The Philipsburg mail. [volume] (Philipsburg, Mont.) 1887-current, 1900-03-02
EDUCATING THE YOUNG
Training Of the Child Before En-
tering School.
WHAT TO BE TAUGHT AT HOME
Mrs. f. f. Campbell of This City Con-
tributes to "The Mail" an Able
Article on the Subject-Read
Before the Parents and
Teachers Meeting.
WHAT TO BE TAUGHT AT HOME

| The question of how much or how
little should be taught Il child at home
before entering school at the age of six
years, l would answer briefly: Nothing
and everything. Nothing, or next tc
nothing, as far as book knowledge is
concerned, but everything pure, good
and beautiful of the things which 20 to
make for character. think it was one
of the Jesuit fathers who said: Give
me the training of the child until the
age of seven and care not who has it
afterward." While this may be a broad
statement, how much of truth is there!
Those first years of the child when its
mind is as wax in your hand that SOW
ing time when the seed needs but to be
cast to take root to grow into the per-
feet plant if only the environment be
right. The parent in the home the
teacher in the school must look to the
environment. ] he mother has more in
fuence and responsibility than the
teacher over the child at this time.
Napoleon said: "Give me the English
mothers and I can whip the world. .
How handicapped are many of the little
ones who have no real home-simply q
place to eat and Sleep with no home
training whatever.
10 quote another's words: "The home
is the real primary school. Within its
walls may be company of young actors
whose hourly play, whose fanciful pur-
suits, and activities take them throrah
the range of individual types ard social
occupations. Watch this wayward and
varied journey of the child-inventor
composer, draughtsman, painter, orator,
preacher, nurse, soldier, horseman, ban
dit, musician, raw material fo- any
thing" The child tries all experiments.
tests his powers on each particular trade
and calling in turn and out of this world
Of possibilities finds at last his own
place and part.
think the school age in Montana is
made fully too young; seven OF even
eight is, to my mind, a better age for
school. I am, however, firm
believer in the fashioned method of
teaching the child his letters before it |
enters school, whether it be at the age
Of six or later. | would not advocate
any regular hour of study, but let the
child unconciously pick up the names of
the letters and the knowledge of their
form through the reading and picture
books which the children of today have
in such abundance. Most children by
the time they are five years old will, |
without any effort, know the alphabet,
and usually they can count and write
numbers to ten, or even twenty. The
average child enjoys using a slate and
pencil and counts it but pastime to
make letters on the slate or blackboard,
which every home where there are chill
dren should have. wish to emphasize
again that there need be no set or regu-
lar time for the teaching Of these things,
for, above all, the children must have
time for recreation, active exercise in
moderation, and plenty of sleep, for, you
know the doctors say, the little ones
grow, like the corn in Kansas and Ne
braska, in the night, or while they are
sleeping.
So much for the book k-learning. Now
for the developing process in other lines,
for, you must know, the child is not an
open vessel-ready to receive any infor-
nation which may be poured in and
come forth from the operation, properly
educated. The cry must be, Develop
the child, develop the child. Teach him
to think and act for himself. We should
teach our children first Of all, How to
originate rather than initiate
One of the best teachers and one of the
best ways to develop a taste for good
literature at the same time is the read
ing of good books to the children. Con-
cerning the children's books, time was
when conscientious mothers depreciate
the fairy tale; they thought it waste of
time. Was there not enough improving
Today they realize that the
child's imagination needs cultivating as
well as his other faculties, SO they send
him to that wonderful land where moon
beams play, and fairies dance; where
the dswdrop is inhabited, and all mani
mate things have voices. But
the fairy story, like every other kind of
put into the childs hand,