Sharp County record., 1881-08-04
The Onnslions OF Chll Iren.

something to eat. In the middle OF the
dav. and at the middle OF the night,
and between times, it asks to be ted.
This unvarying characteristic marks
not only the body but the mind of chill
dren. Curiosity-only another name
for the hunger of the intellect-is an
unfailing sign of a fresh, spontaneous,
growing state of the child faculties. In
health children are intensely curious to
find out things: are Unsuitable in their
mental appetites; are perPetually on
the qW UiUe; fairly bristling with inqul-
rieS; are exuberant with irrepressible,
startling, vivaclous and curious ques-
tions. They form sort of universal
committee of investigation. They are
so constituted by nature that they must
pry into things.
remember common answer which
used once in a while to hear after ask
inc about something that had whetted
nv childish curiosity. "What is this
for?" l had in my simplicity inquired.
ut is to make little folks ask queS-
tions," was the provoking reply. This
phrase, which is often intended as set
tier, a rebuke, an expression Of smart
ness and as a piece OF Oracular wisdom,
all in one, has in it more truth and
depth than any one knows who has ever
in earnestness used it to choke off and
keep back the torrent OF inquiries which
bubbles up from the mind of childhood.
God has in reality created the universe
so as to make little children ask ques-
tions. He has so set things up as that
they prompt inquiry and inspire inves-
LEGATIONS and start all manner of gueS-
tiOns. He has endowed the mind with
its restless desire after information, its
unsilenceable questiOnings, its irresisti-
BILE inquisitiveress. 1t is He who keeps
perpetually alive on the earth genera
ton of animated Interrogation points,
Well, now, this being so, what of it?
First, these questions afford incessant
andinvaluable opportunities to instruct
children. 1t goes without saying that
teacher is advantaged by the receptive.
ness of his pupils minds. If they are
curious, alert, alive as to the very fact
which he wishes to explain and enforce,
their mental state is all that he can de-
sire. That movement is his golden-op-
portunity, his one chance, the accepted
time to drive home, rivet and inextrca-
bly, fasten the truth in the soul. This
state of alertness, of receptiveness, of
attention, of interest, is denoted in
children by the questions they ask.
Do not reprove a child, then, for ask
ing questions. Each time its lips and
eyes and voice interrogate you, there
stands at an open door, peering out into
this queer world where we live, tiny
human spirit anxious to know what is
going on outside of itself, eager to get
knowledge, brimming with desires after
wisdom. Do not rudely slam the door
in the face of that inquiring and plead
ing soul. Let not the ignorant and
struggling little being be driven for the
time, by a harsh and cruel rebuke, back
into its fears and darkness and loneli-
ness again. Respond sympathetically
and kindly to its inquiries; at least give
respectful attention to its questions;
and by all means use the opportunities
wisely and faithfully which those Sqes
tions afford.
Again, the interrogations of children
revealtheir characters. They show the
bent, the inclination, the turn, the tread
of the expanding mind. A child will
sometimes for days ponder some fact in
nature, orsome occurrence in the house
hold, or some incident in his history
lesson, without giving sign of what has
been occupying his thoughts. At last
out will pop question involving the
whole subject. Here the parent or
teacher has a means of sounding the
hidden depths of the mind, of fathom-
ing the lower deeps of the spirit, of
finding out some of the things that are
engaging the attention of the child.
Note what sort of questions the child is
fond of asking, around what center they
mostly revolve, what direction they
usually take, and you will have valua-
BILE material for the study of the child's
character.
l suppose I need hardly suggest, in
addition, that the questions of children
are often of much service 10 grown peo-
pie, in setting them on the track of
knowledge which they would not prob
ably seek without such prompting. Not
half the questions of the average child |
can be answered off-hand by the aver
age man or woman. Many of them
cannot be answered at all by the very
wisest of our teachers, living or dead. |
Such serve to show us how vast is the
horizon of our ignorance, how small the
orbit of our knowledge.
Very often a child-question proves to
be one which has been asked by philos-
pher and sage-alas! in vain--for thou
sands of years. Even then it may start
trains of thought more deep and profit
able than any suggested by your own
If you heed at all the questions of the
little ones around you, you will be
driven all the time to the cyclopedia,
the atlas, the globe, the Bible, in order
10 qualify yourself to give intelligent
answers. You will need to study the
operations of your own mind with
greater assiduity and closer scrutiny,
or some of their investigations in men
,al science will stump you. The addi-
ions which children have made to the
sum total of knowledge in the world in
his way are considerable. The race is
vastly wiser to-day because the chill