But this is a gain rather than
otherwise, for it is useful in forming good habit. In no other part of her
work, probably, has a teacher so good a chance to foster in her pupils
pleasant habits of enunciation and voice. And this is especially worth
while in the big city schools, where so many children come from homes
where the English of the tenement is spoken.
I have since wished that every city primary teacher could have visited
with me the first-grade room in Providence where the pupils were German,
Russian, or Polish Jews, and where some of them had heard no English
previous to that year,--it being then May. The joy that shone on their
faces was nothing less than radiance when the low-voiced teacher said,
"Would you like to tell these ladies some of your stories?"
They told us their stories, and there was truly not one told poorly or
inexpressively; all the children had learned something of the joy of
creative effort. But one little fellow stands out in my memory beyond all
the rest, yet as a type of all the rest.
Rudolph was very small, and square, and merry of eye; life was one
eagerness and expectancy to him. He knew no English beyond that of one
school year. But he stood staunchly in his place and told me the story of
the Little Half Chick with an abandon and bodily emphasis which left no
doubt of his sympathetic understanding of every word.
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