he was born with.”

In the selection of the tale the teacher is up against the problem of whether she shall choose her tale psychologically or logically.  As this is the day of the psychologic point of view in education, the teacher realizing this feels that she must select a tale for a particular purpose, according to the child’s interests, his needs, and the possibilities it offers for his self-activity and self-expression.  Looking freely over the field she may choose any tale which satisfies her purposes.  This is psychologic.  But in a year’s work this choice of a tale for a particular purpose is followed by successive choices until she