Article August 5, 1933 Issue

Daily Work

[Written Especially for Young People]

LAWRENCE CREATH AMMONS

In an old textbook, a note made in pencil on the margin of one of the pages indicates a fundamental rule in education. It reads, "Daily work will count more for the credit of the student than grades made in examinations." What impression had been made on the writer of this note when it was penciled was not recalled; perhaps it was one of relief from fear of those examinations. The textbook was on English literature, a favorite subject with a majority of the students. The class, under the teacher who dictated the note, was an enthusiastic group of young people.

That teacher had found and applied a true law of pedagogy. Each day's work well done should mean an accumulation of knowledge that would hardly need to be examined on set occasions. Study of the subject thus unfolded a clear perception of literary facts, of style, good usage, and force in expression. There was thereby inculcated an appreciation for beautiful thoughts contributed by great men and women who in their varied inspiration were generally imbued with high motives. In after years, students of the class, one of whom became a nationally well-known writer, looked back with happy memories to the school days; and with most of them good literature has ever remained an engrossing subject.

Mary Baker Eddy in our textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," gives as part of the definition of "day" (p. 584), "The irradiance of Life." Each day brings its illumination and brightens our lives. Added years mean well-filled storehouses of accumulating knowledge of good. More light! As our capacity for receiving is enlarged, our daily work becomes a process of unfoldment. "Eternity is God's measurement of Soul-filled years" (Science and Health, p. 599).

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