CHILD TRAINING.
This 20th century has been called the cen tury of the child. Not that there weren't plenty of children before the year 1900! What indeed would the world have been worth without them? Some of them had a heal thy, happy, and busy childhood and grew into strong, honorable, and successful men and women. But many people wished for that kind of childhood for all the children of the new century.
The doctors and nurses began the work. They said it is cruel and senseless that one out of every seven babies dies before its first birthday. Soon countless parents learned how to care for their babies so they lived comfortably through that hard first year of life.
Then the doctors and nurses, helped by the teachers, said it is wrong to expect children who are uncomfort able to study hard and behave well at school. Now, parents are glad that they know it pays in many ways to have their children freed from eye-strain, tooth ache, poor breathing, wrong eating, or sleeping in un-aired rooms.
Other students of child life helped too. They in sisted that children had a right to happy healthy minds. And thoughtless parents learned how mis taken they had been in frightening their children or poking fun at them or punishing them in wrong ways. So three big campaigns for children were started.
Their slogans were, " Keep the babies alive," " Make and keep children well," " Make more children worth while." It is no longer enough to love one's babies and children dearly. One must love them wisely; more wisely than the parents of a certain Little Boy.
When they went, came two women who cut and sewed 'crisp white and bright flowery cloth. Little Boy did not know that this was one way of making pretty curtains for bedroom windows. One afternoon he found the women gone. The white and flowery cloth and the shining shears were still there. Soon Little Boy was as busy as the women had been. And then!—then his mother came into the room, and because she did not understand that her Little Boy could not have done otherwise than try to do what he had seen the women do, she said dreadful things to him in an awful voice he had never heard before.
She spanked him hard and put him to bed before his father came home. She gave his delicate nervous system and his love for her their first terrible shock.
In a few days she found it easy to speak to and punish him again in this terrifying way. Thereafter she did it very often, though she could not see any improvement in his behavior. But she kept right on until—until he was seven years old. Then she took him to a great doctor, a specialist in nervous diseases.
He shook his head over the signs of St. Vitus dance.
But the great doctor could not cure him. He could not unlive Little Boy's life down to the time he was 3% years old. Nor could he give him a new mother wise enough to know that her son was neither naughty nor destructive in cutting her curtains.
What "Little Boy's" Mother Should Have Done The wise mother would have given Little Boy a small pair of shining scissors, some pretty cloth and paper, and taught him they were all his own to cut, while her curtains were being made by the women.
All normal healthy children must be busy. They will often try to do what they see their elders doing.
They will sometimes make mistakes. These mistakes may cost the parents extra money. But ruined bed room curtains can be replaced with a small outlay ; a ruined nervous system and shattered affections are usually beyond repair, though much money may be spent upon them. Dr. John Watson, of Johns Hop kins Medical School, says, "I have said more than once that I believe I could make or break a youngster in the first four years of its life ; that is, without abus ing it or starving it or otherwise being cruel to it, I could twist, thwart, over- or underdevelop its instinc tive and emotional life to such a degree that it would never recover from it." Parents must look behind every deed for the child's meaning before jumping to hasty scolding or harsh punishment. Even behind very cruel-looking deeds may lie only an innocent intention on the part of ignorant childhood. Some boys were once found pounding a cat against a barn door. To a sympa thetic question from a grown-up that was passing they answered : " We've been told that cats have nine lives and we're going to find out whether it is true." These boys were told the meaning of this old remark. They learned that the cat suffered pain even as they would from a pounding. Their behavior towards cats be came the right one.