My refrigerator is covered with oblong magnets stamped with art. I buy these after museum visits and, yes, I know: they are kitschy. Plus they are overpriced and the paintings aren’t well reproduced. Still, I get a kick out them, particularly watching them migrate while fulfilling their duties of holding up 2-for-1 coupons, reminders of dental appointments, and fluttering sales receipts.

What you see in the photo, though, is definitely not my refrigerator. Instead, this photo (click to enlarge) came to me as part of a beautiful letter penned by a mom who shares my enthusiasm for the tradition of memorizing poetry. In her family, memory work has taken wing to a level that inspires awe. Surprised at my request to share her letter, she gave permission, asking only that I make it clear she doesn’t consider what her kids or family does to be anything extraordinary. Instead, she sees it as a reflection of how God bountifully endows youngsters with the ability to learn joyfully and memorize easily. And in this respect, she is absolutely right!

Her letter also alerted me to a website, part of Memoria Press’s rich offerings. There, you can watch her daughter enthusiastically recite the whole classic poem Horatio at the Bridge. A number of other students are featured accomplishing the same feat. Perhaps you knew this was going on, but I did not. 

I find her letter to be yet another testimony to the fact that something powerful is happening. It’s a wave, really. A wave of parents, children, grandparents, and tutors who are bucking the trend and refusing to accept the low standards and abysmal expectations now put forth as “normal.”  

If I hadn’t taken a giant step into this world of Classical and home education, I’d be singing the blues.

Instead, I’m shouting praises for families like the Wasmunds. Whether your child will memorize all of Horatio at the Bridge or not isn’t the issue. Let’s celebrate every family engaged in serious learning. Heartfelt learning. Hip-hip hooray for those who help children learn to draw maps and birds (rather than stare at glossy texts or computer screens). Let’s applaud those who insist their children master handwriting, math facts, and Latin roots, whether within the brick-and-mortar system or in co-ops or homeschooling. And let’s give gratitude for the parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, godparents, and tutors who are bucking every trend of our society by imparting these critical skills.

It’s spring, and everything is blooming. Learning is blossoming too.  

Dear Professor Carol,

Greetings once again from South Korea.

Your words about poetry resonated with me and I wanted to share a glimpse of our refrigerator with you. Now there’s a sentence I feel certain you don’t read every day! But aren’t our refrigerators a reflection of who we really are and what we value?

Our two daughters, now ages 12 and 10 have been raised in Asia and have attended Chinese day school their entire educational careers (with two unapologetic, highly intentional parents “after schooling” them daily in subjects outside their Chinese curriculum). Within the Asian system of education rote memory is a common and accepted tool. When the girls came home at age three reciting Tang Dynasty poems in Chinese — the equivalent to Shakespeare-speak — I knew they could easily do the same in English. We began with dear Will and then expanded their repertoire throughout the years. Now, they request poems for me to prepare for them to memorize. Depending on length, they memorize one about every two to three weeks. Olivia, age 10 requested they memorize Paul Revere’s Ride last week, after they completed If by Rudyard Kipling. Prior to that it was one by Alexander Pushkin.

Obviously I am coming to the point that they too memorized Invictus — and the proof is on our fridge. No, they may not understand the full meaning, but those words are on their hearts and the historic significance explained and noted. To us poems are a resource for them, just as we place in their minds Bible verses, the catechism, and of course the prayers and creeds of the church. May they always know beauty — etched within easy grasp in their minds and onto their hearts. (When they were three and five years old I taught them the Apostles’ Creed, to which the three-year old replied, “That’s it?” So on to the Nicene it was!)

Three years ago while reading Susan Bauer’s Story of the World series, the girls memorized the first four stanzas of Horatius at the Bridge by Thomas MacCaulay. Lily, our oldest, read a Winston Churchill biography last summer and learned the he had memorized the entire poem in grade school and asked if she could do the same. I purchased a book with the 590-line poem for her and she set a goal in September to complete it on January 3. She studied in her free time — of which she has precious little — and proudly met her goal. Here is the video link of Lily featured by Memoria Press. (My husband has always only spoken Spanish to the girls, so in the beginning of the video he is telling her in Spanish to begin once again.) She actually is more fluent with the poem now — as we often hear her still reciting in the shower! Olivia has picked up quite a bit and plans to complete it next year.

Enough! I really just wanted to thank you for yet again encouraging me — and our family — on this educational path we are on together.