The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1918-09-21

use Of words, Just as in homes where
! the spirit Of politenesS reigns they alb
sorb tho practice of etiquette. And
! Just as children may memorize books
/ in good manners and remain unman-
ncrly clowns, SO they may-and do
memOrize rules Of grammar and con-
tinue to speak and write in a way to
make the judicious grieve.
Absorbing Literature.
| 1t is the soul that makes the body
/ rich, and it is the spirit of literature,
1 the feeling for literature that lends
! clearness and correctness and VigOr
and grace and urbanity to the writ
/ ten and the spoken word. How do
children learn politeness. They alb
/ sorb it. How do they learn religion
! religion. l mean, as something which
! Immediately and INCREASINGLY affects
their mode CT thinking, feeling and
acting? They absorb it; if man is
a cTeditable Catholic citizen today it
is not because he captured school
medals for Christian Doctrine but be-
cause he had good pious mother.
| And how do children learn to speak
and write good English? They absorb
it; absorb it from parents who use
/ correct and beautiful language, absorb
/ it from teachers who have the feeling
for literature; absorb it from the
worth while books which these same
teachers have taught them by example
/ to read and love and live.
Our schools are designed to prepare
! the children, not for examinations, but
! for life, for well-rounded, harmonious
! ly conceived complete living, now and
/ later on, here. and hereafter. This
! human life of ours-the troubled in
| terval between the cry of birth and
! the sigh of DEATHS so prevailingly
! thing of clouds and tempests that
we should welcome every ray of sun
! shine. We want to make our boys
| and girls-and eventually our men
and women-as happy in this world
as they can consistently be. And, next
! to the possession of our holy faith and
participation in the life of the Church,
| where can we find for them a more
real, more satisfying means of hap.
| pinCss than in the love of books? Ad-
| yisCdly or not, we teach scores OF
things--like square root and freehand
/ drawing and the geography of Siam
that most Of our pupils will never use
after they leave school, things that
contribute appreCiably neither to ma.
terial success nor intellectual culture
nor spiritual we'll being: and We ne.
/ glect imbuing them with the feeling
! for literature, a possession which will
! give them a fine sense of word values
which will develop and enrich their
minds, which will guide them along
| the ways of beauty to the throne of
| God. Most Of them will never taste
the pleasures of wealth, of social dis
tinCtion, of sumptuous dwellings, of
! travel in foreign lands; and these
| things we cannot give them. But we
can bid them to sit down to that end
| less feast of the spirit spread so abun-
dainty in the worlds great poems and
dramas and essays and novels. We
can press into their hands the golden
key to the intellectual treasure-hoard
OF all the ages, the riches wrought OF
| the greatest minds that scanned the
| ways of men, the wealth that clogs
not with possession and that thieves
cannot break through and steal. And
this noble, this godlike Office we too
often fail to fill because we ourselves
are content to batten on the common
place and the ephemeral, because we,
as men and as teachers--to our shame
be it said-possess not the feeling for
| literature
Hints for Teachers.
chanoo con Donna oplv whom orr