Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1906-08-16

AAolS - uo SUBSTITUTE, says the
bright woman from whose charming
book OF nursery logic, 1 have bor-
rowed the title Of this discourse.
for genuine, free, serene, healthy,
bread-and-butter childhood. A fine
manhood or womanhood can be built
or no other foundation" God says
the foundation shall be childhood.
Why, then, should we be impatient?
Why should we fear to trust what
He puts nethermost for all the rest
to stand upon? 1t is well enough to
think of the manhood and the wo-
manhood we want our children to
attain and to give to the world. But
am persuaded that we think less
than we should of the childhood
which 1t is our first duty to give
them.
The second right OF childhood
which I shall mention is the right
to be governed. BY a real childhood
do not mean an unrestrained child
hood. A child laft-+o- ft5c1f viii not
childhood. That
which is most distinctive and beauti-
full in childhood is contributed to it,
or developed In it, by wise ands low.
Ing restraint. The street Arab III
not the ideal child. Nor is the child
who grows up In home where the
political maxim that governments
derive their just powers from the
consent of the governed" is accepted
as applying to parental authority.
The authority of father and moth
er is derived from the Fifth Com
mandment and from the constitution
of nature which lies back of that
commandment. There is no author.
ity more august. more sacred, more
God-given than parental authority.
We abdicate it to our shame and sor
row, to the shame and sorrow OF the
church, to the shame and sorrow OF
our children themselves.
But, having said this, let me make
haste to say that in the e1deavor to
maintain the control of our children
our steadfast aim should be to put
them at last in control of themselves.
Our control should be the scaffoldina
OF self-control. A child has right.
/ say, to an Intelligent, firm, consist.
ent government that shall represent
in a way, adapted to its years, the
conditions under which some day II
will have to shift for itself. In a
sense, we cannot begin too early to
put a child in control of himself:
that is, to teach him self-control.
We have no right to crafty a child's
every wish. The child has right to
be denied some things to be re-
strained: to learn from us, in love.
something of the inexorable condi-
tions of mature life. We have no
right to interfere with the law OF
cause and effect to such an extent
as to send our children out into the
world unprepared for real life.
The third of the inalienable rights
of children is the right to be taught.
involving the right to be ignorant.
A child has a right to be ignorant
and to be kept in ignorance OF many
things. It is a difficult right to
after a child has learned to read.
But I question whether our children
do not learn more Of the dark and
sinister facts OF life from our own
careless conversation than from what
they read. And Ispeak not only OF con
versation relating to gross crimes Of
lust and violence, but of unkind
criticism, of ordinary gossip, OF dis
trust, insinuation and ridicule. Man!
of us, fear, are in no position tt
complain of the newspapers, nor ever
Of the unwholesome books iron
which our children learn so man.
things they might better never know
If only this right of our childre1
to be spared for time the dis
closure of certain aspects OF lii
were more clearly recognized ant
at the same time the safe-guardln'
of their innocence more CAREFUL!
| distinguished from the foolish with
| holding of necessary knowledge
Let me say with all deliberat1ol
that it should be counted as one Q
| the most sacred of the obligation
! Of parents to give to their children
/ or to provide for them, that phys1
illogical instruction, the withholdln
of which, entirely or too lonl
through our utterly false sense Q
propriety. has been for many gene1
ations, and is to-day, one OF the cnle
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