The Washington herald., 1915-09-13
Copyright. lel5.)


A young mother. a member of one OF
our mothers clubs, is in the habit of
bringing her boy-a child Of 6-to the
meetings, and / have been much inter-
ested in watching the child. He Is a
sturdy, handsome little fellow, cxtraor-
dinarily we'll developed for his age. He
Is SO large. in fact. that his mother buys
S-year sizes in his clothing instead OF
that made for 6-year-olG children. He is
equally advanced mentally. but the not
able thing is the wonderful coordination
Of mind and body. He seems always able
to do the thing with his body that he
wills to do He plays about the room
quietly during our meetings: sometimes
he climbs on a chair and stands poised
on one foot in a position that seems i'm
possible to maintain. Often he. gets on
the window sill and leans out in a man
ner So alarming to the other mothers
present that they gasp and start toward
him. But his mother never seems dis
turbed: she never watches him particu-
larly: she never cautions him not to fall
which 1 think, is the height Of wisdom:
she is always quietly confident that no
matter what he does he will not get
hurt. After long observation OF her
method. l asked her once If she would
not lead the discussions of the club at
a coming meeting and tell us why she
was so sure he would take good care Of
himself. She compiled with my request.
and we had one of the most interesting
meetings in the history of the club.
In her remarks which preceded the gen.
eral discussion of the subject, she told US
that from the time her baby began to use
his body she had made it a point to as
sumo absolute confidence in his ability
to take care of himself. She never let
him see that she was afraid he might
fall; of course, she said. If he was in a
really dangerous place sne attracted his
attention to something else and gently
led him away from the danger point.
Then as he grew older she played
games with him that gave him accuracy
in the use of his hands. One of the best
of these, she said, was matching dis
sected pictures and maps. for she always
insisted that the completed picture be
perfectly put together. To train him to
use his feet. she drew chalk lines for
him to walk without faltering. Gradu-
ally. instead of chalk line she had
rails at different heights: then he learn
ed to walk the porch rail. always being
told that the perfect use Of his body
would make him able to do the things he
would want to do later on. AS he grew
older she took pains to cultivate his eye
to the correct perception Of color. his
ear to the appreciation of harmony of
sound. Then she became interested in
the Montessori method, and when she
talked to the club she was training his
fingers to distinguish fabrics and sur
faces by means Of the sense of touch.
My goodness" exclaimed one of the
members OF the club. Il don't see how
you ever came to think Of such things
in the first place. I am sure I never
have, and I have four. Besides. it takes
all my time to feed them and wash them
and dress them. I couldn't play with
them all the time, too
The mother blushed as she answered:
We'll. it wasn't original with me.
confess. was reading Montaigne one
day when Harry was quite small and
came across this: I would have his out