Evening star., 1941-05-20
FancyNanne
Is Handicap
ToC Child
Give Her Sturdy
One, So She Can
Hold Her Own
By A AngeIo Pafri

MY girls, Pussy and Pansy, are
too polite to get along with the
other children. They're a lot of
roughnecks, pushing and showing
and grabbing. My children aren't
used to it and they're pushed about
and hurt, and every day they come
| home crying. I don't want them to
| be out at recess; want them to wait
in the room until I come for them
in the afternoon. I won't have them
associating with such rowdies."
This is not a hopeful outlook for
Pussy and Pansy. To start with,
Pussy has the wrong name, and
Pansy, too. OF course, a mother can
call her child by any name she likes,
but then, too, so can the children
of the neighborhood, and they do,
and mother does not like it. Pussy
may be fine at home, in the bosom
of the family, though doubt it. but
it just won't do on the playground.
Give the child a good stout name
| like Mary Ann, Joan, Kate, Eliza
beth, and she's off to good start,
but call her Pussy You might as
well call her SWeetie Pie. She will
meet with the same scorn from her
| heartless friends of the playground.
I am not defending the code, merely
stating It, And it holds in spite of
your disapproval and mine.
Children know no distinction of
family. race, creed or color They
are one breed-the human family.
They are selfish, they love to DOM
mate. grasp and hold what they
take. Only after years of training
is this nature tanned sufficiently to
hide the claws, soften the bite and
gentle the temper. There are no
little ladies and gentlemen, just
children.
1t Is mistake to teach little chill
dren to give up their toys, their
tastes, their places. without fight.
Other children are not ready for
that point of view and they make
| the gentler ones, the self-sacrifcing
ones. the victims of their own gen.
| tleness
Teach a child that he has his
| place which he must hold, by good
will if he can, by good management
If he must. Teach him that he has
rights in his own property which
he holds against all invaders. Teach
him that before he can be generous
he must be strong in his own right.
Then, once he has established his
| ability to take care of himself, he
can afford to be polite, gracious and
at ease among his companions.
A little child has no ethics, no
morals and no manners that are the
expression Of his inner self. These
are imposed upon him so that in
time. after prolonged practice. they
may become the genuine expression
OF his spirit. But always, under
meath, must lie that power to hold
his own, to take his own part and
show himself a man or a woman in
his own right.
know that children must be
trained to gentle living. I have
spent lifetime at the task, which
might give me the right to speak
openly about the matter. Before
gentleness can become the express
sion of the child his real self. the
childish, impulsive, greedy little
grubby self must have been worked
out in experiences that proved it the
| lesser good. Only when we come to
the stage of development when rea-
/ son takes the place of implllse
when the spirit begins rising above
the material body can we feel the
real. spiritual. gentle self of the
child emerging.
You cannot hurry this time. You
bide it, and you teach. teach, teach,
while you maintain an understand
ing attitude toward the emerging
child. And don't call him Pussy, or
Bunny. or Sonny Boy. Give him a
sturdy name and haul him up to its
standard.