The Waterbury Democrat., 1937-09-13
Your Children
By Olive Roberts Barton

How to help children overcome
 their difficulties at school is
 vexlng problem to many parents.
 In this second of a special series
 of YOUR CHILDREN articles, Olive Roberts Barton, NEA
 Services national famous child
 training authority, suggests tO
 readers of The Democrat ways to
 help their offspring.
 Forewarned is forearmed, and the mother who remembers past difficulties in school that William or Mary have had could help consider ably if she would. Perhaps she has blamed Williams $ defiance of authority on poor teachers who didn'tN understand him. Or Mary's confusion in arithmetic upon poor instructors, But if the years have not ironcd out the kinks, and last term was the same old story, then she really should know that the school is not to be blamed, not altogether any way, and perhaps a little thought may straighten matters out lot.
 What kind of boy is William? She thinks he is pretty fine, and so he is, of course. But generalizing does not help much. Many children are fine at home who are always in hot water elsewhere.
 Covering Up Deficiencies
 He may be very sensitive, William may, and feel 1t terribly If he can't lead the class or make creditable marks. To cover up, he pretends to be careless fellow, and endeavors to make his teacher think that he won't try harder because 1t is not important. He will try to annoy her to call attention away from the low spelling mark, for example, as ke would rather have the kids think him a bad boy than a dunce.
 Or maybe he just cannot con- centrate. At home he is permitted to do his tasks when he gets ready and he is making mental compari- sons at school. Why should anyone expect him to make the minutes count when his own mother does not expect it2 Again we have situ. ation that needs airing in the mothers mind Of course she can. not know exactly the trouble, but by analysing and observing hey son in his contacts with other peo- pie than the teacher, possibly she can figure out reasons.
 Mental Blind Spots
 If Mary cannot get arithmetic while other children seem to be doing well on an average, this is neither disgraceful nor unusual. It Is quite true that some of the most intelligent people have blind spots on one subject, or even more than one. l should not put 1t down too quickly to poor teaching. Instead it would be good idea to decide upon something definite that would help Mary with her grades. Perhaps thia year you, her mother, can work with her. There is no law against home help or instruction. This does not mean to work her problems and hand them in, because this would not be fair to Mary herself. But extra and patient explanations that cannot always be given in busy school hour may unravel the knot. Besides many child succeeds when he thinks that the personal inter- est of his parents is behind him.
 After week or two, when school is organized, 1t may be q good idea to talk to former teachers as well as to the present one. Co., operation of parent and teacher often will gain the pupils coopera- ton, too. Friendliness will get re- suits, while antagonism or criticism only makes matters, worse.
 Copyright, 1897, NEA Service, Inc.