Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1940-02-02

Child Is
Time Schedule Is
Best Cure for
This Type
By ANGELO PATRI.

Regularity and punctuality are
school virtues. OF course there are
others such as thoroughness, CO.
operation and industry, but this
time I would like to accent those
two because they are fundamental
to success in school and everywhere
else. That is why school makes them
important enough to be called vir-
tues.
Our minds and bodies are rhyth-
mic. That is, they have timed
action pattern in which they rise to
full power, then fall to lesser one,
in set rhythm. All life, all growth
has this rhythmic curve. Each child
has his peculiar rhythm Of being
and hes succeeds best when his
rhythm is fully accepted and per-
mitted to control his activities. May
be I can make that idea clearer by
telling you how it works.
Sonny Is a slow-moving child. He
Is intelligent and ne gets his job
done, but his movements are de-
liberate and, to the hurried watcher,
most irritating. Hurry! Hurry up!
You're going to be late. You won't
get that done on time if you don't
move faster" II this pressure to
hurry is prolonged Sonny will be-
gin to tumble, to lose his hold, and
then he will fail.
If instead of hurrying Sonny he
is given a set time for workout
the amount of work he is asked to
do is cut down to where, with a
little extra effort, he can finish in
time-he will begin to try to quicken
his rhythm a bit and do better.
But beware of pressing him to bur-
ny. That disrupts his rhythm of
growth, brings on confusion and
checks his growth.
Regularity and punctuality in
school affairs sets this rhythm of
action in the childrens minds and
bodies more effectively. They train
and develop the natural rhythm so
that it becomes great source of
nervous economy. BY that I mean
that a child who has been trained
to be on hand when he is scheduled
for appearance and trained to be
there on the minute, not a beat
ahead or behind time, forms the
habit of doing what is required of
him without haste, waste or worry.
He takes his days work as a mat
ter of course and gets through
with it on time.
Some children seem to be born
without this rhythm we'll marked.
They are the ones who don't want
to go to bed when it is bed time.
want to eat at playtime, want to
play at meal time, want to wait a
minute whenever it is time to get
busy. For these children the clock
must be master. A time schedule,
strictly followed, will help them
more than any amount of pressure
in the form of Hurry! Hurry" or
VERY well, you can't have any des-
sert tonight" Just set the clock
and Quietly, firmly hold that squirm-
ing child to schedule. It will try
your patience to- the breaking point
for a time, but keep at it and he
will form the habit of regularity
because his body will take it over
and force him to accept it.
Your stomach tells you when it is
lunch time. Your time sense, set by
years of experience, tells you that
1t is close to the end of your day
and you begin to tie up the last
threads. Habit, established by regu-
larity and punctuality, takes a load
of ones mind. 1t works on the side
of health. It is what makes all
the difference between usefulness
and telplessness. Send the children
to school, every day, and on time.
NJ. Patri will give personal atten-
ton to inquiries from parents and
school teachers on the care and
development of children. Write him
in care Of The Evening Star.