have found useful in my own experience, but I am sure that many more
might be added.



CHAPTER IV. ELEMENTS TO AVOID IN THE SELECTION OF MATERIAL.

I am confronted in this portion of my work with a great difficulty,
because I cannot afford to be as catholic as I could wish (this
rejection or selection of material being primarily intended for those
story-tellers dealing with normal children); but I do wish from the
outset to distinguish between a story told to an individual child in
the home circle or by a personal friend, and a story told to a group
of children as part of the school curriculum. And if I seem to
reiterate this difference, it is because I wish to show very clearly
that the recital of parents and friends may be quite separate in
content and manner from that offered by the teaching world. In the
former case, almost any subject can be treated, because, knowing the
individual temperament of the child, a wise parent or friend knows
also what can be presented or not presented to the child; but in
dealing with a group of normal children in school much has to be
eliminated that could be given fearlessly to the abnormal child; I
mean the child who, by circumstances or temperament, is developed
beyond his years.

I shall now mention some of the elements which experience has shown
me to be unsuitable for class stories.

I. _Stories dealing with analysis of motive and feeling_. This
warning is specially necessary today, because this is, above all, an