The Dramatic Instinct in Education

freedom and spontaneity of expression. It is difficult to say where this practice started, but certain it is that it has had a phenomenally rapid rise. It is one of the most recent developments of interest in child nature, and follows naturally on that which was aroused in kindergarten work and school hygiene, and later by the establishment of playgrounds and oversight of children's play both in recreation and school hours. In many cities the introduction of this work, as well as the amount of time given to it, has been left largely to the discretion of individual teachers; in others, it is compulsory and has been reduced to a definite system. In a small city of Massachusetts, it has been introduced as part of a method of teaching reading, the bare outline of which is as follows: first, the story; second, a list of rhymes to furnish the stock in trade of words; third, pictures that illustrate the story; fourth, and last, dramatization, that is, the simple acting out of the story told by the teacher. The idea is to fill the children so full of the story that they will want to act it out, but not to let them memorize in preparation. So long as the spirit and idea of the story are preserved, the children may use their own words to reproduce it. They need, at first, not only suggestion, but help in the work. Gradually, however, this is withdrawn, or should be if the teacher keeps in view the development of self-reliance in the pupil. Many teachers, entirely ine...