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True Education
amusements, parents and teachers can do much to supply wholesome
and life-giving diversions.
In this, as in everything else that concerns our well-being, In-
spiration has pointed the way. In early ages, life was simple for the
people who were under God’s direction,. They lived close to the
heart of nature. Children shared in the work of their parents and
studied the beauties and mysteries of nature’s treasure house. And
in the quiet of field and wood they pondered those mighty truths
handed down as a sacred trust from generation to generation. Such
training produced strong men and women.
In this age, life has become artificial, and people have degener-
ated. While we may not return fully to the simple habits of those
early times, we may learn from them lessons that will make our
seasons of recreation what the name implies—seasons of true up-
building for body, mind, and soul.
The surroundings of the home and the school are closely related
to the question of recreation. In the choice of a home or the location
of a school, the surroundings should be considered. Parents with
whom the mental and physical well-being of their children is of
greater moment than money or the claims and customs of society,
should endeavor to provide for their children the benefit of nature’s
teaching, and recreation amidst her surroundings. It would be a great
aid in educational work if every school could be so situated as to
afford the students land for cultivation, and access to the fields and
woods.
In lines of recreation for the student the best results will be at-
tained through the personal cooperation of the teacher. True teachers
can impart to their students few gifts so valuable as the gift of their
own companionship. It is true of men and women, and how much
more of young people and children, that only as we come in touch
through sympathy can we understand them; and we need to under-
stand in order to benefit most effectively. To strengthen the tie of
sympathy between teachers and students, few things count so much
as pleasant association together outside the schoolroom. In some
schools the teachers are always with their pupils in their hours of
recreation. It would be well for our schools were this practice fol-
lowed more generally. The sacrifice demanded would be great but
teachers would reap a rich reward.