11. Rhymes and Codes

We are all familiar with the rhyme "Thirty days hath September . . ." Many times in childhood we turned to it for the information that it contains. Some older persons still refer to it as a simple and sound method for ascertaining the number of days in a stated month.

Codes that we develop ourselves are very effective. Those that we prepare, to include certain information, can be a sure-fire way to success in memorizing. Use of initials can be helpful also.

Example: You wish to learn the capitals of the six New England states: Boston, Concord, Hartford, Augusta, Mont-pelier, and Providence. Think of the word B—champ. To help it make sense, say to yourself, "Boston is the largest, so B is the champ." Immediately, B for Boston, C for Concord, H for Hartford, and so forth, will come to mind.

After speaking before a convention of educators at Kingsville, Texas, in 1958, I talked with a number of the audience following the program. One very experienced lady said that she had been able to recall how to spell the word geography when she was a child by the use of a little sentence that she had prepared and it had stayed with her over the years. She had the initialing system. This sentence was, "George Edward's old grandmother rode a pig home yesterday." This certainly was a vivid description, and you can see that it had lasting value.

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