Evening star., 1939-12-09
1nnaginations
OfHealthy
Children
Realists Must Not
Destroy This Gift :
OF YOUNGSTERS
By ANGELO PATRI.

Children need Santa Claus. And
they are entitled to enjoy him with
out grown-ups' grudging. Children
live in a world of their own and 1t
i'll becomes us to enter that world
as vandals, overthrowing and de-
stroying the beauty that we find
there.
I believe that fairies are essential
to the healthy growth of children's
souls. I am deeply concerned that
they be permitted to grow their
souls. I am not in sympathy with
those stern realists who would rob
children Of their dreams and
phantasies; deprive them of their
fairy tales, their Santa Claus and
their belief in the impossible. I
think realists are not realists in the
true sense of that word. I think the
children are nearer truth than they
when they hold to their belief in
fairies.
God, who created all children,
gifted them with imagination so
that they could make their world
a world of beauty and delight. He
allowed them the power to remove
themselves from the drab, unhappy
present to another time and place
where delightful things might hap
pen any minute; where other lives
opened before them in exciting
marvels of adventure and Joy. Who
are we to deny the benefits of this
power to children? What wisdom
have we compared to theirs?
Rear a child without imagination
and you rear a monster. He has
not the understanding that allows
him to see meaning in other people S
lives, beauty in their thoughts and
ideals, good in their ways. He can
have no sympathy with another's
pain, no understanding of his grief.
For him his material self, his Grass,
selfish greed self, is All. For such
as he there is no God, no good be-
yond. his appetites. no beauty save
in his base mind. To him reality is
the material world. Satisfaction for
him lies in his ability to take, de-
YOUR, destroy. In the end he de-
stroys himself; but for time, while
his presence curses the earth, he is
a blight and a pestilence.
Please, then, leave the children
their Santa and their fairies.
Teach them to hold fast to the
ideal Santa symbolizes, to the gen.
erous, loving, joy-giving spirit Of
Christmas. Teach them to feel the
beauty in those about them. Teach
them to look for the good that is
in them. Teach them to sympathize
with the feelings of all they meet,
to share grief and to comfort it by
all the means in their power.
Teach them, this Christmas time,
to look beyond the walls Of home,
beyond the walls of country, race,
creed and color to that lovely place
where all Gods children meet as
friends and brothers-that place
that knows no walls, no realities but
those of the spirit. Teach them to
know that love is the law and good
its practice.
These are grave concepts not
suited to children's minds, but the
fairies, the spirit of Santa Claus,
the grand old Christmas story 30
eternally true, 30 royalty child
like, fit exactly to their need. It
is q long stride from Santa to God,
the giver Of every perfect gift, but
to q child it is but . step. He Is
30 close to God.
You owe justice to your child,
Just as he owes obedience to you.
Teach him to mind you, the wise,
sane way. Be guided by Angelo
Patri's booklet, "Obedience."
Send for it, inclosing 10 cents in
coin. Address Angelo Patri In
care of The Evening Star.