Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1906-04-21
TEACH CHILDREN TRUTHFULNESs
Warm Praise When Children Do Right
Should Be Unstinted.

Nv hen we are little, people wish us Ia
be dolls or craven images: when we grow
up they approve of us ON condition that
we are like all the rest OF the world.
when you have seen one of them Won
have seen them all.
Truth can free us from this bondage,
let our children be taught 10 be them
selves, 10 ring clear. without crack or
mute Make loyalty a need in them.
and IN their grayest failures. if only they
acknowledge them, count it for merit
tbaJ they have not covered their sin.
There is one thing thar should he nm.
Stinted in dealing with children, ana thar
Is praise for all the good they do and
warm appreciation of their efforts to do
right. And no one should ever say to
any child, You are bad" That is the
way to cultivate just what you do not
want to see in them.
Let them know that you expect the
best and are surprised when they fail
10 fulfill your expectations. Then they
viii be much more likely To try Ia live
up To the ideal that they know YOU hold
for them.
Above all. let there be nothing arti-
hclal i'll the childrenS lives. Charles
Wagner has put it so well that before
closing this article give his own words
+ talSehood is the vice of slave. the
refuge of the cowardly and the weak
He who Is free is strong and uniinch-
ing in speech.
We should encourage in our children
the hardihood to speak frankly What
do We ordinarily do: We tramplc ON
natural disposition. level it down to the
uniformity which. iug the crowd. is
Synonymous with good form
10 frankness let MS aud ingenious
ness IN our solicitude as educators. We
must not frighten II away; when il has
once fled it So rarely comes back lugc.
nnouSneSs is not simply the sister of
tlujh the guardian of the individual
qualities of each one of us; it is. he
SIDE great informing and educating
force.
Il see among us too many practical
people. so-called. who go about armed
VITA terrifying SpectaClcS and huge
shears to ferret out naive things and elm
their wings, They uproot ingrnuouSnrss
from hTe, from thought, from Nucation
aud pursue it even to the region OF
dreams
Under preteXt OF making men of their
children, they prevent their being chill
dren at all; as it, before the ripe fruit
OF autumn, flowers did not nave to be
and perfumes ana SongS of birds and all
the fairy springtimc
Il ask indulgence for everything naive
and simple not alone for the innocent
NVHttllS lltat Huiltt round the curry
heads of children, but also for the le-
ecnd. the folksong the tales of the world
Of marvel and mystery"
1t is, indeed, too true that some Of the
elders endtaVor to muZzlc a child's
thoughts and mufiie all its righteousness.
| Instead Of teaching the child 10 think
and govern its own thoughts they try
to suppress thought in the child and tell
it what to think and what not to think.
| Without accomplishing what they try to
do, they nevertheless do incalculablc mis-
chief that takes a lifetime for the child
TO out grow.
/ Some children are too independent to
allow any one to assume dominion over
their thought. They are like the little
girl who was told by her mother, her
aunt, and her grandmother, successfully,
that she must not express an uncompH.
mentary opinion that she had formed
about one of her mothers callers
well" at last, said the child, Il think
so" But you must not think SO" com
manded her elders. You can boss my
talk. but you cannot boss my think" re-
piled the little girl. And she was right
Exchange.