BIBLIOGRAPHY OF MATERIAL FOR DRAMATIZATION
BELL, FLORENCE E.: _Fairy Tale Plays and How to Act Them_.
CHADWICK, M. L. PRATT-, and FREEMAN, E. GRAY: _Chain Stories and Playlets_.
NIXON-ROULET, M. F.: _Fairy Tales a Child Can Read and Act_.
NOYES, M. I., and RAY, B. H.: _Little Plays for Little People_.
PERRY, S. G. S.: _When Mother Lets Us Act_.
STEVENSON, AUGUSTA: _Children’s Classics in Dramatic Form, Books 1-3_.
WELLS, CAROLYN: _Jolly Plays for Holidays_.
SIDGWICK, ETHEL: _Four Plays for Children_.
SPOFFORD, HARRIET PRESCOTT: _The Fairy Changeling_.
STEVENSON, AUGUSTA: _Children’s Classics in Dramatic Form, Books 4-6_.
_St. Nicholas Book of Operettas and Plays._
FRANK: _Short Plays about Famous Authors_.
LANSING, M. F.: _Quaint Old Stories to Read and Act_.
LÜTKENHAUS, A. M., and KNOX, MARGARET: _Plays for School Children_.
RUCKER and RYAN: _Historical Plays of Colonial Days_.
One of the glaring defects of our modern educational system is that almost no provision is made for the study of the Bible as a great classic, and as a result boys and girls complete grammar and high-school courses without sufficient knowledge of the epic of the Hebrews to enable them to understand the world’s best literature. The myths of Greece and Rome are studied because of their cultural value, yet from universities throughout the country comes the complaint that many of the works of famous authors are beyond the enjoyment of students because the Biblical allusions have no meaning for them. What should be as familiar as “Red Riding Hood” and “Cinderella” is known in name only, and the immortal book is regarded as a repository of golden texts and maxims instead of as a glorious artistic creation.
The masses of children know almost nothing of the story of Israel, because outside of the Sunday school and the exceptional home, it is rarely told. Yet educators emphasize its need in the intellectual as well as in the spiritual development of the child, and declare that the Old Testament tales should be as much a part of the school curriculum as are the myths of Greece and Rome and the northland. Rein, the great German educator, advocates using them in the third and fourth grades to the exclusion of all others, which is done in the state schools of Baden, while in America Dr. G. Stanley Hall pleads eloquently in behalf of Bible stories.