TBAINING OP CHILDREN. 719 



in gentle tones and with kind words. Children learn very much more, 

 and much more easily, from example than from precept. 



How to Develop Habits of I&dustry and Economy. 



Some children are naturally industrious and some are naturally econ- 

 omical. Others are the opposite. The training that would fit one 

 class would not apply to the other. But all children, rich or poor, 

 should be taught habits of industry in early childhood. Fortunes 

 change and no parent is certain that bis child will not some day be 

 thrown upon his own resources with the world against him. There- 

 fore it is the right of every child to receive such teaching in early life 

 that he may be fortified in the case of reverse of fortune. 



Habits of industry and economy are best taught by making the 

 child responsible for its own playthings; responsible for the care of 

 its room; responsible for a bed of flowers, or vegetables, or chickens, 

 or any other practical thing, permitting him to reap all the reward 

 possible and also to endure all losses possible without any direct in- 

 terference by the parent. Giving money or other valuables to chil- 

 dren without a corresponding responsibility is a wrong to the child from 

 the educational standpoint. All children should be taught the use 

 of money by giving them definite sums for definite purposes, some of 

 which at least are for necessities, and then compelling the child to do 

 without the necessities in case he foolishly spends this money otherwise. 

 Every parent should plan out a course of little experiences of this kind 

 for his child and rigidly adhere to it. 



How to Teach a Child to be Unselfish. No one likes a selfish 

 person, yet many very selfish persons owe this disagreeable trait to 

 erroneous education in the home. Training in this direction must 

 begin at the earliest period, even in the cradle. In the cradle the 

 infant's needs should be anticipated, but never yielded to simply be- 

 cause of cries or winnings. A young child should be taught, by 

 judicious distribution of those marks of affection which it most ap- 

 preciates, that it pays better to be helpful to others than to demand 

 help from others. Caresses for every unselfish act of the child, and a 

 sure withholding of loving attention for every selfish deed, is the surest 

 and best training for the young child. The surest way to teach selfish- 

 ness is for the parent to yield to all the physical and other demands of 

 the child under the mistaken idea of being " good " or " loving " to 

 that child. Such a parent is neither good nor loving, for love desires 

 the child's real good, not the gratification of its passions or momentary 

 desires. 



HOW to Control Fits of Anger. Many clfildren are given to 

 fits of temper or exhibitions of extreme anger. In many cases these 

 are due to some physical trouble with the child, which should always 

 be sought for and if possible removed. We have known children who 

 when denied something very much desired would throw themselves 

 upon the floor and kick and scream with might and main, even some- 

 times to the extent of doing themselves or others near at hand bodily 

 injury. And of all the many remedies tried for this error we have 



