THE APPRECIATION LESSON

It is quite as essential that the child shall come to enjoy and admire right things as that he shall know right things.  To cultivate appreciation for the beautiful, the good, the fine, and the true is one of the great aims of our teaching.  One who is able to analyze a flower and technically describe its botanical parts, but who fails to respond to its beauty has still much to learn about flowers.  One who learns the facts about the life of Paul, Elijah, or Jesus but who does not feel and admire the strength, gentleness, and goodness of their characters has missed one of the essential points in his study.  One who masters the details about a poem or a picture but who misses the thrill of enjoyment and appreciation which it holds for him has gathered but the husks and misses the right kernel of meaning.

How to teach appreciation.—­Appreciation can never be taught directly.  The best we can do is to bring to the child the thing of beauty or goodness which we desire him to enjoy and admire, making sure that he comprehends its meaning as fully as may be, and then leave it to exert its own appeal.  We may by ill-advised comment or insistence even hinder appreciation.  The teacher who constantly asks the children, “Do you not think the poem is beautiful?” or, “Is not this a lovely song?” not only fails to help toward appreciation, but is in danger of creating a false attitude in the child by causing him to express admiration where none is felt.

There is also grave doubt whether it is not a mistake to urge too much on the child that he “ought” to love God, or that it is his “duty” to love the church.  The fact is that love, admiration and appreciation cannot be compelled by any act of the will or sense of duty.  They must arise spontaneously from a realization of some lovable or beautiful quality which exerts an appeal that will not be denied.

The part of the teacher at this point, therefore, is to act as interpreter, to help the learner to grasp the meaning of the poem, the picture, the song, or the character he is studying.  The admirable qualities are to be brought out, the beautiful aspects set forth, and the lovable traits placed in high light.  The teacher may even express his own admiration and appreciation, though without sentimentality or effusiveness.  Nor is it likely that a teacher will be able to excite admiration in his class for any object of study which he does not himself admire.  If his own soul does not rise to the beauty of the twenty-third psalm or to the inimitable grandeur and strength of the Christ-life, he is hardly the one to hold these subjects of study before children.

THE REVIEW LESSON