The Workshop of Worship
On Recovering Poetry for Our Children
by Steven Faulkner
I drive my children several miles every school day to a brick, one-room school house. On the way, I turn off the radio and ask them to teach me the poems they have been memorizing. At first they thought this was splendid fun, teaching slow-witted Father the poems they pick up so quickly.
But children tire easily and now they often don’t feel like going to the trouble of repeating, “Blow, blow, thou winter wind;/Thou art not so unkind as man’s ingratitude.” But I usually press on and begin repeating the lines myself. Soon they chime in and we are off and running together again, shouting “Hey ho, the holly! This life is most jolly!”
Children love poetry. . . .
