The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1932-11-03
GROWING WITH YOUR CHILD
SCHOOL BUGABOOS

by the institution OF child We'll
fare, University of Minnesota.
Two young mothers were discus
sing the first school days of a
five-year-old girl and six-year-old
boy.
After an unusually happy and
serene summer, Alice is developing
nerves, said the one. Ever since
she started kindergarten she's
been fussy and jumpy at home and
doesn't sleep well. don't believe
she's happy in school.
Alice has lived in the country,
where it was impossible for her to
attend a nursery school and where
companions of her own age were
lacking. She is far from being I'M
stable child, but the adjustment to
school environment is especially
ly hard for her.
Never before has Alice been ex-
pected to cooperate with so many
children Of exactly her own age.
Never before has she taken direct
lions as a member of so large a
group and never before has she
had the opportunity to compare her
skill and ability with her peers and
to compete with others on an equal
footing.
The first days of school are US
ually not easy ones. Even a grown
up would find it hard to make so
many new adjustments all at one
time, and for a child who has had
no companions for his own age, it
is especially hard. If there is an
understanding and skillful teacher,
the children seem to make the new
adjustment quite easily, but often
there is one, like Alice, in whom
the strain will show in Misconduct
at home or in restless and broken
sleep until the transition from the
environment of home and mother
to that of school and many new
people, new situations and new ma
terials has been completed.
I'm a bit a fraid that Junior isn't
getting the attention he should
have, the second mother confessed.
I know that sounds as if I
wanted to baby Junior, which I do
not. But Junior is sensitive. 7
don't want his individuality crush
ed in the press of projects and act
ivities and group adjustment you
hear so much about. The class is
large; surely Junior will be ne
glectel, overlooked sometimes. And
of course the first grade teacher
cannot possibly have as much in
terest in him as the Kindergarten
had.
If Juniors kindergarten teacher
was wise this mother has nothing
to worry about, for Junior has al
ready learned the give and take of
successful daily living and playing
and working with his classmates.
He is probably already adjusted to
taking his share of the neglect
which it is so hard for parents to
deal out. And in the discipline OF
the group so much emphasized by
educators, in the waiting to take
his turn in learning to stand up for
his own rights, in learning to
create his own inventions, yes, and
in the fear of being ostracized by
his fellows or complaining or cry
ing, Junior will develop just those
traits of character his mother
most desires for him when he is
grown.
But of course teacher isn't al
ways right and classes sometimes
are too large. Children often resort
to all sorts Of tantrums or queer
bad habits to get the desired at
tention from the overworked
teacher. A wise parent will soon
learn to discriminate between the
complaining of the cry baby whose
teacher is always picking on him
and the child who has real COM
plant, and will be on the alert to
find the cause of any new undesir-
able behavior which suddenly APP
pears after a new school term be-
gins. An understandable explana-
ton of the teachers problem often
ends such sudden appearances Of
undesirable behavior.
TT xuas a woman Miss Elizabeth