Milford chronicle., 1925-03-20
CHILD CULTURE
Lena e. Bliss

= CHILD CULTURE
Lena e. Bliss
I sped a poem into the air
"It fell to earth knew not wher
For who hath sight so keen ant
strong
That it can follow the flight o
song?"
Years, years afterward from {
dream,
Again I dwelt upon my theme,
But the lines my first thought haC
beguiled
I found again in the heart OF child
Little do we realize the value oi
beautiful sentiment, rightly taught
to the growth of child's mind
Alice Freeman Palmer with hel
quick, almost intuitive understand
ing of a child's need, gave to the
children of admission school in the
heart of a dirty city three rules for
happiness-every day happiness.
First-"COmmit to memory every
day something beautiful"
Second at something pret-
ty every day and pause before it
long enough to say: Isn't that beau
tiful.'"
Third-"Do some kind act every
day for another"
To most of us in our pleasant in
vironment it would seem a compara-
lively easy task to keep these
rules, but to those children sur
rounded by the sordid and bitter
conditions of life, it was no easy
task to find happiness in beauty.
How much happier we make the
life of every child if we brought
into it a little more of loving
thought, beauty and kindness! This
is not a new idea to the Kinder
garten movement nor to the Monies
sori sytem, yet it is sometimes a
marvel how little of spontaneous
enjoyment Of beauty for its own
sake and how little of the pure un-
trammeled joy of living come into
the modern child's life.
We have today the two extremes:
the little savage with no home
training and no ideals Of beauty or
even cleanliness, and the over
pampered, sophisticated child who
is looking always beyond the pres
ent for a thrill" of some kind.
Hemmed in by rules and the "dis-
cipline" of school life, compelled
to. digest whatever material is
offered him and to do it gracefully,
he goes through the wearisome
leveling process and were it not for
his elasticity of spirit and his
wonderful power of adaptation,
would come out of it with all
originality crushed or suppressed.
A professor in one of our colleges
recently said: "a chiId's sense of
rime and rythm is nearly always ac-
curate. It shows itself in his every
omtion. A child's feet instinctvely |
dance to the joy of life"
So, a child's heart instinctively |
throbs to the of song, to the rhyth- |
mic pulsatiOns of poetry, and to |
such a degree that a teacher finds
great difficulty in eliminating the
effect in a recitation of
poetry by child.
The sympathetic teaching of good
poems, therefore, is one of the high
est forms of child culture. Children
Will soon detect the difference be-
.Ween a good poem and a poor one.
or their taste is naturally good.
lney are very good critics also as
o the correct Interpretation of a
'oem. Beauty as memorized in DO
ms will prove a constant source
Il JOY as well as uplifting of souI
nd character, and in many inst
noes may be the determining fac
or in good choice at some crisis
f later life.
Stories, too, should be carefully
hosen and well-told. One of the
1ost potent devices today for the
ood or Ill being of childhood is in
ne Radio bedtime stories. I have
1und that children usually apprec-
lte most the stories thev know
re true. In relating stories to a
roup of children 1 know, 1 often
egin with
"Once upon a time, years and
ears ago, when l was a little girl
Ike you," and they will listen long
asst the hour
Truth, originality, beauty -
lese appeal to childhood as to the
aturer mind. 1t does not need a
'eatiVe artist, but it does need an
IISJ-SOuI TO awaken these re-
'onses in childhood and when
vakened, they are among the high
t factors in child development.
1t was Carlyle who said, Whose
hool hours are all the days and
ghts of our existence" From the
lids first conscious moment he
receiving and storing up concepts
lring those impressionable years
Om four to six he adds very rapid
to his store. If he attends kinder III
rten, intelligent effort does it's
st to provide the most promising
nditions for this activity, if not,
experiences are very likely to
ance. How desirable that at this
ne his impression should be cor
ct! What sort of impressions are
children of your community
thering?- If no kindergarten has
en- provided fOr them, why not
'rk to get one opened. The Nation
kindergarten Association, 8 West
n Street, New York, will gladly
you. Write for information and
vice.