The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1898-06-20
ideas for JWofnen

Maddox. in the Philadelphia Enquirer"
Let them run wild. l suppose" COM
ments some mother.
On the contrary, / would have the boys
as well as the girls given a chance for
real recreation. Allowing children to
"streak it, from morning until night in
the broiling sun. permitting them to fill
their poor stomachs with trash, to sit up
half the night. to commit a hundred and
one imprudences is decidedly wrong.
I meet with more cross. snappy children
in the summer who are simply cross and
snappy because they are tired to death.
Wise is the mother who can plan her chill
dren's pleasures during the next three
months in such a way that the best phys
ical results will be obtained.
After the winters campaign at school
even the LATEST pupil needs building up.
for the boy or girl has had to meet, times
without number. conditions far from by
giendc in order that school hour might be
filled in.
Here is the point I wish to make: Give
the girls and boys complete mental relax
alton. The Ounce of the school room will
De the DSIIGT next ttili W o1SAt
men$.
I am going to meet opposition from
mothers who believe that all play without
some brain work is radically wrong. Let
me offer to those mothers q few hints. |
got them from a young teacher In this
town who is. in my estimation, without
rival in her astute management of chill
slren.
It believe when school books are closed
that they should remain closed until the
term begins. I nave no earthly patience
with mental discipline during vacation
How the brown eyes of the speaker
spanked. and how earnest the fair face
became as the dainty little lady uttered
her sentiments.
"A mother came to me the other morn
ing" she continued. "and asked me how
she could best get her boy into training
for the fail term. What books shall I
have him study during vacation: I want
to keep him up to the mark SO that he
will be ready for school when it opens
eff you want your son to be ready for
study during the coming term don't let
him look into a book for the next three
months I replied. I want my boys to
come back to me eager for study. not fag-
ged because of it. I have always found it
a far better plan to give children a COM
plete rest from routine studies during the
time they claim as their own. Put them
into a study groove of the narrowest sort
ana they rebel because they feel that they
are being cheated of their rights. The
mother thanked me for my answer and
said she would see that my ideas were
followed out.
Hardly had she left before another
mother appeared and with the same ques-
ton. This time my notions were not al
lowed the slightest quarter. Text books
the mother asked for and text books she
would have, SO that she might keep her
son pinned down to certain study hours
each summer day. Nothing I could urge
would change her plan.
He must have mind discipline as well
as play. said she. 1T cannot let him
waste so many precious moments. 1t is
better for children. in my opinion, to be
held in check some etc.
.sOf course gave her the necessary in
formation. Next year 1 shall lave 70 pay
for his motherly zeal and dearly. The
boy viii come to me with the keen edge
LOT SIluf QQlltu- n III ~ S
have a ~listless. Indifferent pupil on my
hands during the entire term.
Our ideas of pleasing children are terri
bly, overdrawn. says Dorothy Maddox, in
the Philadelphia Enquirer The age IN
which we live prohibits narrow-minded-
ness. In our efforts for thought expan
sion. however, we encourage elastic con-
sciences.
No mother living has any right to own
an elastic conscience. So surely as she
does, her children must suffer. 1t is the
elastic conscience that jeopardizes child
ISL innocence by exposing it to the
smirching influence of the modern play.
/ am simply astounded at the idiotic at
fempts of the modern mother to please
her little one by giving it a peep at mimic
life. Children are taken to the theatre
to look upon character sketches that are
Enthusiastically horrible, utterly depraved.
At a recent matinee I was much i'm
pressed by the number of elastic con-
sciences present. The house was wei,
filed with children. Most of the juveniles
were girls.
Just back of me sat a mother and
daughter. Daughter had seen at the
most but six summers. The child had the
face Of a dream angel. Such a dear face
as yet unmarried by a single passion,
seemed to me utterly out eff place In a
playhouse where one of the riskiest
dramas was about to be given.
1t a been dramatizsd from a book
which at one time stirred this country to
profoundest depths because Of its I'M
wholesomeness.
In the second act a mol of men and
women We'd with each other in coarse ges-
lures loud laughter and high kicking. A
Partisan quarter noted for its lax morals
held the stage.
In the midst of the hubbub a thin little
voice, as sharp as a knife, -ose above the
din.
MY. but that's a tough ang Amt
it?s
II somebody had hit me with a club !
could not have been more dumbfounded-
What a criticism to come from the lips
of a mere baby I could hardly believe my
own ears.
1t was uttered in a reflective tone and
with a worldly wise information that
shocked me. Evidently this tot had been
to the theatre before. Her mother made
no reply to the exclamation. / played the
part Of eavesdropper from sheer curiosity
to see how she would meet such a re-
marx