| OCR Text |
Show 14 HANDBOOK FOR TEACHERS OF INTERPRETATION intoxicating pleasures, which these birds typify, die with the indulgence. The director of the American production of "The Blue Bird" could not have understood Maeterlinck's symbolism, for he interpolated a group of dancers who came on after Tyltil and My til had left the "pleasure" birds dead on the stage. These dancers, followers of "Night," seemingly, resurrected, brought to life, the dead birds. The dead pleasures of "Mrs. Night" can never Maeterlinck has "Night" anxiously look into be brought to life. the garden to see if the children have secured the real blue bird, happiness, and she says, to the "cat" who would betray the best in too high." Real joy is man, "They could not reach him! He kept is the It too high for the jazz-movie addict. province of our schools as to give us the power to reach high; Browning so aptly says, what's a Heaven for?" or "Man's reach must exceed his grasp, to There are many who have no ability enjoy the real joys of life because they search for the "blue birds," which "Night" keeps in her castle, only to find them dead in their hands. The pity of it all is, that such seekers after "Night's" blue birds have no inner resources, because their school training has left them idealless; the high ideals of the schoolroom do not, somehow, become an integral part of our pupils, and pupils are left without sufficient desire or ability to create their own amusement; they drift, rudderless, on the wild sea of pleasure in search of entertainment,-always search ing, never reaching any haven. When there is also no culture in the home, our young people even more piteously and more hope all lessly hunt for amusement. We are the result of what we feed upon; so if we continually hear jazz and are fed on movies with their intoxicating, effect, any amount of good art or never satisfying good literature will have no more effect up<?n our good taste than water on a duck's back. Experience. The maximum amount of time in our given to the study of reading literature, but our efforts have developed neither a taste for better things, nor what is more important, a love for them. This is because our teaching of litera ture has been as if it were that of a dead language, and we have translated it into dry, literal, lifeless meaning, putting emphasis and the study of comments from the upon the derivation of words Vicarious schools is |
