Abstract :
Given the serious decline in the number of undergraduates majoring
in the humanities in general, and literature in particular, teachers of Children’s
Literature have a unique opportunity to serve their discipline by tapping the power
of classroom dialogue to introduce students to the practical reasoning central to
humanistic study. This essay takes Long John Silver, from Robert Louis Stevenson’s
Treasure Island (1883), as a model for generating lively discussion that begins
with literary matters but leads, with help from the teacher, to fundamental questions
about the role of the humanities in students’ education and in their lives. In the
process, the essay traces a pedagogical strategy that moves from matters of plot and
character, to issues of ethics and judgment, to larger questions regarding approximate
knowledge and sound reasoning about the complexities of the human
condition. This inquiry focuses specifically on the charming but villainous Silver
and the possible explanations for his escape at the end of the novel. But the
ambiguity and fascination of his character are also catalysts for wide-ranging
classroom discussion of a kind that Children’s Literature routinely promotes and
sustains. Such discussion can provide broad, balanced insight into the nature and
variety of critical understanding. As such, Children’s Literature and the pedagogy it
supports serves to identify and enliven the benefits of humanistic study at a crucial
moment of academic history.
