The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1908-06-12
Echoes Of Woman's Clubs


footed instructing the Athenian
youth. He has heard of the great
advancement and he sits down in a
back seat to listen. can see his
disappointed look as he listens to the
readings Of the clippings and the life
less notes of the leader, and I can
see him walk slowly out of the house
resolving to sleep another 1000 years
and see IL we will do anything in that
length of time.
We need Rhetoricals in our school
because of the great need of them in
after life. We need them also to
add to the interest of the school. We
need oral expression in the teaching
of that dry subject, Rhetoric. We
have hal too much written work to
the exclusion of the oral. Give the
students ten minutes of voice cul-
ture at the beginning of each class
period for a while. They need it.
Drill them on emphasizing the most
important words in some familiar
lines of poetry. Show them the i'm
portance of the muscles of the whole
body to proper oral expression. Give
them drills in this line. These things
will make the Rhetoric period one to
be looked forward to and will furn-
ish a recreation that theme writer's
need.
We need Rhetoricals in our read
ing classes and in the grades. Few
high school students can read proper
ly and this is on account of lack of
training in the grades. Drill the
reading classes on such old familiar
lines as-"Roll on thou dark and
deep blue ocean, roll. Show them
that no one can get the full mean
ing of any selection without reading
it aloud and giving it the proper ex-
preston. With proper enthusiasm the
reading class can be made one of the
happiest classes of the whole day.
Let the children vie with each 9th
er in reading some specially good
paragraph. The looking up of words
and the other attention to minute al
lusions have almost killed some of
our reading classes. Give them drill
in expression. That is the primary
object of the reading class, and all
reading classes need 1t.
Aside from adding zest and inter-
est to our rhetoric and reading
classes rhetoricals furnish a needed
variety to our school programs. Ev-
cry school, grammar school or high
school, large school or small school,
should have a literary society. This
society should furnish bi-weekly pro-
grams. These programs should con-
tain little or no reading. They should
consist of storytelling, orations, dec
lamations, book-reviews, and debates.
There is no trouble in interesting
the whole school in work of this
kind and they can well afford to
lay aside the regular routine occas-
ionally to indulge in things like this.
Rhetoricals are needed to get out
siders to visit our schools. People
who never come near the schools to
hear regular recitations will come to
listen to programs, and after they
get into the habit of coming to an
occasional program they are quite
likely to come to see some of the
regular work. AT any rate, half
of loaf is better than none, and it
is worth something to get the par
ents inside of the school buildings
We need rhetoricals in the schools
to keep up the interest, but we need
them most because of their import
ance in the preparation for life. In
olden times this phase of education
occupied proportionally larger part
in the school work. We have been
neglecting it in the modern times,
these days that are crowded so full
Of ne VIKINGS. Let us restore rhet-
oricals to their proper place.
H. G. STORM, Elizabeth, Ill.
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