How to Teach Religion: Principles and MethodsBetts, George Herbert
Religion
How to Teach Religion: Principles and Methods
Betts, George Herbert
Religion -- Study and teaching; Religious education
5. _Dramatic representation can be used as an incentive to the
imagination._ Children easily and naturally imagine themselves to be
some other person, and often play at being nurse or school teacher or
doctor or preacher. Nearly every child possesses a large measure of the
dramatic impulse, and is something of an actor. It is great fun for
children to "tog up" and to "show off" in their play. And not only is
all this an expression of imagination actively at work, but such
activities are themselves a great stimulus to the imagination. The child
who has dressed up as George Washington and impersonated him in some
ceremonial or on a public occasion will ever after feel a closer reality
in the life and work of Washington than would come from mere reading
about him. A group of children who have acted out the story of the good
Samaritan will get a little closer to its inner meaning than merely to
hear the story told. The girl who has taken the part of Esther appearing
before the king in behalf of her people will realize a little more fully
from that experience what devotion and courage were required from the
real Esther. A class who have participated in a pageant of the Nativity
will always be a little nearer to the original event than if their
imaginations had not been called upon to make real the characters and
incidents.
USING THE MEMORY
The memory should play an important part in religion. Gems from the
Bible, stories, characters, and events, inspiring thoughts and maxims,
and many other such things should become a permanent part of the
furnishing of the mind, recorded and faithfully preserved by the memory.
Laws of use of memory.--The laws by which the memory works have been
thoroughly studied and carefully described, and should be fully
understood by every teacher. Further than this, _they should be
faithfully observed in all memory work_. These laws may be stated as
follows:
1. The law of _complete registration_. The first act in the memory
process is fully and completely to register, or _learn_, the matter to
be retained. The retention can never be better than the registration of
the facts given into the memory's keeping. Half-learned matter easily
slips away, never having been completely impressed on the mind. It is
possible to lose both effort and efficiency by committing a verse of a
poem barely up to the point where it can doubtfully be repeated instead
of giving it the relatively small amount of additional study and
practice which would register it firmly and completely. Whatever is
worth committing to memory should therefore be carried past the barely
known stage and committed fully and completely.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account