Recitation and reading aloud, besides all their other uses, have this
use that they accustom children to the sound of their own voices
uttering beautiful words, which takes away the odd shyness which some of
them feel in going beyond their usual round of expressions and extending
their vocabulary. We owe it to our language as well as to each
individual child to make recitation and reading aloud as beautiful as
possible. Perhaps one of the causes of our conversational slovenliness
is the neglect of these; critics of an older generation have not ceased
to lament their decay, but it seems as if better times were coming
again, and that as the fundamentals of breathing and voice-production
are taught, we shall increase the scope of the power acquired and give
it more importance. There is a great deal underlying all this, beyond
the acquirement of voice and pronunciation. If recitation is cultivated
there is an inducement to learn by heart; this in its turn ministers to
the love of reading and to the formation of literary taste, and enriches
the whole life of the mind. There is an indirect but far-reaching gain
of self-possession, from the need for outward composure and inward
concentration of mind in reciting before others. But it is a matter of
importance to choose recitations so that nothing should be learnt which
must be thrown away, nothing which is not worth remembering for life.
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