Evening star., 1938-06-28
Encourage a
Youngster
To Work
Let Child Take Up
ACourse That He
Will Succeed In.
BY ANGELO PATRI.

WHEN pupil fails consistently in
his lessons, term after term, one
school and the next, it is time to
change his course Of study. ooh, but
he says he likes his school. He
doesn't want to leave, nor change his
classes. We asked him and he said
he wanted to graduate and go to COL
lege"
What he said he thought he meant
But what he does speaks loudest and
is most accurate. Any school child
from primary through high school,
wants to be as good as his neighbor
and better; and wants above all to win
the approval of his parents and teach
ers. When he fails he feels bad
about it. Many boys and girls who
have braZened out an Office interview
or q session with troubled, angry
parents, have cried the night through
in the secrecy of their rooms. They
fail because they are asked to do
what they cannot do. It is time to
change their courses.
Parents are eager to train their
children for work and positions of
greater financial Importance than
those they had in their time. But
suppose the children cannot take that
work, or that position? The children
know how their parents feel about
it. and how disappointed they will
be If they fail in the education they
try to give them. They try hard to
come up to parental hopes and ex-
pectations and say they, too, want
the work their people want for them.
In their burdened hearts they know
they cannot make good, and their
truancy. deceptions, tantrums and
runaway tactics are their minds reply
to the situation.
Change the course according to
what the best teachers say is best
for the failing pupil. Try to hide any
disappointment this decision brings.
Know that this child will be happier
when he is successful, and that he
is more likely to succeed in this other
direction than in the one planned
for him. A child must do what he
can do.
have heard parents say to such
children: "All right. Go ahead and
be ditch digger If that's all you're
fit for. Throw away your chances.
Be loafer. Shame yourself for a
lazy good-for-nothing. If I had had
your chance never would have
thrown it away. I'd have made some
thing of myself. had to go to work
when I should have been in school.
I had to make the best of myself
without schooling Shame yourself"
That Is useless, and mainly untrue.
There is no child refusing success.
Failure usually lies in causes over
which children have no control.
Change the course; give up the am
bition that he cannot realize, and be
content to have him a success in his
own way, the way Nature set in him
at his birth.
Remove all thought of shame from
his mind. Shame is a poisonous
emotion that destroys hope and kills
power. Encourage the child to take
up work that he can do; assure him
that you are satisfied If he is happy,
and mean 1t. The world is going to
need carpenters, iron workers, truck
drivers, sailors, shopkeepers,> bankers,
plumbers, machinists. printers, paint
ers, gardeners and q thousand other
kinds Of workers, to whom all honor
and gratitude is due.
Teach q child that useful work is
honorable and that the place of honor
is always the place occupied by hon.
orable men and women. And mean
1t, for 1t Is true. Honor Is in the
man, not in the chair he occupies.
(Copyright. 193S.) .