The Diplomacy of the Good Teacher 



John Walton Spencer 

 A bit of sage advice from the unpublished MS. of " Uncle John" 



In some respects children and bicycles have the same characteris- 

 tics. Keep them moving and they are all right ; check them and 

 they wabble; stop them and they fall down. If you would do a 

 kindness to a child, keep it busy. Blessed be the name of the 

 mother who invented the rattle box. It gives the baby its first 

 employment and happy moments. 



The best helping hand you can give any and every child is 

 ■Occupation and Appreciation : two simple things but to be effec- 

 tive, they must be given in a simple way — in a way which the child 

 likes and not in a way which you think the child ought to like. It 

 has as much right to its own way as you have to yours. A child 

 can be led to find as much pleasure in an occupation with utilitarian 

 ends as in one of thrashing the air. When small they never tire of 

 playing with the sand. Good garden soil is just as acceptable. 

 With the soil give some quick germinating seed. Then join with 

 the youngster in the surprise and happiness of having given birth 

 to a plant. No matter if the plant does not reach maturity, you 

 have helped to make the first step in plant growth a pleasure and 

 with it will come the desire to try again. Let the child adopt 

 largely its own methods while you see that the course lies in the 

 right direction. Do not discourage him with a lot of dont's. 

 Government by the negative is the method of the superficial and 

 the lazy. 



Once upon a time there was a fond mother who no doubt had the 

 best interests of her child at heart but she had the '' don't method," 

 thoroughly in her nature. From the child's earliest recollection, 

 he had heard but little else than "Johnny mustn't touch it." 

 When the little fellow first went to school, the teacher said, "Now 

 my little man, can you tell me your name?" The child, embar- 

 rassed by the newness of the scenes about him was slow to answer 

 and the teacher repeated the inquiry. Still no answer. So the 

 inquiry was given a variation. "Tell me what your mamma calls 

 you." "Johnny mustn't touch it," came the murmured reply. 

 I leave the question to you mothers and you teachers if Johnnie 

 would not have been happier and had greater development if he 

 had been provided with a lot of things to do than to have suffered 



22 



