The Waterbury Democrat., 1933-06-09
S5GE, YOUR CHILDREN
 By Olive Roberts Barton
0las5 6Y NEz sfRvieE. iHc

The sooner we learn the word must" the sooner we accept life without a murmur.
 It would be foolish for instance to suppose that one-tenth of us would be educated if we were not made" to go to school. l never have taken much stock In the pin ing of the heart for the three "R's," or for a knowledge of maps or battles. Here and there we find a Lincoln or an Edison who would have educated himself if never book had been written or a school house built, but the yearning for knowledge is absent in most peo- pie.
 Probably they would grow up to regret not being able to read and write, and perhaps some thou sands would make an effort to learn when they discovered what they had missed. But by that time it would be real work to learn. The time of adaptation and quick absorption is childhood.
 The Lesson of Acceptance
 What children take for granted as necessary, they do. They know they uluSl SO " SShOOA e.Aiu "teAA few exceptions off they trot.
 However, this is no dissertation on the merits of education, its ad- vantages or disadvantages, or the extent to which it should be car- ried. Neither is it a discussion of how many children like it, or how many do not, for the fact remains that few children ever set up seri- ous conflicts about school. They say they hate it but they don't ac- tually. The big thing is that they "accept" it and in this very fact we have an enormous lesson.
 The lesson is that what children learn to accept as a matter Of course in childhood they do--and do it without any serious conse- quences.
 What is true of school is true of home duties, of neatness about themselves, of obedinece, of going to bed on time and other regular habits It certainly is true of work.
 Puppets. Not the Goal
 We don't wish to make them in- to mechanical puppets or block off their time by chart. They have so much supervision in school they need a little free-time and play time out of it. They need, also hours in which they belong to themselves to work out their own ideas, or simply to relax.
 But it is obvious that those things they learn must be done, will be done, without too much conflict later on. The habit of sac- ceptance-making up ones mind to endure unpleasant things grows with the years.
 Who is it that suffers the nerv- ous breakdown in maturity? The man or woman who has been taught to face things and do them without murmur when they were children, or the indulged, lazy, petted ones who never knew what 1t was to have a responsibil- ity? It answers itself. Too many such children cannot carry on happily and sanely when 1ife's seriouns problems inevitably face them.
 Constant Conflict Harmful They wear themselves out fight ing to get away from them. Each day they have to jump the fence of their own desires and in time 1t l wears them out. Conflict! Con- fiict with oneself. Trying each day to scare up enough courage to go | on-and losing.
 Parents will do well, think, to consider the years ahead. Will their children know how to meet real responsibility with courage and serene minds in the years to come? If it is to be so then they will have to learn that word must by heart before it is too late.