Storytelling in the playgrounds of New York City is considered an important feature of the work of playground assistants wherever the conditions are favorable to carrying it on.
In the Parks and Playgrounds Association the leader of the Guild of Play tells stories herself and is supplemented by regular assistants and volunteer workers with whom she holds conferences on storytelling.The work of the Guild of Play is extended to hospitals for Crippled Children,to homes for Destitute Children and to settlements.(See Handbook and Report of Parks and Playgrounds Association.)In the playgrounds and vacation schools maintained by the Board of Education,storytelling is carried on by the supervisors and assistants.The Nurses'Settlement,Greenwich House,Union Settlement,Hartley House,and Corning-Clark House,report weekly story hours,frequently held on Sunday afternoons.Storytelling is carried on in other settlements and by several church houses,St.Bartholomew's Parish House reporting a well attended story hour following a mid-week church service.
In the New York Public Library,storytelling,under the general direction of the supervisor of work with children,is in special charge of a library assistant who has been a student of dramatic art as well as of library science.Storytelling is not required of library assistants.Any assistant who wants to tell stories is given an opportunity to do so and to profit by criticism.Her trial experience is made with a group of children.If she proves her ability to hold their interest,she is then allowed to make up her own program for a series of story hours,basing it upon her spontaneous interests,her previous reading,and the special needs of the library where the story hour is to be held.The fact that storytelling has been regarded as a potent factor in the unification of work with children in the rural districts,as well as in the congested centers,where branch libraries are situated,has greatly influenced the present organization of the work.
Racial interests have been considered,and on such festival days as are observed by the Hungarians,the Bohemians,and the Irish,special story hours have been held.In each case a volunteer storyteller of the nationality concerned lent interest to the occasion.
Weekly story hours are now held in most of the branch libraries.
In some of them,two or more story hours are held.Story hours in roof reading-rooms are held irregularly during the summer.
Marked results of storytelling after three years are shown by a very great improvement in the character of the recreational reading done by the children,and in their sense of pleasure in the children's room.
The keen enjoyment of the library assistants who have been telling stories,and the interest of other workers in the library,indicates a valuable contribution to the work,by bringing its people together in their conception of what the library is trying to do for children.
Repeated requests for library storytellers have been received from institutions for the Blind,the Deaf Mutes,the Insane,from Reformatory institutions,as well as from settlements,church houses,public and private schools,parents'meetings,and industrial schools.
Three branches of The National Storytellers'League hold meetings in New York City.(A full account of the National Storytellers'
League is given by its founder Richard T.Wyche,in the Pedagogical Seminary,volume 16.)Courses in storytelling are given at several schools and colleges,at The Summer School of Philanthropy,and at The National Training School for Young Women's Christian Associations.
