Milford chronicle., 1922-12-01
IMAGINATION AND UNTRUTH
By Mary E. Underwood

One day last winter my six-year-
old boy ran to me and said, Come out
and see birds nest with four blue
eggs in it."
In surprise 1 took his hand and
walked beside him through the gar
den to leafless wintry rosebush to
which he pointed triumphantly. 'But
where is the nest?" 1 asked.
Right there" he insisted indicat-
ing a bleak branch with not so much
as straw on it.
But there is no nest" I insisted.
Then he withdrew his hand and
looked up into my face with utmost
scorn. Cant you make-believe any
thing?" he said.
What was my response? What
should have been my response do you
think? Well 1 believe the words that
rushed to my lips were the right and
true words. said, 'Why, darling,
beg your pardon for being so stupid!
OF course l can make-believe and I'll
never be so dull again"
The next week, however, there Oc-
Cured in my household very differ
ent kind of falsehood. A little girl of
whom had temporary charge had
found a purse with a good deal of
money in 1t. We had talked about this
among our neighbors and in the
child's presence until she felt very
proud of herself. One day she came
to me with dollar bill in her hand.
"I certainly will make you rich
sometime" she exclaimed quoting a
remark which we had frequently
made among ourselves. 'Here is
dollar I found under a rock"
i can not tell just why I did not
believe her, but after accepting the
dollar of which she made me pres
ent I went to my purse. 1t had been
taken out of that. 1 called her in
from her play and very quietly told
her 1 felt sure she had taken the dol
lar from me and asked her why she
had done so.
She denied it - she even protested
piously that she could not be so base
as to steal from one to whom she
owed so much kindness. did not ar
que or raise my voice; I simply kept
saying, ''Why did you take it?" ''I
feel sure you took it," "Tell me why
you took it?"
OuuuGuly SIG UIOh6 uOWu ciuu tlu-
mitted her guilt. Of course her rea-
son was clear: She wanted to be talk
ed about more, to hear people say,
mabel has found more money" She
had no desire for the money itself;
she had given it back to me.
The first of these cases, that of the
birds nest story was an act Of harm
less and beautiful imagination; the
second was a lie. The spirit of the first
should be encouraged, the second re-
quired a punishment which would
make clear to the child's conscience
the baseness of her deed.
It is seldom hard to know the diff
ference between flights of a childs
imagination and his untruths. To
sympathize with the former, however,
we must pause for a few minutes and
try really to understand children's
natures.
1t is very unjust to confuse this
beautiful gift of childhood with the
spirit of cowardice and vanity which
is at the root of most lying. To be
good mothers we must realize that
our little children up to ten years OF
age are like Poets and Artists and
Musicians-to a great extent they live
in their busy imaginations.
Mr.. Lloyd George sent to an in
ternational conference Of reform
leaders of many nations, meeting in
London on October IL, the follow
ing message:
"Unless the peoples Of the world
are to be submerged by wave Of
materialism, we must call into play
the moral forces which alone can
save and vitalize the nations"
The kindergarten is moral force.
All of our children are entitled to
this educational advantage.
The National Kindergarten AssO-
citation, 8 West 4Oth Street, New
York will tell you how to work for
a kindergarten in your public
sahool