Show Evening Chit Chit Chat ChatS I S BY RUTH EUTH CAMERON rr HAT great advances are being made madeI every cry year in the tho science of child T i training is an undeniable but there is one change in method that I regret regret and and that is the decrease of things to be learned by heart How Ilow much poetry does your ur child learn by heart at school today How much of the Bible is he asked to learn at Sunday school Very little I 1 fanc fancy r if his teacher has the modern point of view tew He studies and reads and listens to explanations and stories and illustrations but he seldom learns by heart And I T think its it's a big mistake Of or all our childhoods childhood's educational advantages advantages advantages ad ad- vantages that we didn't appreciate and maybe fought against at tho the time I think most of us of the older generation the generation the generation g that emphatically learned by heart will heart will that one of the greatest greatest great great- est advantages cs was being forced to in incorporate incorporate in- in corporate into our mental system so much of the beautiful things in our lit lit Ill Much of what we Wt learned we didn't understand at th the time of course It was just a string of words and phrases Or if we WI did understand it mentally we didn't spiritually And then we C Jived d. d and every phase of life translated some of that poetry for fat us Ever Every great gleat cl experience sorrow or suffering sUffering- or OJ Joy illumined s some mo line Une I to us Who Vho Wasn't had the experience of recalling some sonic piece of f poetry that I he lie learned years and years ealS ago and for br forthe the first time really realty understanding it And I 1 think its it's a shame that our children children chil chil- from their dren arent aren't carrying away schooling a similar fund of unrecognized treasure I Seems to me when the school fails falls to give them this its it's up to us to try to tomake tomake make up tho the lack In our neighborhood there thore is one mother moth moth- V r about this and er 1 who t believes as do I who dedicates a part of every Sund Sunday y afternoon to filling in this gap for her four fout r youngsters She doesn't try to lo teach them much much- 1 not more than ten or twelve lines of poet poetry or half balf a dozen verses of the tho Bible I eve every r week cel But she spends much time in making malin the selection from froin the whole range of literature and the the best in the he S Bible She explains the selection and 1 then it turns the children loose to learn Ie-arn Some dainty or especial privilege e is the reward of the one who ho is first ready to recite it S In order to fix the selections more firmly in their minds she he re reviews reviews te re- views them from Sunday Sunda to Sunday Sunda or 01 calls on all the children to recite them atthe atthe at the the supper supper table or Just before bedtime And it is a matter of great pride with them to be able to recite correctly Of course twelve lines isn't much but twelve e lineR hues a week is a year and 6 4 lines from tho the v very ry refined gold of out our literature is a mental treasure i ot to tobo bo 10 despised Does Doe the plan appeal to you as worth t t trying K T J hope so RO Mirth Iirth is Gods God's medicine everybody ou ought ht to bathe in it Grim care morose morose- ness anxiety-all anxiety the tho rust of ought life to be scoured off b by r the oil of mirth Oliver Wendell Vendell Holmes r |