THE DIARY
=41. The Value of a Diary.=--The diary is the simplest form of
writing, for you are writing for yourself, making for yourself a
record of your life. What do you think should go in a diary? If your
parents had kept one when they were your age, what would you have
found most interesting now? A great many things which they would
have taken for granted would seem odd to you, _i.e._ no telephone,
big stoves in the class room, different studies, etc. If a boy in
China kept a diary, what would you find most interesting? Some
account of his games, of his playmates, of the look of the streets
he passed through, of how he felt towards his teacher, etc. Bear
these points in mind, for when you grow older, though you will not
live in another land or another generation, you will be very far
from your school-days, and your diary should make a picture of them
for you. If you had been able to keep a diary when you were six or
seven, what would you now read in it with most interest? The ideal
is to set down at the end of the day a reminder of it, so that when
you look at it you will remember what made that day different from
every other. This is not possible always, but as a matter of fact
every day has some special features, if it is only the weather.
From a practical point of view, the diary is a great aid to
letter-writing, since it really forms the notes for a narrative
of your life. It often settles disputes about the date on which
something was done; it furnishes data for calculations in planning;
_i.e._ you wish to have an early spring picnic, and, consulting your
diary, find that on the 20th of March of the year before you were in
the woods without an overcoat and found arbutus; or you wish to get
up an entertainment, and turn back in your diary for the description
of one you saw during the summer. It gives you material for writing
exercises for your English work; for instance, the entry, "To-day we
went to Aunt Julia's to help pick cherries; I was almost bitten by
their dog when we came down from the tree," is really the outline
for a short story, if you make your note on it sufficient to bring
the picture up before your mind.
=42. Contents of a Diary.=--No two diaries should be alike, but
certain things should always be noted so as to make a continuous
record, even if they do not seem of special interest; _i.e._ the
weather (very briefly if it is nothing unusual), the movements of
the family (if any one is away or just returned), the health of
the family (this only if any one is ill), what the general news of
school is (if any special event of school life has taken place), and
what you yourself have been doing. You may sometimes think that you
have done nothing worth putting down, but anything that has made
the day different from the day before is worth writing. Do not try
to make entries for different days of same length. Try to cultivate
the ability to pick out the details of an incident which will make
_you_ remember it most distinctly. Later on, in letter writing and
description, you will have to select details which will bring a
picture most clearly before the minds of other people, but in your
diary you are freer. In your entry after an afternoon's sledding,
for instance, it may be sufficient for you to say: "Went sledding
on Holmes's hill. Weather very cold, with a high wind, that sent
the snow flying. Broke my sled, trying to make the corner curve
too fast. The whole crowd of us come home together, taking turns
in pulling each other and playing Eskimos, and I almost frosted my
nose." If those were the important events of the afternoon to you,
they should bring up the whole picture before you, so that you could
see it clearly enough to remember all the other details that would
be necessary to give any one else an idea of what the expedition was
like.
It is absolutely essential that the entry for each day should be
made while it is fresh in your mind; do _not_ wait for several days,
and then "write up" your diary. A short entry on the day of the
occurrence is worth more than a page written a week later.
After the school news, and what you yourself have done, enter
anything unusual which any one you know has done, or any change of
conditions at home; _i.e._ that it is preserving time and the house
is full of odor of cooking fruit; that it is near Christmas, and you
worked with the others on making wreaths for the decorations of the
church. You will find that a brief record of your work at school,
how you succeeded and how you failed, what you found hard and why,
is of real use to you.
=43. Imaginary Diaries.=--After you have formed the habit of making
every day a picture of your own actual life, try making a similar
picture of the life of an imaginary person. Take any period you have
studied in your history and try to make a diary of a boy or girl who
lived in that time.
=Exercise 77.=--1. A Puritan boy in the first winter of the stay
of the Puritan fathers in New England; choose a week when they
first land, and a week when spring begins to come. Bring out the
difference in his feelings.
2. A girl in Dutch Manhattan. Tell the story of the taking of
Manhattan by the English as it would have appeared to her. From
your study of the customs and habits of the time, write a week's
entries of her holiday week, Christmas customs, etc.
3. An Indian boy: a week's diary in the West, on the plains,
etc., and then later, a week's entries after he arrives at the
Indian school and is being taught the customs of the white men.
4. Diary of a week spent as you would like best to spend it.
Diary of an imaginary week in the country; in the city; in South
America; on an ocean voyage; during a week's illness.
5. Diary of the inhabitant of any country you are studying in
your geography lessons.
=44. The Class Diary.=--If there is not already such a custom in
your class room, it is a good thing for you to start a class diary,
or record of the year's school work and activities. This aims to
do the same thing for the class that your personal diary does for
your own life, and in it should be written all that makes the life
of each school day or week distinctive. This book is left in your
class room, to form one of a series of such records, which will be
of increasing interest as the years go on. Any large blank book may
be used for this purpose, and great care should be taken to keep
the record very neatly written. Nothing should be entered until all
corrections have been made, so that a fair copy may be written.
Sometimes, when only the larger events are to be chronicled, it is
better that this record be set down by weeks, rather than by days.
A good plan is to divide the class into committees of four or five
each, who take charge of noting down the happenings of the week.
They write the entry, read it to the class for suggestions and
criticisms, and set it down in the class diary.
It is well to have fixed a certain number of items which are to be
noted regularly, and these may be divided among the members of the
committee for the week. For instance, one may make it his business
to note the weather, the temperature, the wind, or any unusual
conditions out of doors; another, the advance of the seasons, the
day when the first robin arrives, or when the first definite signs
of winter were seen, whether this be the falling of the last leaves,
the first snowstorm, or the fact that the street cars are heated;
another may take as his share the state of the studies of the class,
unusual lessons, if any, and the progress made in the regular ones;
another, any items of general interest in other classes in the
school. A record of all manner of items may be kept here,--facts
which the class is interested in keeping, such as the attendance
for each day, or the average attendance for the week, the average
percentage of the class in any study, etc.
For special events,--entertainments, debates, excursions,
etc.,--there may be a member of the committee delegated to report,
or the accounts may be written as an exercise, and the best one
selected by the committee or teacher.
The entry for the week should be made up of these various reports,
entered neatly in the class diary, and signed by the pupils
composing the committee.