Evening star., 1939-04-28
Try to Forget
Child's Past
Offenses
Praise His Success
And Stop Harping
On Mistakes
Ry ANGELO PATRI.

There you 60 again. Wasn't 1t
enough that you gave away the
book you needed last month? Now
you go to work and delay so long
about asking for your place in the
music class that there isn't room
for you. Haven't you any head at
all?
Last term you got an afternoon
program when you should have had
morning program. And why?
Because you hadn't sense enough
to put on your card the number
OF the class you were in last time.
Il can't even send you to the
store. You come home with some
thing the man wanted to get rid
OF like that sweater he sold you that
wouldn't meet across you. Any
body can put anything over on you
and get away with it.
Just like last month when your
nice friend Hetty told you it would
be too much bother for you to be
on the Music Committee and you
didn't open your mouth. She put
herself on though, and got first
chance at the scholarship"
But ! won the scholarship,
mother. I didn't care"
There you 60 again. You didn't
care. Don't I know you don't care?
Can't you see it every day? Well,
you'd just better begin caring, for
If you think that your father and
I have nothing else to do but keep
you in school, and In clothes, and
the rest of it, you're nightly mis-
taken. If you don't hurry you're
going to be late, right now.
Goodness me. if I weren't here
to keep after you I don't know
what would become of you. Just
one mistake after another. Since
last June"
But Martha had escaped. Mother
drew a long berath and turned to
her household tasks. She was
troubled, anxious, about this child.
IT she only would speak up for
herself; get move on herself; get
somewhere and stop making such
blunders. Shes good child and
as smart rs any of them. Goodness
me-"
Martha was 13 and ready to en-
ter second year in high school. Her
marks were good and her teachers
liked her. She played in the school
orchestra and had a place on the
school paper. She never pushed
herself forward, but waited to be
noticed. Whenever she took over
bit Of work she did 1t well so that
those responsible learned to rely
on her. She made the mistakes
that children her age always make.
She was, in short, just a child learn
Ing the ways of her world gradually
and as painlessly as possible. Why
was her mother worried?
Mothers want their children to
be more than good, more than
bright, more than noticeable. Some
mothers take this desire so to heart
that they lose their sense Of pro-
portion and nag the children, which
Is the one sure way to frustrate
their efforts to help.
Reminding a child of past mis-
takes is one of the surest ways of
dlscouraging them from further
effort. Pointing out their weak
nesses and failures on every pos
sible occasion is the surest way of
keeping them in a state of help
lessness. A child must feel strong
before he makes an effort, and the
feeling OF failure and unfltness robs
him of that strength. Forget the
mistakes the child has made and
encourage him to go ahead, and he
will. He Is the child of his parents,
who are human beings, and he has
the same strengths and weaknesses.
habits and instincts they have,
Forget the mistakes. Let them die
Talking keeps them alive and ac-
tive. Praise success and keep that
spirit alive and the child viii do
better.