How Wee Wisdom Shaped Us

The Beginning of Wee Wisdom

Myrtle Fillmore said she had a vision in the early days after founding Unity. She saw herself surrounded by crowds of people, many of them unruly children.

A voice within asked, Who will take care of the children? And it answered, You are to take care of the children; this is your work.

So she began Wee Wisdom^® magazine, which taught and entertained children for 98 years with stories, poems, games, and beautiful artwork.

Although the magazine ceased publication in 1991, adults throughout the country remember it with great fondness. Some even say it changed their lives.

“How often we hear it said that the future of our country depends upon the children of today, and how few people (comparatively) perceive the fact that the children of today are most marvelous creatures if given their freedom to express what they feel and know is in their power to do.”

Wee Wisdom, 1894

Here are some of their memories

A Love of Poetry

“When Myrtle Fillmore began to meet the spiritual needs of children by publishing Wee Wisdom magazine, it included simple rhymes to touch the children’s hearts,” writes Rev. Ric Schumacher.

“As a child I read those poems and they touched my heart. My deep affinity for poetry and the truth it reveals grew out of reading the simple poems in Wee Wisdom.

“How close poems are to prayers! The January 1952 issue of Wee Wisdom included two simple poems by Florence Taylor.”

Creativity and Children’s Divine Nature

“Children who held Wee Wisdom in their hands were given the Truth: You are a perfect creation of God as you are,” writes Colleen Zuck, former Wee Wisdom and Daily Word editor. “They were encouraged to be creative. That creativity was amazingly thoughtful and also charming.

“One child submitted a puzzle that went something like this: What is black and white and read all over? The usual answer did not accompany the boy’s drawing: He had decided the answer should be a bit more creative—a skunk with a diaper rash. A drawing of the red-speckled skunk was included.”

A Companion and Teacher

“I often returned to my stack of Wee Wisdoms as I grew,” writes Rev. Toni Stephens Coleman.

“You see, I used them to teach myself not only how to decipher, read, and write stories but to draw."

"Wee Wisdom was illustrated with wonderful watercolors and fine line drawings. There was an intimacy and passion to the art that I wanted to make my own."

Rev. Toni Stephens Coleman

"Wee Wisdom opened an orphaned kid to a world of possibility that I had never imagined before and probably would never have known without it.”