Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1874-04-02
EDUCATIONAL COLUMN.
Edited and Conducted by
j. f. LANGENBA UGH.
BE PATIENT WITH CHILDREN

nothing is more applicable to those who
have to do with boys and girls. There
are SO many provocations which demand
endurance, So many faults which require
correction, so much carelessness which
provokes rebuke, and so much preverse-
ness which calls for firmness and con
troll, that teachers of children" if not
of temper absolutely angelic, need to
have /" line upon line, precept upon pre-
cept," to aid In the work which they
have chosen, or which las fallen to their
lot. There are so mary temptations and
accessories to impatience, too. Ii is so
easy and so natural for the strnng TO ty
rannize over the welk. Absolute power is
too frequently abused; and the power
which a parent or n teacher exercises
over the child is so far absolute that i'm
mediate resistance can be rendered TN
availing. True, the parent has parental
tenderness and love 10 restrain the i'm
petuosity OF impatience, but the teacher
has not; anu it parents are c;ten, in spite
of natural barriers, impeiuous, what Won
der that teachers are 50 too.
1t is less trouble, so far as the present
time is concerned, To blame and scold
and punish a child for negligence, stu
pidity, or Isconduci, than 10 explain,
reason and instruct. 1t takes less time
to box boys ears for being mischievous,
rude, or boisteious, or 10 put a girl in a
closet "all by herself, or stand in a
ounces corner" for beins; idle. or talka-
live aud troublesome, than it does 10 in
vesti, ate intentions and motives, ar TO
inquire into CAUSES; are we TO wonder
that the patience Of the most patient
sometimes gives wayg But it is not the
less to be deplored, when it does give
way. In on. hour-in less time than
tnis-in oae mslute. evil may be wrought
which will undo The work cf weeks and
months, Or which years of judicious
treatment will not ohliteraie Should
children be INDUCED. pampercd, petted.
and their faults overlooked? No; this
again seems easier 10 the induIgent and
self-induigent teacher than The wearing
work OF constant watchfulness and cir
cumspection. But patience is as much
required in the avoidance Of false indul-
~ nee. as in the Punishment of undue or
injudicious severity. 1t is easier for the
-,,ll .r.
positions of children, than To oppose or
regulate them. But Notwithstanding
this, patience should have her per-
feet work" And not patience only. In
the proper exercise of discipline, discrim
ination and Keen perception must be
united with it, or even patience will fail.
Perhaps no two children in any given
number are precisely alike in formation
OF mind, disposition, and general capac-
ity. One will be timid, and another
bold-one sensitive, another obtuse-one
quick, another slow. In different things,
and at different times, the same boy or
girl may exhibit almost contradictory
QUALITIES, and yet there shall be nothing
in all this that ought TO be construed into
a fault, or that should call for even a re-
| buke. Patience here will be lost in a
maze, to which discrimination alone can
furnish the clue. And that not always,
for we have the word of insp ration to
assure US that the heart is deceitful
above all things" lut in general, per-
haps, the heart of child may be pretty
correctly read by those who do not, idly
or contempuously, neglect its study. At
all events, it is better to be credulous
than incredulous-better that a child
should ten times escape the just
punishment of fault through an excess
of patience, than be once upjustly pun
ished through want of dis elimination.
The memory of the injustice will rankle
in the soul, and produce worse fruits
there, tenfold, in after years, than will
spring from the consciousness of having
committed faults innumerable with i'm
punity.
Teachers or parents never will or can
deal wisely with child, unless they dis
pense with impulse, and scrutinize, in
every possible way, what appears worthy
Of condemnation; and the best way to
follow out this scrutiny is mentally to
change places with the cflender-to be a
child again-to divest ones self OF all but
a childish judgment and capacity-to
throw back ones self upon childish
views and feelings-and to submit to be
guided by childish reasonings; and then
after all, if there be doubt, to give the
child the benefit of that doubt But, O.
what deal of trouble is all this! We
should not think about the trouble, but
about the child's good. Tho Ugh as to
, Trouble, the best way of doing anything