The American Child, page 1 by Elizabeth McCracken
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r-long hospital patient, I should never have lived to write anything.
E. McC.
CAMBRIDGE, January, 1913
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
I. THE CHILD AT HOME
II. THE CHILD AT PLAY
III. THE COUNTRY CHILD
IV. THE CHILD IN SCHOOL
V. THE CHILD IN THE LIBRARY
VI. THE CHILD IN CHURCH
CONCLUSION
ILLUSTRATIONS
COMPANIONS AND FRIENDS THREE SMALL GIRLS THE BOY OF THE HOUSE "DID YOU PLAY IT THIS WAY?" THE DEAR DELIGHTS OF PLAYING ALONE "THE CHILDREN--THEY ARE SUCH DEARS" A SMALL COUNTRY BOY ARRAYED IN SPOTLESS WHITE THEY PAINT PICTURES AS A REGULAR PART OF THEIR SCHOOL ROUTINE THEY DO SO MANY THINGS! THEY HAVE SO MANY THINGS! THE STORY HOUR IN THE CHILDREN'S ROOM THE CHILDREN'S EDITION IN THE INFANT CLASS "DO YOU LIKE MY NEW HYMN?" CHILDREN GO TO CHURCH
INTRODUCTION
One day several years ago, when Mr. Lowes Dickinson's statement that he had found no conversation and--worse still--no conversationalists in America was fresh in our outraged minds, I happened to meet an English woman who had spent approximately the same amount of time in our country as had Mr. Lowes Dickinson. "What has been your experience?" I anxiously asked her. "Is it true that we only 'talk'? Can it really be that we never 'converse'?"
"Dear me, no!" she exclaimed with gratifying fervor. "You are the most delightful conversationalists in the world, on your own subject--"
"Our own subject?" I echoed.
"Certainly," she returned; "your own subject, the national subject,--the child, the American child. It is possible to 'converse' with any American on that subject; every one of you has something to say on it; and every one of you will listen eagerly to what any other person says on it. You modify the opinions of your hearers by what you say; and you actually allow your own opinions to be modified by what you hear said. If that is conversation, without a doubt you have it in America, and have it in as perfect a state as conversation ev