Evening star., 1928-12-17
Learning How to Live.

A well-meaning, middle-aged person,
uncertain how to break the social ice
in approaching a 10-year-old, fell back
on the original question, What do you
learn at School?" and received an illu-
minating reply, II am learning how to
live" Naturally that wasn't original on
the part of the youngster. He attends
a progressive school, and repeated a
phrase used by the principal in his
weekly talk at assembly It's an excel
lent summary
OF course the three RS and all the
many varieties of information that we
need to get along in this complicated
old world of ours have to be learned at
school. Later on that boy will have to
learn how to make a living, but the
main thing is to learn how to live. If
the child gets good start in that and
in the right direction, he and the
school have done well. He is learning
the same thing at home and on the
street and everywhere else.
Important and obvious as it all is, we
haven't any courses or texts in learning
how to live. The first part of it is
learning how to take care of his body;
how to breathe; how to hold himself;
how to walk; how to eat; how to keep
clean; and, as important as all the
rest, how to rest, including how to sleep
and keep the body machinery going
With good energy, making a humlike
happiness. Sum it all up and it's a
big Job-quite too big job for a small
child to learn perfectly or in a year or
two. The course starts at home and
long before school years, and keeps on
In early school life. The nursery school
makes this part of the course its center
Next and overlapping is learning
nil 1aff k1n Ay1a 80 la
cialized muscle systems with which we
do things. The hand is by so much
the most typical that we call it all
manipulation. We play and we work
with our hands, and with his hand the
child learns how to handle his toys,
his clothes, his brush and comb, his
spoon and knife and fork and cup and
plate. his books, his pencil, his growing
kit Of tools. Man is tool-using ami
NAL. Getting control of the speech
muscles is a similar accomplishment,
and talking and handling go together.
Third and central in learning to live
is control Of the emotions Children
taunt one another with "Cry baby!"
Learning not to cry for every hurt or
disappointment and even more, not to
ny into tantrum. That's q huge job
and in the same course in emotional
control is learning little patience and
keeping down restlessness, and taking
a joke, and getting along with others,
and not sulking and going off by ones
self and refusing to play the game OF
living.
For personal emotions are all social
Szed, and emotional control can only be
learned in social setting. Learning
to live is learning to live with others
Consideration is a pretty big word for
it as applied to a small child, but it Is
rooted in sharing and give-and-take
and entering into the spirit of com.
radeship. Learning to live socially 1:
the cream of the course, and chic
morality starts there.
Learning to live is forming habit:
and attitudes, and each includes tht
other. Cleanliness and order are tht
standard examples, and what a hug
undertaking! How much of your en-
ergy as a parent goes to keeping Johnn!
neat and clean? Is it so or 20 or 81
per cent? And is it so or 10 or 81
per cent success? If you had {
pedometer to register all the steps yol
take to pick up after Johnny anc
straighten things, how many work
miles day would you record?
AZ this and more is learning how u