Page:A Study of Fairy Tales.djvu/149

Rh by Professor John Dewey, in The School and Society, are: (1) the instinct of conversation or communication; (2) the instinct of inquiry or finding out things; (3) the instinct of construction or making things; and (4) the instinct of artistic expression or [of imitating and combining things].

(1) The instinct of conversation. The little child likes to talk. If you have ever listened to a little girl of five artlessly proceeding to tell a story, such as Little Black Sambo, which she had gathered from looking at a neighbor's book, but which she had not yet mastered sufficiently to grasp its central theme, reiterating the particular incidents with the enthusiasm and joy and narrative tone of the story-teller, you realized how the child likes to talk. For there appeared the charm of the story-telling mode distinct from the story it told.

Because of this instinct of conversation one form of creative reaction may be language expression. The oral reproduction of the story re-experiences the story anew. The teacher may help here by creating a situation for the re-telling. A teacher might put a little foreign boy through rapid paces in learning English by selecting a story like The Sparrow and the Crow and by managing that in the re-telling the little foreigner would be the Crow who makes the repetitive speeches, who must go to the Pond and say:—

Your name, sir, is Pond

And my name is Crow,

Please give me some water.

For if you do so