It is best
that he should gain some idea of the growth of his own traditions
before he wanders into the history of other lands.
In any story which has to do with soldiers and battles, do not be too
martial. Do not permeate your tale with the roar of guns, the smell of
powder, and the cries of the wounded. Inculcate as much as possible
the idea of a struggle for a principle, and omit the horrors of war.
We must remember that upon the kind of stories we tell the child
depends much of his later taste in literature. We can easily create a
hunger for highly spiced and sensational writing by telling grotesque
and horrible tales in childhood. When the little one has learned to
read, when he holds the key to the mystery of books, then he will seek
in them the same food which so gratified his palate in earlier years.
We are just beginning to realize the importance of beginnings in
education.
True, a king of Israel whose wisdom is greatly extolled, and whose
writings are widely read, urged the importance of the early training
of children about three thousand years ago; but the progress of
truth in the world is proverbially slow.
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