The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-01-28
And What About the Child Who
Doesn't Like To Go To School?
BIZ DOLLY DALRYMPIE

ednoation Billy was hemstitehing a tidy
when I found him."
This isn't cited as a notable axomnla Of
now parent ought to feel about issues
that little boy faces with his first davs
at school, but it is a striking example
Oh now many little boys feel by the pros
poet of sewing up seams, or even braidng
gay and useful paper mat for grand
mothers glasses.
Also
There are some little boys and girls,
whose minds refuse to be interested in
| books, at all, not because they love books
less, as the years pass by, but because
Just at present they happen to love the
big out of doors" more.
| Those who know, declare that children
like these should not be made to leave
| their first loves-the trees, the flowers.
| the birds and the sunshine-too soon,
Art is long and time Isn't so fleeing that
| one or two or even three years can't be
spared from the toll the schoolroom us
| ually takes from childhood.
HE that will be clean, will be clean.'
So also
AS we pass through life, he that will De
| educated. will be educated
America points with pride to most of
her favorite sons as examples of boys
who took their own book learning, where
ever they found it. and the men them--
selves il questioned might have con-
fessed that the best books of all were
the running brooks and the sermons that
made the most lasting impressions on
them were the morals that came along
! in those far Off 'stone-bruise- on the
heels days
| We must be ready for all things before
! anything can mean much TO us. and the
| best preparation is an. early harvest Of
animal spirit and health.
We need childish recoliectons Of golden
| days packed away IL sunshine OF hay
| meadows and gyspy adverturcs-the kind
] of adventures We lack the Imagination. to
! forecast, after the first few years OF life
are passed
| A middle aged woman of my acquain-
| tance, who is widely known for her cu-
ture and literary appreciation, once told
| me that she considered that her life had
been at best a sad, sad failure.
MY parents cheated me out of my birth
| right" she said. Instead of the joy of
| life at 8. like a kitten or a blue-eyed doll
| would have given me, l was reading
| Shakespeare They made me think L was
| clever to read Virgil at u. talked
MacCauley as inteligently at that age as
now and historical personages were
! familiar to me as my next door neighbors.
| While / was reading King Lear the lit
| tie boys and girls | should have been
associatng with were romping the daisy
! fields and wadng knee deep in pasture
bogs. hunting the first wild violets."
so you never knew childhood hap
nj CT /
Never" she answered Shakespeare
| and Virgil and all the dead Greeks could
have easily waited, but once childhood Is,
gone, it is gone forever"
| And of course, she was right. believe
1t matters not how much knowledge
| "grown-ups' may have acquired, and
| with their fine pretense of knowing 1t all,
there's nothing that compensates child
| for having its birthrieht of irresponsible
| childhood taken away.
! There's a magical age when butterflies
| and bees have their place in our lives as
| teachers, when the meadow brooks and
| trees not regarding us as corroding hu-
man beings, but as understanding com
| panions, ba bible to us the secrets and
mysteries of life.
''rhe finest teacher of them ALL" said
funny little boy once, ''is the thrush:
but you have to listen to him way far
off from everybody, way deep down In
the woods"
'Er ejiercaton sho' is handy, Honey
Chile, Uncle Remus said to Lii Boy, but
! dontcher listen ter all dey say. Me? Why
| amt nevah learned de alpherbet. kaze
I sees too menny folks round me whut' 81
lost dey rale freedom by learnin' dey let
] ters."
brate it's first birthday from to CLOCK
| That evening social to the neighborhood|
| residents will be given. The public is in
vited.
The Holy Innocents Hospital asso|
citation will meet this morning at Ill
o'clock in Clark & Jones hail.