The Story Circle by A. W. Spaulding

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Oct 4, 1906

The Story Circle

By A. W. Spaulding

TIRED of writing stories and descriptions, tired of parts of speech, tired of subjects and predicates, and not able to go further, my fifth grade class were beginning to sigh, “O dear!” when the language class was called. They liked to tell stories and to play guessing games, but their eagerness and my love of lingual accuracy always quarreled, and the value of these exercises as a regular thing seemed doubtful. So I told them how the Indians and the Irish peasants and some other peoples keep their legends and folk-tales pure without the aid of books or writing; how, gathered at night in a circle around the fire, with the oldest story-teller among them, they listen as hard as ears can listen to the tale; how then they, one by one, are given the chance to tell it over word for word, not losing a single part of the story; and how, if any one makes a mistake or leaves out a part, at the end they all join in correcting him.

“Let’s us!” “Let us do it!” half of them cried, with flying hands, and the rest nodded vigorously. So we gathered in as much of a round line as we could make with seats and a bench and a stray chair or two, and made a story circle. It took just the time of our language class, and was continued for two or three days, then dropped for other language work, and taken up later.

The stories told were principally Bible stories, though, since most of these were familiar to them, there were sprinkled in a few other stories of self-sacrifice and devotion, such as Damon and Pythias, Leonidas, Martyrdom of the Widow and Seven Sons (Maccabean), The Pompeian Guard, A Waldensian Maid, Jerome of Prague, Philip Sydney on the Battle-field, and stories of our most daring and self-sacrificing missionaries. It may not be well to tell any stories of heathen or secular heroes; certainly not if their virtues are only those of human pride and fierce courage. It was remarkable, however, how the children, even some of the more uncontrollable and indifferent, were impressed, for instance, with the difference between Pythias, who had that “greater love” to “lay down his life for his friend,” and Jesus, who gave his life not for his friends only, but for his enemies. Again, the Pass of Thermopylæ was made, not a bloody struggle for glory, but the monument of an unselfish devotion to duty, and our present duty was talked about. But the class of stories in which falls the last one, including tales of the Maccabees and even of some of the Bible heroes, requires great care in the telling, not to arouse the boy’s spirit of adventure and fight.

Children who are comparatively unacquainted with Bible stories and the history of our own work, should be given these almost wholly until they are familiar with them. Stories of nature and other science may also well be employed.

Points on which the children watched one another in the retelling of the stories were, inclusion of all prominent points, correct order of narration, use of precise and striking terms. Another matter which it is the teacher’s duty to guard by example, is the use of simple language. Points on which the children were helped by the teacher were, clear enunciation, proper grammar, suiting the voice to the narrative and quotations in it, use of the eyes in impressing the story upon the hearers, and some little dramatic interpretation; not all of these piled on at once, mind you, nor all the same day, but bit by bit.

Advantages gained by this sort of language exercise, and noted so far in greater or less degree, are, greater accuracy of memory, and consequent greater fluency of speech; a fixing of the mind with greater intensity upon the subject in hand; the gaining of a wider vocabulary; an increasing power to tell a straightforward story without shamefacedness or mumbling; and a power to hold the attention of others.

And it is to be noted that the teacher has, as usual, gained more than the pupils, in power of adaptation, dramatic interpretation, school management, and many another thing.

The story circle has come to be an established institution in our school, to be used occasionally.

A. W. SPAULDING.