Jump to content
IGNORED

Teaching 2yos to Memorize Scripture


dairyfreelife

Recommended Posts

Jacinda at Growing Home is forcing teaching her 2yo to memorize scripture assuming her toddler will remember it and understand what it means. For some strange reason I'm thinking little Charity will end up an atheist, looking back at these posts where she knew all this scripture as a child and it didn't make a damn difference. I could memorize entire books (short children's books, not Bible books) at age two, it's not weird for a 2yo to have great memory skills. It doesn't prove they understand anything they're reciting however.

growinghomeblog.com/2012/05/teaching-children-to-memorize-scripture_17.html

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is nonsense. I used to be a preschool teacher, and sure the kids can parrot back things or memorize short bits of text, but there's no way that they'd be able to understand it. I started reading at age 3 but didn't gain elementary school reading comprehension til age 4 or 5, and I think that's the base level of reading skills necessary to understand even the simplest pieces of scripture (when written in a plain, modern format, not KJV).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Dougie is quite into this also, he has plenty of video of his daughter Virginia at age 2ish reciting some KJV scripture in her baby voice.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I follow Jacinda's blog and that post made me laugh out loud. 1) she assumes every two year old has the same level of verbal skills as her 2yr old - at that age kids' verbal skills still vary pretty significantly and there's a good chance a lot of little ones couldn't repeat back such long and complicated verses. 2) does she really think the kid understands words like iniquity? Purged? LoL. I would love to hear her kid spontaneously use those words in the correct context. Sure she can repeat them back but she likely has no concept of what they mean.

I've never understood the point of rote memorization. Wouldn't it be better to read the kid stories from a children's bible or something?

Edited riffles

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think most fundies just parrot the bible. So they are just getting him ready for normal fundy life right?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When I saw the thread title, I thought it was going to be about the PP and ZsuZsu. I remember there was another blog in addition to Zsu who discussed Bible memorization. That other blogger's kids were older though. With Jacinda, I find it ridiculous that she thinks reading and memorizing Bible scriptures is going to help a toddler deal with tantrums.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Once again, fundies vastly overestimate how much toddlers can do and how advanced their thinking is. A two year old probably could parrot a short verse, but I wouldn't expect her to understand it! Especially KJV, that's almost a different language and the poor kid probably wouldn't get it until much later.

Of course, she is assuming every kid is on her kid's level. I didn't start really speaking until 3, so I definitely wouldn't have been able to do it. My sister might have been able to had my parents bothered trying to make her memorize Scripture at 2, but I wouldn't have.

Scripture memorization, BTW, has zero effect on behavior. I know, I have firsthand experience. From age 7 on, but still, it would have even less effect on a 2 year old.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Never underestimate the power of plumbing line

Yep.

I think most fundies just parrot the bible. So they are just getting him ready for normal fundy life right?

and yep.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I had a whole book memorized at that age. I would "read" it to my parents. Did I understand it? Yes. But it was a CHILDREN'S book. She is an idiot.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I had a whole book memorized at that age. I would "read" it to my parents. Did I understand it? Yes. But it was a CHILDREN'S book. She is an idiot.

Listening to my 2.5 y.o. Monkey "read" me "Dinosaurs, dinosaurs, a long time ago," is definitely preferable and more applicable to his life than KJV verses, IMHO.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Listening to my 2.5 y.o. Monkey "read" me "Dinosaurs, dinosaurs, a long time ago," is definitely preferable and more applicable to his life than KJV verses, IMHO.

I think my atheist father preferred my book over the KJV too :mrgreen:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There is no way a two year old knows what iniquity and purged means. She is merely parroting her mom and dad.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"If Charity is having a particularly difficult week with anger and temper-tantrums, we can flip to the anger section and choose a few verses from there to work on. If she's habitually stalling when we ask her to do something, we'll turn to the chapter on obedience. If she's having a hard time finding something nice to say to her brother, we'll memorize a verse on kindness"

Sure, that's a great way to get the kid to hate the bible. The child is going to associate having to memorize scripture as a consequence of misbehaving - a.k.a. punishment. It's going to accomplish the exact opposite of what she intended it to do.

Great way to screw up your kid!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think truly the only time I was made to memorize scripture when I was a wee tiny thing, wearing a white robe with a bright red bow was in cherub choir. I loved singing so it was a good thing for me. Once a month we came out with our teacher during church and sang some appropriate song. I don't recall any trauma coming from that.

And of course the beloved Christmas pageant where we each had one verse to recite. I can't tell you now what it was except it was from Luke and who ever had the best diction got the best verses.

My kids had soft books and made up stories to go with them and they had a kids Bible and told me stories about Joshua and the wall and Jesus in the manger. Never forced them to do anything with memorization though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The church I grew up in prided itself on "training the young". Having your young children quote bible verses and catechism answers was a way of demonstrating your own holiness. *insert puke face*

They never attributed understanding to the children, though, just believed it was beneficial to already have it memorized once they are old enough to understand.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I won awards all through elementary school for scripture memory. It was a parlor trick-a way of proving I was holy and regularly confessed all of my many sins. My dad really wanted me to have the whole NT memorized but alas, my mother divorced him before I could do that, and we left the cult. ;)

The cool thing--and it is cool, to me--is that bits and pieces of scripture will come back to me at tough moments. Because I've made peace with what I believe and why, I don't hear my dad in my head anymore and remembering these verses is comforting instead of painful. Of course, I'm in my late 30's, so time has probably done more for healing than anything.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My grandmother had to memorize long poems when she was a kid in school in the 1920s. She never forgot them. By contrast, I once worked in a school where it was considered borderline child abuse to make kids memorize their multiplication tables. Memorization is good for the developing brain. I don't see anything wrong with a little kid learning some Bible verses, but they should be able to understand what they're saying. Also, it's creepy when itty bitty kids quote verses about death and destruction. The verses they learn should be age appropriate.

Oh, and check out this little guy:

lHtUOpcGnDY

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you're going to teach a 2-year-old to memorize something, make it useful. Teach them their address, their phone number, parent's full names, what to say to a 911 operator. Teach them some phrases in a foreign language. Kids that old just don't have the context to understand scriptures of any religion.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you're going to teach a 2-year-old to memorize something, make it useful. Teach them their address, their phone number, parent's full names, what to say to a 911 operator. Teach them some phrases in a foreign language. Kids that old just don't have the context to understand scriptures of any religion.

Funny thing is... when my house burnt down some years ago, and I was half drunk at the time (we'd had a party with beer, gone to sleep around 1 AM, then at 2 AM were awoken by alarms and flames when some asshole arsonist set our house and six others on the block on fire) I had to call 911 from our phone (landline, but next to the door, lest anyone worry) and without even THINKING, the first thing out of my mouth was my address, in a clear voice. My parents had drilled it into me that hard, the first thing you do, in clear English, say the house address - even though in 2007 they can find out automatically on the landline... :) "[address], the house is on fire, send the fire department."

I then proceeded to put on my backpack (next to the door) as I always did when going out - and leave the house. Did I put on pants? NO....

That aside, I never had to memorize scripture (being a heathen and all) but I do remember learning various songs (which tend to have archaic lyrics) as a small kid. Some were in impenetrable (at the time) English, others were in classical Japanese (similarly just noise to small kids) and I remembered them faithfully without understanding a word.

Much later in life I would hear these songs, recall the lyrics, and only then, have a moment of "OH!!!! I GET IT NOW!!!" :D

"Tizuvthee" was one in English, also "Roundyon virgin."

There's a scene in one of the Ramona books where Ramona asks about the "donzerlee light," I read that as an adult but was rolling on the floor in sympathy, I know just what that's like...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Funny thing is... when my house burnt down some years ago, and I was half drunk at the time (we'd had a party with beer, gone to sleep around 1 AM, then at 2 AM were awoken by alarms and flames when some asshole arsonist set our house and six others on the block on fire) I had to call 911 from our phone (landline, but next to the door, lest anyone worry) and without even THINKING, the first thing out of my mouth was my address, in a clear voice. My parents had drilled it into me that hard, the first thing you do, in clear English, say the house address - even though in 2007 they can find out automatically on the landline... :) "[address], the house is on fire, send the fire department."

It was on my mind because I've been working on this very thing with my offspring. Luckily they've witnessed me call 911 last year when we witnessed someone having heatstroke and it's coming pretty naturally.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.



×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.