everyday life is the central interest; and in its turn it furnishes
those elements of experience upon which imagination builds. For this
reason it is rather remarkable that the story, which is omitted from
the Montessori system of education, is perhaps the most valuable means
of effecting that sense-training, freedom, self-initiated play,
repose, poise, and power of reflection, which are foundation stones of
its structure.

Fairy tales strengthen the power of emotion, develop the power of
imagination, train the memory, and exercise the reason. As emotion and
imagination are considered in Chapter 11, in the section, "The Fairy
Tale as Literature," and the training of the memory and the exercise
of the reason in connection with the treatment of various other topics
later on, these subjects will be passed by for the present. Every day
the formation of habits of mind during the process of education is
being looked upon with a higher estimate. The formation of habits of
mind through the use of fairy tales will become evident during
following chapters.

Fairy tales extend and intensify the child's social relations. They
appeal to the child by presenting aspects of family life. Through them
he realizes his relations to his own parents: their care, their
guardianship, and their love. Through this he realizes different
situations and social relations, and gains clear, simple notions of
right and wrong. His sympathies are active for kindness and fairness,
especially for the defenseless, and he feels deeply the calamity of
the poor or the suffering and hardship of the ill-treated. He is in
sympathy with that poetic justice which desires immediate punishment
of wrong, unfairness, injustice, cruelty, or deceit. Through fairy
tales he gains a many-sided view of life. Through his dramas, with a