D STORIES FROM THE HEBREW BY JOSEPHINE WOODBURY HEERMANS PRINCIPAL OF WHITTIER SCHOOL 7654958 July 8, 1904. Harvard Jonatha Dept. of cat Gift of the Pisare. TRANSFERRED TO HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY 1582 COPYRIGHT, 1903, BY SILVER, BURDETT AND COMPANY INTRODUCTION THE introduction of Supplementary Reading into the course of study in the common schools is of very recent date. Until within the last two decades the chief sources from which material was selected for school readers were extracts from the Bible, the ancient classics of Greece and Rome, the more modern English and American authors, and occasional pieces from some of the more noted German and French writers. These selections usually represented the very highest and noblest thoughts in literature, and were fitted to elevate and to purify the soul, or to inculcate some great moral virtue. A decided reaction followed, and there has been a complete letting-down in the literary makeup of school readers. This change was felt to be unsatisfactory, and many teachers turned to the beautiful stories and myths in classic lore. Charming as this great storehouse of literary wealth is, to the thoughtful mind, it carries with it a sense of relentless fate. Strangely enough, through this stress period, Biblical literature has been too much neglected. Our children, with all their miscellaneous reading, are getting farther and farther away from those touching stories which so many of a generation or two ago learned around a mother's knee. |