I’ve continued pondering how death is censured from our everyday modern lives. Our lives, our children are shielded from the realities of death and we have limited involvement with the dying. Death is set apart as if it is not really part of life. This was not always the case as evidenced by The New England Primer first published in 1777 in Boston for use in American public schools “for the more easy attaining of the true reading of English”. The New England Primer was the first textbook ever printed in America and was used to teach reading and Bible lessons in our schools until the twentieth century. In fact, many of the Founders and their children learned to read from the Primer. The textbook by which most American children learned to read would likely lead to a federal court case if any government school teacher tried using it today.
Most of the verses and poems in the primer were meant for memorization by the youngest students. One old poem clearly reveals how children were not limited in their exposure to and awareness of death. This was before the discovery of antibiotics which can save the life of many babies and children who would have died from infections. Children were taught that sooner or later we all must die and therefore being spiritually prepared for this inevitable important change was vital.
Most of the verses and poems in the primer were meant for memorization by the youngest students. One old poem clearly reveals how children were not limited in their exposure to and awareness of death. This was before the discovery of antibiotics which can save the life of many babies and children who would have died from infections. Children were taught that sooner or later we all must die and therefore being spiritually prepared for this inevitable important change was vital.
I in the burying place may see,
Graves shorter there than I,
From death’s arrest no age is free.
Young children too must die.
My God, may such an awful sight,
Awakening be to me!
Oh! That by early grace I might
For death prepared be.
The Primer also contains a bedtime prayer children memorized that again kept them mindful of the fragility and preciousness of human life.
Now I lay me down to my sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep,
If I should dies before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take.
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