How and What Should Children Read? by Eliza H. Morton

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 22, 1910

How and What Should Children Read?

By Eliza H. Morton

ELIZA H. MORTON

When a child is taught the alphabet and its combinations, he is given a key which he may use in unlocking all the treasures of good, and which, if not properly instructed, he may use, as he has opportunity, in opening the cesspools of iniquity. It is therefore of the utmost importance that parents guard this avenue of thought-transmission, and begin early to cultivate in the minds of their children a taste for ennobling and uplifting literature, and to warn them against that reading which leaves a stain on the soul.

The child should early be taught that words are simply the clothes in which we dress our thoughts, and that in reading or speaking they should be distinctly articulated and correctly pronounced. How to read well comes through a knowledge of how to speak well; hence how the children should read is a matter which should receive attention long before they are given a printed book. In youth the organs of speech are pliable, the memory is retentive, and the habits are unformed; hence correct articulation and pronunciation may be acquired then much more easily than in advanced years.

Those who have not had this training in early life feel its lack keenly when thrown into the society of educated persons. The mind may recognize an error in speech as soon as made, but the untrained lips will often shame the speaker, and make him feel ill at ease, even with those who are his inferiors in other respects.

A blackboard should be in every home, and the child's first reading lessons should be from it. He should be taught exercises, illustrated with the voice and the crayon. The children will be glad to go without a few unnecessary ruffles, and harmful pastry, if mother will only spend a little more time each day teaching them how to speak correctly; for correct speech is the foundation of the ability to read well. It is profitable to notice the language the children use when at play, and often to write on the blackboard a list of commonly mispronounced words, and then lead each child to incorporate them into sentences of his own.

The dictionary should be made a member of the family circle, and often be consulted. Nehemiah tells us how the priests and Levites read in his day: “They read in the book of the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading.” Neh. 8:8.

The habit of mumbling is one easily formed, and should not be tolerated by teacher or parent. It is usually acquired by reading in a very low tone. The Bible injunction is, “Lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid.” Isa. 40:9. Drawling is another habit frequently acquired in childhood, and often the one thus afflicted is not aware of it. He may be like one who said, “I u-sed to dr-awl, but I bro-ke my-self of it.” It is a good plan to require a child who drawls to read frequently in concert with some one who reads rapidly, and this will make the defect noticeable to himself. Attempts to cover incorrect pronunciation by rapid utterance should likewise be discouraged. Many are like the old lady who said that whenever she came to a word that she could not pronounce, she called it “Jerusalem” and let it went.” When reading becomes an exercise of the mind in thinking and feeling, it is something more than the mere action of the organs of speech upon the air; for what is read becomes a part of the very being, and under those conditions the emphasis will be bestowed aright, and the reading will be of interest.

The parent who knows what his children read each day, and by carefully worded questions leads them to reproduce in their own words the thoughts which have thus entered their minds, is laying the foundation of a culture which will prove of inestimable value through life. There is nothing that will more firmly fasten what is read in the mind than the habit of talking it over with some one else. “Freely ye have received, freely give,” is a law which holds true in what we read, as well as in our temporal interests. Making a written synopsis of what is read tends also to fix the thoughts in the mind, so that they can be given to others.

Reading just to pass the time away is injurious: it leads to a hasty, superficial, skimming habit, and causes the mind to lose its power of connected, vigorous thought. Some writers spread one idea through a volume, while others convey a wealth of meaning in a single sentence. It is better for the mind to gain one hundred ideas from one book than to gain one idea from one hundred books. This brings us to the question, What shall the children read?

It is not the purpose of the writer to advertise a list of books or periodicals suitable for children to read, but simply to notice a few general principles which parents may apply in selecting reading-matter for their families.

Books were never so plentiful and so varied as at the present time; and the majority of them are utterly worthless and positively injurious, and have been aptly compared to the frogs which came up and overspread Egypt. Satan has in every way sought to infuse his spirit into the books for the young. Many of them clothe vice in attractive livery, and appeal to the imagination in a way to give wrong ideas of life. They are to the mind of the child what minute doses of poison would be to his body. Some of these books, while not openly obscene, tend in that direction, and with an artfulness from the bottomless pit. It may not be out of place right here to say that notwithstanding the laws against books which are openly vulgar, Satan has his agents for these in nearly every State and town. The work of these agencies is performed in the most cunning and artful manner, and little would be known about it by the public in general were it not for certain societies that make it their business to uncover things of this kind. The workers in these organizations find conditions most appalling. The victims are generally boys in their teens. Parents should warn their children, and keep in such close touch

with them that this terrible defilement will not find its way into their minds.

Your boy should be so fortified and instructed in the ways of righteousness that, when approached by any one who would call his attention to anything suggestive of vulgarity, he will instantly turn away, and refuse to be contaminated. Not long ago, while on a street-car, the writer witnessed an exhibition of purity and manliness in a boy which was refreshing to see. Two young lads were sitting together on the opposite side of the car. One of them looked out of the window and saw a young lady holding up her dress to avoid the mud in crossing the street. He made a low remark, and tried to get his companion to gaze also. The lad thus accosted gave the other boy a look of disgust, and indignantly replied: “I will turn my eyes away. I will not look. You are no gentleman to talk that way about a lady.” That boy showed his home training, and is one of whom his sisters and mother have reason to be proud.

There is a wisdom which destroys all desire for corrupt knowledge, and the reading-matter placed in the hands of the young should be of a nature to strengthen in their minds the principles of purity.

Portland, Maine.

(Concluded next week)