could agree with Maria Edgeworth when she said: "Even if children do
prefer fairy tales, is this a reason why their minds should be filled
with fantastic visions instead of useful knowledge?" However, there is
no danger that fairy tales will occupy more than a fair share of the
child's interest, much as he enjoys a tale; for the little child's
main interest is centered in the actual things of everyday life and
his direct contact with them. Yet there is a part of him untouched by
these practical activities of his real and immediate life; and it is
this which gives to literature its unique function, to minister to the
spirit. Fairy tales, in contributing in their small way to this high
service, while they occupy a position of no undue prominence,
nevertheless hold a place of no mean value in education.

In the study of fairy tales, as of any portion of the curriculum or as
in any presentation of subject-matter, three main elements must unite
to form one combined whole: the child, the subject, and the teaching
of the subject. In behalf of the child I want to show how fairy tales
contain his interests and how they are means for the expression of his
instincts and for his development in purpose, in initiative, in
judgment, in organization of ideas, and in the creative return
possible to him. In behalf of the subject I want to show what fairy
tales must possess as classics, as literature and composition, and as
short-stories; to trace their history, to classify the types, and to
supply the sources of material. In behalf of the teaching of fairy
tales I want to describe the telling of the tale: the preparation it
involves, the art required in its presentation, and the creative
return to be expected from the child.

In the consideration of the subject the main purpose has been to
relate fairy tales to the large subjects, literature and composition.