EDUCATION 



1930 



EDUCATION 



possibilities that come through fatherhood and 

 motherhood. 



Mother Nature has seen to it that her chil- 

 dren shall care more for babies than for their 

 studies of the many "ologies" and "isms," for 

 she has put into the heart of every human 

 being the mother love and the father love 

 that make them care tenderly for their chil- 

 dren. Plants and animals do not develop best 

 when they are allowed to grow like weeds. All 

 the time and thought put into cultivating them 

 produces a finer product. Why, then, should 

 children be allowed to grow like weeds during 

 their most impressionable years? It is wasting 

 precious opportunities to neglect them for the 

 first six years of their lives and then to deliver 

 them for training to the overworked school 

 teacher. 



Every normal child born into this world is a 

 trinity mental, physical, moral and every 

 part of that trinity should be developed while 

 the mind is like wax and the impressions made 

 on it are lasting. The mother who develops 

 only the physical part of this trinity makes of 

 her child a sturdy little savage. The parent 

 who develops the mental at the expense of the 

 physical goes against the laws of nature and is 

 sometimes rewarded by a replica of the old- 

 time literary celebrity with begoggled eyes 

 bent back, contracted chest, and pale, sad 

 countenance. Other parents are blind enough 

 to develop the moral and spiritual side of 

 their children at the expense of the mental 

 and physical. All three are wrong. Let mod- 

 eration in all things be the watchword of 

 parents. 



Every normal child born into this world has 

 some special talent given to him, some aptitude 

 for a particular art or profession or occupation. 

 "Why, then," some will ask, "are there not 

 more famous people in the world?" Just as a 

 multitude of good things can be attributed fo 

 mothers, so must these same mothers shoulder 

 the blame for many omissions. They should 

 be alert for signs of their children's talents at 

 an early age, ready to nurture them until they 

 bear glorious fruit. The school age, six years, 

 is all too late. Earlier development will do 

 much to bring out this talent; for the child's 

 mind has all the foundations for good or ill, 

 greatness or lowliness, before the school age, 

 and parents must see to it that the founda- 

 tions are strengthened, not undermined. 



History tells us that nearly all great men 

 have shown signs of their wonderful talents 

 almost in babyhood. Julius Caesar was only 



three years old when he rode to war behind 

 his Uncle Marius. Napoleon played his 

 childish games with imaginary warriors, and 

 Alexander the Great, when his father was ab- 

 sent, went out to parley with the ambassadors. 

 Confucius played on the lute and talked of 

 piety when he was a mere babe, and John 

 Stuart Mill was hardly older when he knew the 

 Latin and Greek alphabets. The exceptions to 

 this rule early rebelled against school and the 

 uninteresting quality of their studies, and, if 

 we knew more of their early lives, we would 

 probably find that there was some just cause 

 for their rebellion some reason why the fairy, 

 "Interest," was not present to make play of 

 their work. 



Children from two arid a half to three years 

 of age are at their keenest, bubbling over with 

 energy and curiosity. It is almost criminal to 

 allow this interest and curiosity to spend itself 

 without results. This is the period when the 

 most promising children are likely to leave de- 

 struction in their pathway simply because their 

 excessive energy is undirected. Play, as we 

 know it, is not enough. Play without a purpose 

 is mere idleness, and Nature never intended 

 any of us for idleness. But play with a pur- 

 pose, well-directed play that develops all of a 

 child's capacities, physical, mental, spiritual, 

 will benefit both the child and those about him. 



Nature has endowed the child with an eager 

 curiosity, with a desire to touch and taste and 

 handle everything around him, and, as soon 

 as he has acquired the art of speech, to ask 

 innumerable questions. These questions should 

 be answered by mothers and fathers. It re- 

 quires intelligence and quick thinking and 

 infinite patience to satisfy the thirst for knowl- 

 edge that children possess, but it is a duty that 

 cannot be shirked. Mothers of the animal 

 kingdom train their young to do all the things 

 that they themselves can do. How many 

 mothers of our race have the patience to do as 

 much? How many of them are as painstaking 

 as is mother Tabby with her kittens? And if 

 their failure is due to their inability to answer 

 all the questions, then they must seek to acquire 

 more knowledge. It is their duty to go to 

 the books, which are still closed to very young 

 children, and there to find answers for them. 

 What are books for the encyclopedias and the 

 dictionaries, all the stored-up knowledge of 

 the ages if they cannot tell the child, through 

 his parents, what he wishes to know? Such 

 study serves a twofold purpose, for parents 

 cannot gain the knowledge they wish their 



