OUR CHILDREN
Patri, Angelo
Our Children By Angelo Patri HONESTY in dealing with one's fellows, honesty in one's work, in one's thinking, is imperative for without it nothing can stand life's directness, its searching test...
...He is given a standard of honesty in his work, and his behavior, through his relationship with his mother, his first and best teacher...
...Instilled, Not Ordered When he is old enough to talk, to want things, to begin to look for easy ways, for pleasure, he is met with his mother's questioning look, her careful supervision of his behavior...
...He has learned to face life as it is, and not to imagine he can, by making an outcry, change it to his wish...
...He is brought back from play to attend to his neglected duty, he is shown how to do his share of the household chores, and held for them...
...It is good to tell children to be honest, to tell the truth, to act on the truth, to live by the truth, but unless the standards of home, set by mother and father, are the standards of honor and honesty, the child will not uphold them in his daily living...
...They gather their first experiences with their mothers, then with both parents, finally with the great group of people whose lives touch theirs...
...He learns to depend upon his mother's sureness and to face the inevitable as cheerfully as may be...
...It is right to teach the commandments...
...Honesty is the expression of truth...
...All that is false in men, in government, in business, personal relations must inevitably perish under the pressure of the moral law...
...As he grows he meets with that same honesty when his mother refuses to skip duties, when she insists upon his doing his duty, eating on time, taking his nap, seeing him through the day's order faithfully...
...When she is unfailing in her attentions to him, never late, never avoiding a routine duty or an unusual one, when she overrides his protests and gives him the care he must have, she sets the foundation for honesty, matter-of-fact honesty in daily living...
...That helps toward honesty in meeting the hard facts of ordinary living...
...Children are not born with the knowledge that makes honesty their rule...
...Honesty is instilled, not ordered...
...It is she who gives him his first lessons in her way of dealing with him...
...They live in a vague world of sound and sense that clears little by little, according to the experiences they meet with as they live among people...
...Learns To Face Life The child's standard of honesty will be that of his mother...
...Our Children By Angelo Patri HONESTY in dealing with one's fellows, honesty in one's work, in one's thinking, is imperative for without it nothing can stand life's directness, its searching test of men and their deeds...
Vol. 7 • October 1943 • No. 43
