{photo by David Amsler / CC BY 2.0}
Many of you at SLOCA probably know Sadie Richert, a Lower Middle School student on Track A who has has a passion for memorization and recitation. At every recitation opportunity, Sadie usually chooses the long poem or speech to deliver, and she recites with gusto. It’s her thing.
A couple of weeks ago, Sadie visited our high school campus and recited the entire Declaration of Independence for the older students! We are highlighting this as today’s Wednesday Wonder not to brag about Sadie, but to share how she was inspired to do this through our rich curriculum and her love of literature, to demonstrate the power of memorization and recitation (two key elements of classical education), and to relate how others were encouraged by her hard work.
When asked why she chose to memorize the Declaration, Sadie answered, “When I was in 4th grade, I wanted to memorize the Declaration of Independence for my free choice recitation but there wasn't enough time before the recitation day. Ever since then I've been wanting to memorize it so when Mrs. Wright said we were going to recite the first part as a class for history day, I decided I wanted to memorize all of it instead. I was inspired to memorize it because I always see it referenced in books and wanted to know what they were referencing. Also, in Little Town on the Prairie it says that someone recited the Declaration for the Fourth of July ceremony. Laura wrote that she and Carrie ‘knew the Declaration by heart of course…,’ and I thought that was neat and wanted to be able to recite it too.”
Sarah Shotwell, our high school history teacher, commented, “It was very exciting to hear Sadie recite the Declaration. Not only did she memorize Thomas Jefferson's iconic document fully, she delivered it with so much passion and fervor! It was great for the high school students to hear such a wonderful recitation from a younger student!”
A few of the high schoolers offered their thoughts on the recitation as well. Jonah Jenkins (Freshman) reflected, “When listening to Sadie recite the entire Declaration of Independence, her determination was very inspiring to me. She did very well in not only the memorization of the document, but also her projection, eye contact, and vocal variation that she used in her presentation. I thoroughly enjoyed her performance and hope that she will be able to capitalize on her skills and talents wherever she may go.”
Julianne Theule (Freshman) remarked, “Sadie's recitation was amazing! Not only did she recite the whole thing without stopping, she did it with much enthusiasm and I loved watching her.”
Kate Bischoff (Junior) added, “Hearing Sadie’s recitation stirred up patriotic feelings – I’ve never been so moved by a historical document!”
Sadie’s mom Jill noted that several of Sadie’s classmates chose to give up their recess to go and hear Sadie recite to the high schoolers, even though they’d already heard her in their own class. What sweet and supportive kids!
And guess what? We have a video! It is over 9 minutes long, so it takes some commitment to listen to the whole thing. But what a great opportunity to hear the Declaration of Independence recited, by one of our SLOCA students:
Great job, Sadie! Keep that passion for memorization and recitation burning, and we know you’ll continue to inspire others to fill their minds with beautiful and meaningful language.
