The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1932-04-14
The Chlld's Surroundings

Suppose that grown-ups could
live for a while in an Alice-in-Won-
derland world, where table-tops
were the height on ones nose and
ones legs dangled akwardly from
chairs where the world beyond the
window sill was a tip-toe world,
and if one touched the wonderful
box on the highest shelf, it tumbled
down on ones toes!
: Absurd? Something like that Is
the giants world he lives in.
Things that fall down and hurt
his toes, shelves always out of
reach, heavy doors that will not
open, Illustrate the child and make
him feel inadequate. A physical
environment that is not so far be-
yond the child's powers that he
cannot cope with it and master it
to some extent is necessary for his
comfort and happiness, and for
the upbuilding of conference and
security.
: We cannot alter the stuff child
rem are made of, but we can in
degree, suit their environment to
their needs. The toddler's special
luncheon will taste much better if
he is seated at small table which
is just the right height for him, and
his back and leg muscles will not
grow fatigued and cramp in a
chair that was intended for a child
to sit on.
Self-help can be taught at re-
markably early age if there are
small tables and chairs, a wash
bowl within reach or a stool near
by to push up to the adult size sink
and balance oneself on delightfully."-
while dousing ones hands with
soap and water. At the Nursery
school of the institute of Child We'll
fare, two-year olds carry their own
plates to the luncheon tables-which
they have helped to set and there
is very little splitting
% Small shelves within reach of
the smallest hands in the family,
and low hooks, make the putting
away of toys and wraps game
providing mother has introduced
the putting away of ones own
things as a delightful privilege and
not a disagreeable but necessary
task! hours will be whiled away
without nay harm to the child's
posture and body development, if
he sits up to small table when
playing with scissors, paints or
book. An old kitchen table with the
legs sawed off will answer the pur-
pose.
OF course, we are discussing a
child's physical environment solely;
we known the tremendous influ-
ence which a home that reflects
peace, serenity and orderliness and
in which the members of the fam
lily, well-adjusted, has on the child,
but his actual physical surround
ings have a tremendous influence,
too.;'
When the child is small, the
stove that cooks our food" the
windowpanes that keep out the
snow" all are wondrously fasinat-
ing and important; as he grows
older, the extent to which his
home represents his own posses
sions, his comfort and his pleasure,
determine the length of time he
spend in his home. Is it any won
der that children who are brought
up in homes barren of books and
pictures, in streets devoid of play
grounds, in neighborhoods where
there is nothing but mean and sor-
did happenings to copy in their
make-believe play, reflect this lack
of instructive and constructive
physical influences in their be-
havior.
This is what the children them
selves have to say about it. One of
the committees of the Presidents
Conference Child Health and Pro-
lection decided to find out some of
the factors in their immediate en-
vironments that annoy children.
Over half the children said they
had not enough space for their
clothes or their possessions. To
many adults, the treasurers of the