Page:Every Woman's Encyclopedia Volume 1.djvu/508

 CHILDREN 484 THE CHILD'S MIND The Influence of the Parent the Most Important Factor in Education — The Individuality of the Child must be Preserved — ^Physical Education should go Hand in Hand with Mental Physical punishment is not to be recom- mended. It is only in very extreme cases that such methods should be employed, and even then it is doubtful whether the infliction of physical pain is productive of any lasting good. When a child is subjected to a severe whipping it is apt to nourish a feeling of resentment against its parents. This weakens the parental influence, and therefore is un- desirable. In the training of children it is personality that counts. If the father and mother are untruthful, insincere, or indolent, it is useless to try to instil the opposite virtues in the hearts of their children. What the parents are is of infinitely more moment than what they say. An ounce of practice is worth a pound of preaching. There is no influence stronger than the influence exerted by a strong and noble character. Beginning School Life When the child enters upon school life it is very important that he should be placed in a congenial environment, because, if not, all the good work of the home will be set at naught. The school should not be merely a place where the boy or girl is taught " subjects " and accomplish- ments. It is there that the child should be taught the most important lesson of all — how to live. The teacher should be possessed of keen sympathies and quick comprehension. He should be gentle yet firm, exacting obedience by the force of his personality. Children should be taught their own powers. Too often they are allowed to be dormant. A happy disposition should be encouraged. Very often children with naturally gloomy temperaments can be so trained that this unfortunate tendency is overcome. The Ideal to be Aimed At The physical should go hand in hand with the mental. One should not be permitted to overbalance the other. Absolute sound- ness, mentally, morally, and physically, is the ideal aimed at ; brain and body perfectly balanced and admirably adjusted the one to the other. The following are good firms for supplying articles, etc, mentioned in this Section : Messrs. Wulfing & Co. (Albulactin) ; The City Trading Co. (Toys). HE foundation of all true training is character building, and it is now generally acknowledged that this must occupy a prominent position in the modern school curriculum. Wrong methods of education have been responsible for more evil than anything in the world. A know- ledge of Greek and Latin is of little use if such fine qualities as courage, sincerity, truthfulness" and a high sense of honour have been left undeveloped. The child must first of all be taught how to live. That is the very essence of real education. First Impressions Education must of necessity begin with the parents. The parents create the first and most indelible impressions on the plastic mind of the infant. What they say or do is of paramount importance. What father or mother approve is bound to be right in childish eyes. In other words, the father and mother stand for concrete embodiments of the ideal. Let this ideal be destroyed and the child will suffer bitterly. He will face life with disillusioned eyes and a tendency to believe in the prevalence of the spirit 01 evil rather than the spirit of good. The individuality of the child must be preserved at all hazards. Too many parents treat their offspring as if they were as " alike as peas in a pod." They take no account of the fact that this one is shy and that one timid ; this one quiet and thoughtful and that one boisterous and heedless. They have certain fixed rules of education which they apply to each child, regardless of individual tempera- ment. This probably accounts for the lamentable lack of originality which we see around us, for the absence of initiative and independent thinking among the great mass of human beings. Tastes of Children Parents should study carefully the tastes and temperaments of their children. The results will well repay the trouble involved. Children should be encouraged in every way to follow their own particular bent. The policy of repression is not good even in the eradication of vices. Vices should be trained out of the child, not caged or repressed.