An American Robinson Crusoe
PREFATORY NOTE "An American Robinson Crusoe" is the outcome of many years of experience with the story in the early grades of elementary schools. It was written to be used as a content in giving a knowledge of the beginning and development of human progress. The aim is not just to furnish an interesting narrative, but one that is true to the course of human development and the scientific and geographical facts of the island on which Robinson is supposed to have lived. The excuse for departing so widely from the original story is to be found in the use which was desired to be made of it. The story here presented is simply the free adaptation of the original narrative to the demand for a specific kind of content in a form which would be interesting to the children. The teacher is and should be justified in using with entire freedom any material accessible for the ends of instruction. The text as here given has been published with an introduction and suggestive treatments as a Teacher's Manual for Primary Grades--"The
"It's hard on the girls of really good families to have to countenance
such a person. I've lived at Madison Hall a year longer than you have.
Just remember that."
"What we ought to do is to get as many girls as we can on our side,"
suggested crafty Maizie. "There are forty-eight girls at the Hall, most
of them sophs. Last year we let them alone, because they weren't of our
class. This year we'll have to make a fuss over them. Lunch them and
take them to ride in our cars and all that. It will be a bore, but it
will pay in the end. Once we get a stand-in with them, we can run things
here to suit ourselves."
"That's a good idea," lauded Marian. "We'll begin this very day."
So it was that while Jane Allen and her little coterie of loyal friends
entered upon their college year with high aspirations to do well, under
the same roof with them, three girls sat and plotted to overthrow
Wellington's most sacred tradition: "And this is my command unto you
that ye love one another."
CHAPTER X
A VAGUE REGRET
PREFATORY NOTE "An American Robinson Crusoe" is the outcome of many years of experience with the story in the early grades of elementary schools. It was written to be used as a content in giving a knowledge of the beginning and development of human progress. The aim is not just to furnish an interesting narrative, but one that is true to the course of human development and the scientific and geographical facts of the island on which Robinson is supposed to have lived. The excuse for departing so widely from the original story is to be found in the use which was desired to be made of it. The story here presented is simply the free adaptation of the original narrative to the demand for a specific kind of content in a form which would be interesting to the children. The teacher is and should be justified in using with entire freedom any material accessible for the ends of instruction. The text as here given has been published with an introduction and suggestive treatments as a Teacher's Manual for Primary Grades--"The