The Cairo bulletin., 1906-06-27
BY MARGARET u. sANGsTER.

/
We make one of our commonesr
mistakes when we limit the word
discipline 10 harshness and punish
ishment In the minds of far too
many parents it stands for repressive
| measures, tor keeping little children
! still when we want TO talk, and send
| ing them TO bed when they do what
We do from morning till night; name
~ try to have their own way With
older boys and girls, there are fathers
means thwarting inclination, fencing
young lives about with rigid prohibit
tons, bouncing with sharpness upon
blunders due to ineXperience, and gem
orally making tyrants OF ourselves
ana puppets of our juniors.
Nature being on their side, those
OF us who have these false ideals 81
discipline seldom come off victorious.
If there is good stuff in the children,
they develop after all along 5he lines
that nature intends, If they have
been well born in the sense of a good
ancestry if the people back of them
were clean minded, pIre-hearted and
strong Wiled the children will thrive.
Notwithstanding the bunders OF marti-
nets. and the fuss made by over
anxious sef-styled diseiplinarians.
What is discipline? The Old PROV
erb: Train up child in the way
he should go. and when he is old he
will not depart from it," is an apt
condensation of the whole matter "As
the twig is bent, the tree is inclined.
| remember seeing a dwarfed, stunt.
ed, ill-shaped pear tree in the orchard
one day, | asked the farmer why IL
looked 50 different from the other
trees. Somebody stepped on it when
it was sapling," he answered. There
are dwarfed and stunted lives that
somebody stepped on IN the formative
period. Discipline comes from tho
same root that gives us disciple. It
implies careful, loving. gentle, faith-
full conscientious, daily teaching, pur-
sued year in and year out While chill
dren are growing up. Given an in
FAINT in the first helpless stages OF its
being, and why should the parent fail
to shape and mold the little creature
according to his or her pattern of per-
fiction?
Unfortunately, too many parents
defer their shaping until it is rather
late in the day. The first years are
the all-inportant ones. The trend for
life is indicated before nursery days
are over. We need not go far to OBJ
serve the parsimony which trusts little
children to the care of the ignorant, |
irresponsible and illfterate peasantry |
OF other lands. can think of fam |
ilies of little children whose early dis !
ciplne such as it is has been COM |
mitted to some clumsy, untaught and /
vulgar person without any fitness for |
the position of nursery maid, except |
that she possesses a certain measure of |
rough kindness. If we would have |
wel-bred young people, If we would |
see our sons and daughters growing |
around us in beauty and comeliness
and good behavior, we must not dele
of civilized life to those who are not
al least our equals in refinement
Fathers and mothers should either
personally train the children, or en-
gage as helpers utors'and governesses.
people socially their equals.
If you would see what discipline does
for those who come under its sway,
pay a visit TO Annapolis or West Point
Those young men than whom none arc
more entitled TO be the pride of the
have been subjected to a dis
ripline that is never relaxed. that omits
attention TO no detail. that insists or
obedience. truth and honor and on the
most complete promptness and pune
tuality. We have no finer gentlemen
han the men of the army and navy.
rhey prove what discipline can do.
Parental discipline in the household
Is too often thing Of impulse; parents
10 not pull together, If the father is
severe. the mother neutralizes his
itrictness by her Indulgence. II TIE
mother be disposed TO rigid require
nents. the father RENDERS her efforts
sbortive by making,fun Of her. or set
ing her authority aside. When par
,nts disagree as to spirit and Efforts.
hey should do 50 in private and at
east in the presence Of the children
should act and speak in entire mar
nony.
! knew a group Of clever children
Who, when playing at some distance
rom the house and hearing a call,
would stop short, look at one another ,
md ask. seriously: is it mother. or
S it daddy" If it were the former.
hey TRANQUILITY continued their play;
( the latter, they rushed homeward at
speed. They knew that
Mothers call could be Indefinitely dis
egarded, but that it would never DO
lot TO run when their father sum-
noned them. In this instance a wrong
vas done to the children by the lenieEt
guidance that made II pos
ible for the feminine voice to be IN ,
ieeded.
Whether or not you believe It. most
hildren are much fonder Of the hand !
hat rules them with a firm and equal
faefnIfus than Of the other urhnza