Page 13 - 1916 February - To Dragma

92 TO DRAGMA OF ALPHA OMICRON PI

fact, I believe that the light is shed the other way: that the study
of the poems may bring an understanding of the poet; but no really
great poem needs the background of the author's life to become
intelligible to the reader. I t ought to be too typical to need a
specific background.

The next list is of unfamiliar words or expressions. The teacher
should take a share of these also, because it is often difficult to ferret
out a new or special meaning in a term. Many words can be made
interesting by the teacher; but in general, these reports from the
pupils will be necessarily less interesting than the stories from myth-
ologv. I f , however, the explanations are clear and accurate the
purpose has been accomplished. Words such as "uncouth" and
"yclept" must be explained by the teacher, who can make them inter-
esting through a history of their changes. "Hoar" is an example
of a word, which, even hunted up faithfully by a student, fails to
yield for him the material for the picture in "hoar h i l l , " which needs
a teacher's touch to come out. "Sack" and "buskin" should both
be carefullly explained for their connotation in dramatic works.

Each student should be given one or two special assignments in
the stories, according to the number in the division, besides all the
words to look up; and the teacher should say frankly, "We are
going to spend tomorrow telling stories and perhaps studying these
words." The aim in taking up classical allusions in this way is
to make each character so interesting with its attendant stories and
characters, that the mythological figure once for all becomes an
acquaintance of the child, so real, so alive, and so fascinating, that
next year Apollo and Bacchus are just as familiar to him as "Jack
the Giant Killer" and "Little Red Riding Hood." I t seems to me
that the problem of getting pupils familiar with the characters of
mythology, which enrich our literature, will never be solved until
we cease expecting a young mind to retain the idea of "Neptune,"
the god of the sea, practically all that he will get from the average
text, without first telling him a rousing good story where Neptune
sits in that capacity and becomes real by so doing. They do not
forget "Robinson Crusoe" ; no more would they forget "Neptune"
if he were made a part of a story instead of a name of somebody who
may have existed but did not really ever do anything. Why, oh, why,
so blindly disregard that love of stories and story telling, inherent in
children, which is so valuable in disposing of classical allusions?

The hour of storv telling with careful guiding by the teacher as
to the points of the stories turns out to be wonderfully interesting,
and valuable, even making allowances for all differences in ability
of divisions, for all silliness, all misunderstanding of stories, lost