St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1886-03-20
MATERNAL DUTIES.
How Good Mother Should Bring Up Her
Children.


Children.
If she is educated in the broadcast
sense. if trained by self-culture, by def
mite discipline in her department of
labor and influence, she is in possession
of the true philosophers stone,"
transmitting all under her control with
in the range of her influence And
even though a bad man may occupy
the place of a father, with almost SUI
pernatural power she may guide the
little domestic bark away from the
maelstrom of vice, and thoroughly
appropriate that family, as GER
tainly and fortunately making those
children hers in all respects as if she
were the only claimant of authority.
She is and must be. in a great measure,
in the domestic hive what the queen
bee is in the apiary. Like a queen she
sits in judgment. sways mighty scep-
ter, when that scepter is welded by
the true womanly spirit-controlling,
leading, molding, as no other can.
not SO much by ordi,s,ry authority as
by the influence and sanction OF her
position as the mother, commencing
and vitalizing her influence on the very
threshold of existence. Indeed, the
mother is the first teacher of her child
in all respects, and though she need
not assume undue central of the educa-
ton in the schoolroom, need not die
tate. assuming authority, yet if she I'M
derstands her duty and privilege. she
will not allow another to wholly con-
troll the training of her child. She is
and must ever be the educator of that
child, giving it her style of language,
her line of thought, her type of mind.
and, to a great extent, her mental and
moral peculiarities. The child's first
lispings will ordinarily be but the
echoes of her style of speech, while she
must give form and direction, in great
measure, and might to far greater
extent, to the whole course of educa-
ton. 1t is an easy matter for the in
ielligent mother to teach the relations
of numbers, etc. (arithmetic), in con-
nection with even the toys with which
early hours are beguiled. while love
for the beautiful is easily impaired by
the lessons taught by the display of
pictures, flowers, works of art, and the
like, given at time and in such man.
ner that their memory will not be
effaced till the brain ceases its labors.
A slight effort, a casual remark, brief
lesson in any direction of elementary
instruction, may turn the whole cur
rent of thought in the child, aiding the
future teacher materially, while utter
inattention to the mental state of the
young, on the part of the mother, may
determine the ignorance, vice and ruin
of an immortal mind.
1t is we'll known that teachers often
find their hardest tasks in "unlearn-
ing" or destroying false teaching, in
eradicating errors and in turning the
currents of thought into the true chan
nels. The true mother, therefore, the
intelligent, thoughtful, conscientious
and faithful. may do much in the mat
ter of educating her child at home.
where the foundation must be laid, and
in the school-room: while one of the
opposite character hangs as a dead
weight, an incubus, obstructing the
progress of the schools, retarding re-
form and progres ;. dragging down the
aspiring, turning back civilization and
poisoning the streams of life to their
very fountains,-Dr. HanaJord. in Gold.
en- Rule.