The Dalles times-mountaineer. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1882-1904, 1898-05-17
Child Culture.

Child Culture.
Assuming the responsibility of mould
ing the character of little child, we
find our efforts answer in some respects
to the skill and toll of the architect and
tradesman in rearing material edifice
We must have careful regard for the
foundation principles; to the ideal in
character-building we select to initiate
and to the associates we summon to aid
in the work.
Beecher once said that "a child at
birth is piece of white paper, upon
which are many inscriptions written
cumstances will make the writing leg
ible." This, to great extent, is true,
and we find that the gentle warmth of
love draws out sweet and charming in
scriptions upon our pieces of paper,
while the fierce flame of anger will mar
them with black and ugly hero
glyphics.
Mary Wood Allen puts it thus: eff
were to put the philosophy of child
training into few words, it would be the
effort to secure a harmonious develop
ment, physical, mental and moral; to
direct the normal activity into laudable
and allowable channels, and to create in
the child desire to do that which is re-
quired of him."
All these conditions demand special
qualifications on the part of parents.
The necessity of preparation for any or
binary occupation is admitted, but how
often is the training of our children en-
tered upon without any preparation
whatever. We are well aware that
neglect along other lines of duty means
ruin How much more in this work
We need not teach the child evil but
simply neglect to teach him how to over
come sin neglect to implant in his mind
right principles and motives and the
child must suffer the consequences, per-
chance, of lifelong bondage to evil.
Let us not, then, forget that character is
the result of that mysterious law called
growth, SO silent and invisible, yet sure
in it's results. That life is largely what
education makes it and education is
largely the result of association. If we
can determine now where this growth
develops, and where the principal asso-
Citations are, then can we plan more
wisely to induce such growth and afford
such associations as shall best conduce
to desirable results. Our minds turn
to the home as the place
where these influences must and do ex-
ist, and to the parents, especially, whose
lives sustain such vital relations to that
of the Child.
1t is not always, however, the direct
efforts at child-shaping that do most in
the child's character, but us
ually that unconscious influence,
breathed forth in the very atmosphere
Of the home-the spirit displayed by the
parents under the trying as well as the
pleasant conditions of home-life that is
more impressive than the model Sunday
afternoon or bedtime talk on religious
ines.
We have, then, to great extent, the
lestiny of the child's character in our
,wn hands. We might well desire the
to rest somewhere else,
)ut it cannot be. For this shaping-be
t right or wrong-we are responsible.
md we shall have to take the conse-
luences. Day by day this shaping pro-
ess goes on. Our words to them and
'efore them, and our spirit and conduct
n their presence, are potent factors in
heir shaping for time and eternity.
What aid can oe summoned to assist
4 this momentous undertaking? Two
nes of thought present themselves and
attention. First, the laying of
broad, intellectual foundation. Where
lis is limited, the horizon is conse-
uently limited, and the range of vision
Second, culture of the con-
ience-the controlling factor in the
laping of character This must not. n
)Weyer be left entirely to the Sunday N