The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-05-16
,hildren Are Very Sensitive
 To Ridicule
By JULIA HOYT

N Q WE always realize thatrehildfen
 are even more sensitive to- ridi-
 cule than grown-ups? I have had ] stoments of absolute agony in watch z<<3a q child's face while older persons $sere laughing at some mistake it had I& de. We all can recall private hap |<enings of our childhood which seemed feat sorrows over which we grieved for long time. Everything in life is a matter of comparisons. To someone who has never had terrific operation, Tor instance, or any great physical spain, toothache is the worst suffer- , 1hg in the world. To a child very small things is, at that moment, a kragedy, and even more of a tragedy than a big thing may be to him lateS l on. He is an extremely emotional lit- tie animal, with his logic and sense of values undeyeloped
 was talking only the other day to n very well known psychoana1yst in
 ew. York, who declared that from half
 three-quarters of the insanity in
 world would be avoided if parents
 1ld consider their children as per
 IS and individuals from the day they
 born. In other words, he believes
 It the old idea that child has mo
 Int to temperament and emotions,5 is
 [ only wrong, but criminal. The i'm
 sssi0ns that child receives in early
 B are the most lasting of any. Hu-
 D beings can be made or marred per
 nently during these years. Yet we
 mothers who pay little attention to
 sir children until they have reaclied
 age where their characters and
 pds are already. to great extent,
 nsned: During the years that this
 xInation is taking place they turn
 fir children over to the care of some uIrse or governess whose abilities they aye taken no pains to observe or study.
 AS IS grave mistake to shirk the responsibility of satisfying the growing #neeiligence and thirst for knowledge in cn1idren and treat them merely as harming, delightful little playthings Many people think it necessary to talk bahy tall" to children and make only Esiliy, insane remarks to them. If we were to observe very closely we would notice on the child's face what in an older person would be called a politely bored expression. Many children have an lnsttnctive sense of politeness, in spite of frequent naively frank remarks. and I am sure they are often bored. On the other hand, to whom do we klnd the children running? Who is the favorite? Probably their bachelor uncle, who talks to them in a way that seems 70 their families absurdly natural-as n they were on an equal plane. The parents probably say:
 Poor John, he has no children and does not know how to treat them"
 Yet the children adore that uncle, and probably show him sides of them selves that nobody else has seen, while
 ys run away from the people who
 eat them almost as idiots.
 NN heard an amusing stroy the other fa which is indicative of the tendency fk the modern child to logic. A father as reading to his five-year-old little |ElEl the story of Jonah and the whale. Fhen he was about halfway through ae stopped him and said, '1Oh. papa. ease don't read any more of that go foolish, don't you think?''
 Imagine that many children, if they
 Ike out their thoughts, would say to 4dnlts: "0h, please don't talk like that
 its so foolish, don't you think?" nER&. ROLES TO PRESENT