The Homemaker
Childhood the Time for Learn
ing One’s Own Mother
Tongue
By Prudence Bradish
When I was a girl in school
“composition writing” was a bug
bear; largely, I am very sure,
because I was required to write
on subjects very far from my own
life, and usually very far from
my own life, and usually very far
outside of the field oij my interests
and my knowledge. What could
a little girl know of “Socialism”
or of “Egyptian Explorations,”
two of the subjects that I remem
ber? Oh, yes, and “The Seasons,”
and “Courage,” and “Across the
Threshold”? How could a teacher
get anything worth while out of
children about such subjects? We
were too young to have interest
even in reading about them.
Children in their early teens are
incapable of abstractions such as
these; they are altogether con
crete in their interests.
It is very different now. For
the most part, teachers are using
commonsense; they are asking
children to write on subjects that
they know something about; to
tell of things seen with their own
eyes or done with their own
hands. They are not confining
study of “English” to the reading
of classical literature and writ
in g correctly, but are having the
boys and girls in their classes tell
about every-day experiences.
* * »
I have been watching with much
interest the development of the
use of English in a boy I have
known since he was a baby. I
remember that when he was only
nine years old he gave to us dur
ing a visit at his home one even
ing a really delightful travel
talk, displaying with his new
“radiopticon” picture postcards
and photographs of places and
things he had seen during the
summer. It was a great experi
ence for the boy, and helped him
to confidence and facility in ex
pression of his ideas. This boy
When he went to college was a
ready writer and speaker, and his
fellow-students envied his “easy
manner” in taking part in dis
cussion.
Wise and well-trained teachers
nowadays encourage their pupils
to give five and teq-minute
“lectures,” allowing the others to
criticise, so that all may get used
to criticism, whether of subject
matter, repetitions, “hemming
and hawing,” broken construction,
obscurity, or other faults. Lecture
work like this is paralleled by
dramatization wherein the pupil
learns the value of words and in
flection and the difference be
tween writing and speech and the
limitations of each.
* * *
The work in “English” must be
closely related to the study in
other subjects. The connection is
not sufficiently emphasized in
most schools, and scarcely at all
in the average home. Few parents
display much interest in what
their children are studying, rarely
bringing out in the family con
versations the things that the
children are learning at school.
Why not encourage the children
at home to make up little plays,
dramatizing a bit of their history,
a story in literature? The child
delights to throw himself into an
impersonation, and so lose timid
ity and self-consciousness. All
his after life, in business and so
ciety, will be the more difficult
and powerful for just such simple
things as this.
* * *
Teachers who used to be over
burdened with the reading and
correction of numberless inane
and perfunctory compositions on
absurd subjects of which the chil
dren could know nothing are
learning that English .can be
taught by the direct method of
speaking; that writing is only
one method of expression. Where
both methods are used, with wide
scope for originality and the dis
cussion of things in which the
Through the Glad
Eyes of a Woman
By JANE DOB
Copyright, 1111,
Woman, the Holiday
Fraud
Let us examine the biggest
fraud of the past vacation sea
son.
Just the woman holiday-maker.
Poor, restless, nerve - touchy
soul.
Only once in a year, for the
vast majority of her kind, comes
the opportunity to loaf and frolic
in the Great Outdoors, and har
vest enough vitality and fresh
ness to serve them well on into
the dark and dreary months to
come. '
And what do they do with it?
The answer was to be seen in
every rocking chair on every
hotel stoop, along every prom
enade and in every boarding
house parlor all round the coast
line and in all the inland holiday
resorts.
They turned it into an orgy,
a frenzy, an obsession of fierce
knitting, tatting, embroidering,
faggoting (a very tedious busi
ness, involving the most painful
concentration), bead-bag making
(fearful eyestrain this), dress
making and household linen mark
making an<^. household linen
marking.
Every other woman’s holiday
seemed to consist of moving
about with yards of incompleted
wool dresses and cretonne bags
just chockful of needlewprk and
mending.
Directly they had finished tuck
: ing childish tummies into bath
ing suits and shoo’ed their little
owners into the water, and seen
Pa safely at ball with the girls
and the boys from the borarding
house, they sank into a rocker
with a sigh of relief and a look
in their wild eyes which said so
plainly: “Thank goodness for a
little peace—now, perhaps I can
undo that sleeve and begin over
again,’’ trotted out the peach
floss silk (guaranteed to fade in
children are interested, the pupils
gain visibly in freedom, vigar,
and enthusiasm.
We get our vocabularies from
reading, speaking, and writing;
but mostly from our own free,
spontaneous use of them in the
discussion of things in which we
are interested. We read and
understand the meaning of hun
dreds of words that we do not use,
and speak in a way very different
fro mthat in which we write.
Only by the free and constant
interplay of all three methods can
we gain facility in expression.
Watch the small child in your
home; he is learning his speaking
vocabulary chiefly from you and
the neighbors and his playmates*
Soon he will begin to read and
write, and whether he gains vo
cabulary from that will depend
alfhost entirely upon whether
what he reads and writes gets
into his life and daily use through
the right sort of encouragement
and practice.
With small children letter writ
ing is the first step, and a good
one if it is rightly used. It is a
step between speaking and formal
writing; it is confined to every
day language. It should be kept
free to the greatest possible ex
tent. The very best way to make
children hate letter writing and
prevent their ever being interest
ing correspondents is to be over
critical of details in these early
efforts.
Youth is the time for learning
languages, and especially for
learning the right use of your own
mother tongue by using it
any ozone) and the book of words
“row 1,988, same as row 642. Re
epat from *,’’ and spoilt the rest
of the day for themselves.
And the sun and the wondrous
air, the perfect curve of the sea
—a miracle of shot green and
peacock and pussy-willow taffeta,
the eternal mystery of the golden
sands and their millions of curi
ous denizens (worth anybody’s at
tention with a pocket lens); the
tragedy of the seagull washed
ashore, a bedraggled, helpless of
crude oil; the panorama of the
world’s merchant ships crawling
across the edge of the sky—all
these were lost to them.
Two knitting needles, a load
of wool, a pesky lot of instruc
tions, frowning eyebrows, a ner
vous tension liable to snap at
any interruption, and a splitting
headache—what a holiday por
tion!
The sad truth of the matter
is, of course, that -women in the
main don't know how to loaf.
Half an hour in a rocker with
idle hands and nothing to do but
day-dream soon finds them fret
ting and fidgeting for the piece
of unfinished embroidery left in
the hotel bedroom.
Phone 5681 '
Jeanne's Beauty Salon
“PERMOIL” Permanent Wave with Oil
Marcel Waving, Hair Dressing
Manicuring and Massage
110-B S. Kentucky Avenue
Atlantic City, N. J.
Jeanne Jordan John Stougard
Open Tues. & Fri. Eves, until 10 o’clock
Do you want your family
well fed?
Use only
HOLT’S
HOME-MADE BREAD
J. L. HOLT
SI North Stanton Placo
Phona 802-J
When On
The Boardwalk
Buy Mrs. Lang’s De
licious Home Made
Fruit Confections
AT
“Wemadit”
(We Made It)
Crystallized Sweet Shop
241 BOARDWALK
In tho Vermont Building
When you taste it, you’ll be glad
“WEMADIT”
Phone 2598-R City DoliToriea l
You can imagine them as lit
tle girls sewing patiently at the
sampler:
“Abscence of occupation is not
rest;
A mind quite vacant is a mind
distressed.”
Foolish words!
They’ve ruined the peace and
poise of many, many women who
would 'be all the better, now and
again, for a vacant mind, one
free from the tyranny of “the
little piece of work you can take
up at any moment.”
A course of loafing would do
some wives and mothers in par
ticular a power of good.
As it is, ruined nerves, strained
eyesight, premature wrinkles and
crow’s feet, and an unaccount
able, to their men folk) touchi
ness at the end of their imperfect
holiday.
What a waste of vacation
money!
Of two evils a great many peo
ple are not satisfied unless they
choose both.—C. S.
DELANCY DRUG SHOP
32 N. Delaney Place
MRS. B. H. LOWTHBR, Proprietress
Telephone 8176-W
Prescriptions Filled Night snd Dsy
We Deliver Anywhere
Portrait Sitting» Made in Home
or Hotel by Appointment
THE
AMBASSADOR
STUDIO
B. HERITAGE
PHOTOGRAPHS
3019 Boardwalk, Atlantia City
PHONE 3952-J
Oculists’ Prescriptions a Specialty
Developing and Printing
Jffremtii SroH.
OPTICIANS
The Only Practical and
Fully Equipped Optical
Workshop in Atlantic City
We Invite You to Inspect Our
Manufacturing Department
At 1006 Pacific At*.
Also at
Maryland Ave. and Bdwk.
KODAKS - SUPPLIES
Try
BRIGHTON
MARKET
Meats, Poultry Provisions,
Fruits and Vegetables
N #
Dollar For Dollar
4203 VENTNOR AVE.
Wo Deliver Phone 7821-R
Have You Had Your Ozone Today?
- —Take—
“SHORE FAST LINE”
To OCEAN CITY
To L O N G P O R T or to the INLET
CALL
When your Evening Gowns,
Fancy Dresses, Sports Skirts,
Golf Apparel, Sweaters,
Blouses or Corsets need re
freshing and r:-: \
1303 PACIFIC AVENUE
Phone 829 Plant Phone 5762
829 or 5762
, “Cretonne Bed Room Set**’
Bed Spread, Bolster, Two Three-Piece
Window Drapes, 54-inch Scarf, 72-inch
Scarf. Special at $8.98
FOR HOMES OF DISTINCTION
THE WHITE GOODS CENTRE
718 Atlantic Avenue
New Moose Home Phone 5828
Remodeling end Alterations
> Reasonable
LORRAINE FUR SHOP
Manufacturing Furriar
146 S. NEW YORK AVENUE
ENGELO ALVANOS. Prop.
You’ll Find It At—
Curried
CURRIE CO.
Established Sixty-five Years Ago
1232-34-36 ATLANTIC AVENUE
Between North and South Carolina Avenues
FIVE O’CLOCK TEA
OUR 25 DIFFERENT KINDS OF TEA-CAKES
WILL ADORN YOUR TABLE AND
DELIGHT YOUR GUESTS
VIENNA PASTRY SHOP
1410 ATLANTIC AVE.