Article July 23, 1955 Issue

Words and Their Meaning

A teacher in the Sunday School of a branch church was telling her fiveand six-year-old pupils the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego as recorded in the third chapter of Daniel. She told them that these men loved the true God so much that they could not make a god of the golden image which King Nebuchadnezzar had set up in the plain of Dura. As she proceeded with the story she noticed that one of the little boys seemed puzzled. And when she explained how big the golden image was, that it was much higher than the ceiling of the Sunday School room, he looked up toward the ceiling and exclaimed, "Well, if the thing was as big as that, I don't see how in the world they ever got it into a plane."

One teacher, who has learned the importance of having the little pupils understand the words she uses, makes a practice of having at least one child repeat a story after she has read it or told it to the class. Then if the child has a misconception of some part of it, as in the case above cited, she has an opportunity to correct the mistake.

Often the children hear words which are fully understandable to the adult, but which mean little if anything to them. To illustrate, one teacher writes: "When I began the work with a primary class, it soon became apparent that the words '"Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy' were to the children merely a combination of words which they had learned without much meaning.

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