3. Play Stories

Some parents and teachers find it hard to see any value in play stories like “The Runaway Pancake,” “The Little Red Hen,” and “The Golden Goose” (pages 47-51); or such nonsense stories as “The Fox Without a Tail,” “Why the Bear Has a Stumpy Tail” (pages 71, 77); or funny stories like “Lazy Jack” and “Epaminondas.” Such parents do not get the child’s point of view. The idle pleasure or extravagance provokes their displeasure and appears to them driveling nonsense. But why should not the mind have an innocent frolic? Why should the child be deprived of his birthright of “being a child” and “understanding as a child”? The child loves play and loves these play stories because they are play.