The Yale expositor., 1910-04-22
PROPER TRAINING
OF THE CHILDREN
Just What Is Meant by the
Phrase So Often Heard,
"0ld Fashioned"
REALLY NO MYSTERY AT ALL
Simply the Result Of Having Enjoyed
the Sweet Confidence Of a Good
and Sensible Mother-Proper
Character Foundation Is
Everything.


What is an old-fashioned child"
is phrase often heard, and yet it is
one that is not easily defined.
Coming down to the hard pan of Ian
guage, as you might say, what does it
mean? That the boy or girl is quaint
in looks alone. or has some quality of
spirit or manner that recalls the tradi-
tons of another age? Is the laddie or
lassie only externally like the quaint
bandbox or embroidered shawl that
has been put away these so years? Or
are the heart and mind too old-fash-
toned, and what makes them so in this
graceless, racing, new-fangled age?
| have put my old-fashioned little
friend under the microscope and found
out the secret They are two in num-
Der. boy and girl, and the only
well-brought-up children | know. And
this is the secret-the old-fashioned
child has imbibed the right traditions
with its first food, and the bud has
straight along been pruned of all the
thorns by wisest guardians. 1t has
lived in the sweet confidence of a
good and sensible mother; been
taught that truth is more precious
than falsehood; that consideration for
others is the first requirement for
true politeness; that slang Is vulgar,
and untidiness of the body danger
to the soul.
The old-fashioned child learns the
right word instead of the wrong with
its first utterances, and is taught to
think and act from the beginning as a
lady or gentleman would, and, so
framed as it Is by the loud-voiced hoy
dens and hoodlums of the day, 1t is
oldfashioned.
Ii is impossible to consider the po-
lite training of a child without ia
king its moral nature into considera-
ton, and in order to unfold this sweet
ly the mother must strive, while the
child is still in arms, to gain its en-
tire confidence. The happiest men and
women are those who have had happy
childhoods, and this is impossible
without the complete sympathy and
understanding of the mother. The
mother of Catharine, one of my old
fashioned little friends, said quantity
when she heard the lies the grown
ups eternally tell children: why |
would have been afraid to tell Cathy
a fib when she was three months
old" There is a good point for all
mothers to reflect upon; be afraid to
tell your child lie lest you are found
ntaf rNnnfChnH In tho %
ishes.
Little by little GATHERINGS child
eyes have opened to the great truths
of nature, and knowing that simple
statements of facts knock down all
the walls that make ugly mystery.
mother said, sensibly: Yes. dear.
that's true, but it's this way" when
Miss Cathy went to her with the won
derful tales heard at school of .stork
ond cabbage plants But the story the
mother tells is too radiant to hurt, and
the little daughter only loves her the
better for it. and all her physical and
spiritual being Is bulwarked forever
against the wrong moral influence.
So don't be afraid to tell your child,
boy or girl, the truth as to the gran
deurs of nature when the time comes
for 1t, but make them grandeurs, and
not ugly mysteries which you can't
possibly hear until you have grown
up. Telling the truth, when it is
necessary to tell it, whatever it in.
wolves, is about the best weapon you
can give boy or girl for fighting life
later on. Besides, it keeps them sane
and wholesome now by nipping curl.
osity In the bud. So the old-fashioned
child-ergo the ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
has another chapter in his or her
training-the one which tells quietly
and simply of natural things, and SO
leaves no loophole for the wrong les
son from ill-bred, precocious little
comrades who have never known the
holy benefits of the mothers trust and
sympathy.