Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1883-06-02
Hlisffllanf0ns.
On the Management Of children.

OF all the disastrous policies which
fhoughtless parents adopt for the govern
ment or training Of children. scarcely one
is more prolific Of evil than that of harp
ing perpetually upon child's shor;com-
iuys or defetts Sometimes it is a physi.
cal paculiaritv-red hair. squint-eye.
pug nose, some uncommon development
If feature or form-that receives comment.
This. as it is generally only a jpcular,
good naiured badgering, is not extremely
serious. though evil sometimes results. as
a morbid seif-consciousness Is likely TO be
developed. both painful and injurious to
the child. Frequently the fruit is exec
sive shyness or awkwardness, difficult 10
overcome even after the primary cause
may have been outgrown.
But when it is some mental trait that is
made the never-ending topic of remark,
with gloomy or sarcastic representations
of the future that Is to result, most evil
results accrue. Ii it is true. rs a noted
novelist has told us. that, 1--WE are apt to
believe what the world believes about US, "
it is still more 4 truth rs regards
children. who are scarcely capable Il
deciding for ihemsel Ies any knoiy
pcint<, whose thoughts are more or less
confused at the best. who naturally turn
To parents and guardians rather than 10
the voice of conscience for the right or
wrong of anything. and whose most init
mate associates stand to them for the world.
A policy of this kind cannot but prove
dulling TO the sensibilities and hardening
TO the heart. Many parent who has
harped upon his child's shortcomings till
he has hammered that child's heart TO
II stone, wonders that his child persists in
the even tenor Of his way, paying no more
attention to remonstrance than TO the Voice
OF the wind. II would be thing to won
der at more if he did otherwise
That which is berated may be real
iauli-indnence, untruthiulness, lack of
order, and the like; or it may be simply
that the fault is in the parents eye-that
the child is not TO The parents mind. The
child may exceed in physical energy,
when the parent would have more intel
tectural strength; or he may be siudious
and dreamy, when the parent desires
him to be matter-uf fact. The harping
and hammering go on, day after day, in
season and ont OF season, till the child comes
to look upon home rs a place oil torment
rather than refuge. and upon the pa
rent as an avengipg Nemesis rather
than being 10 reverence and love. If
the victim is II boy, he is quite likely,
after certain age. to keep out Of the way
as much as he can, if he does not quit the
premises altogether. which project is
mediated by nine out of every ten boys so
situated. Happy for both parent and
child, if the latter seek not at IA .'silOon,"
or some other equally demoralizing
resort. that freedom which he misses in
the home. There is ofttimes something
exceedingly pathetic about these much
beraed little ones. Listless and dispirited
too often sullen as well rs sad, all childish
sparkle and spontaneity lost. they 90 about
with droopinE heads and downcast eyes
as if in gloomy meditation on the ever
expected storm.
Doubtless with most parents the prac-
tice OF excessive ending is begun with
the honest purpose of amending some
fault. but continued from force OF habit,
or often from irritation of mind. induced
by the child's failing to heed and be heal
ed. The tact is that children SO dealt
with seldom do heed. Gentle, steady
iirmness may indeed take more patience.
energy and time than II stream OF reprools,
bu let the parent he assured that If the
former does not cure, the latter never will.