Cultivate Family Conversation
"EDUCATION commences at the mother's knee, and every word spoken within hearing of little children tends toward the formation of character." Endeavor always to talk your best before your children. They hunger perpetually for new ideas. They will learn with pleasure from the lips of parents what they deem it drudgery to study in books; and even if they have the misfortune to be deprived of many educational advantages, they will grow up intelligent if they enjoy in childhood the privilege of listening daily to the conversation of intelligent people. We sometimes see people who are the life of every community which they enter, dull, silent, and uninteresting at home among their children. If they have not mental activity and mental stores sufficient for both, let them first use what they have for their own households. A silent home is a dull place for young people,—a place from which they will escape if they can. How much useful information, on the other hand, is often given in a pleasant family conversation, and what unconscious, but excellent mental training in lively, social argument. Cultivate to the utmost the grace of conversation.—Boston Budget.