The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-11-15

to teach others what Ii has learned.
This she says assists it in retaining the
knowledge it acquires.
Winifred has been teaching other
children ever since she was years
old and to this day continues the prac-
tice. One of her particular stars is
four year-old Billy Walsh, son of the
Assistant District Attorney of Pitts
burg, who can speak Esperanto fluently.
knows n great deal about geography
and the other sciences; has been taught
some practical surgery and general
medicine by being allowed to play at
being doctor under proper guidance
and has benefited from it all in a physi-
cal way.
For during his early babyhood Billy
was n constant sufferer from stomach
trouble. His mind was taken from his
physical self through the employment
Of the entertaining educational games
Then as Doctor Walsh" his mother
was able to teach him not to crave
things which did not agrc. with him.
He began to prescribe food and certain
kinds of exercise for himself which
were helpful. He is now as hearty and
healthy a little youngster as YOU will
/
The case of Billy Walsh bears out
perhaps better than anything else Mrs.
Stoners theories regarding the magi-
nation and its cultivation.
AS Winifred has grown older, she has
invented "A number of natural cduca-
tlonal games and set down rules and
facts helpful to the study of the various
! educate branches in simple jingles
which any child can learn and under
| stand.
Education is the greatest game on
| earth-in fact the only game she knows,
and its possibilities are unnumbered.
According to Mrs Stoner there are
ten commandments in natural education,
I just as there are in our religion. These
she gives as follows:
Thou shalt not administer physical
punishment.
Thou shalt not scold, but give rewards
for good behavior.
Thou shalt never say don't" to a
child.
Thou shalt avoid the word must;
1t implicit doing thing against ones
will.
Thou shalt not give thy child an OPP
portunity to disrespect thee.
Thou shalt not frighten a child.
Thou shalt not allow a child to say
II can't; show him how.
Thou shalt always answer a child's
questions.
Thou shalt not tease a child.
Thou shalt make thy home the most
attractive place a child can find.
Instead of teaching a child a great
many abstract rules and letting it find
itself lost in their meshes, she believes
In correcting mistakes as they occur. |
The spirit of responsibility is inculcated
in the little one, she believes, not by
finding fault and scolding 1t, but simply
by showing a child that it must suffer
for its mistakes.
For instance, on one occa sion Wini- |
fred and her mother had arranged to
go to a matinee. Winfred, out play
ing in the morning, failed TO come in
at the appointed time to get ready for
the theatre Mrs. Stoner did not scold,
hut permitted her to go ahead and get
herself ready for the performance.
When she had dressed and again re-
turned to her mother, Mrs. Stoner
showed her the clock and then explained
that 1t was too late to go to the show.
Winifred then realized that she had
brought the disappointment on herself
by not obeying her mothers instruc-
tons. Thereafter, Winfred had to be
told only once. She kept her appoint
ments, for she realized what the conse-
quences would be.
BY giving her daughter rewards for
good behavior, Winfred found that II
paid only to do the right thing. The
fairies, of course, were held responsible
for the candy under the pillow and
the changing of the sour lemon left
in the corner at night into nice, big
Juicy orange after a day that had been
we'll spent. ON days when Winlfred
had been naughty, the fairies did not
come, and next morning the sour lemon
was still in its place unchanged.
Because Of the manner in which she
has acquired her knowledge, Winifred
has not become self-conscious. Fur
Their her mother never forced her to
show OFF" before strangers. Nor is she
priggish in her attitude. toward other
children.
One afternoon Mrs. Stoner had a visl-
tor who brought her little daughter
| along with her. The two mothers be-
gan to talk about their chldren's
achievements. and upon the request of
| her mother. the visiting child stood
| upon chair and detained poems and
spelled words, really demonstrating rare
ability. But the manner of the child's
performance was indicative OF her self
consciousness and after she had COM
pleted, she began to chide Winifred.
Hut Wnifred was so far advanced over
the visiting child that she gave lit
tie heed to the entire performance and
went on playing with her dolls.
| Then Mrs. Stoner called upon her TO
recite and spell, but Winifred looked