OUR CHILDREN
Patri, Angelo
Our Children By Angelo Patri A MOTHER looks at her active, noisy, rude, untidy, disobedient, bad-mannered child and weeps. What is to be done with him? He is. a disgrace. If he grows up this way,...
...Think-up an incentive that will drive the child to want very much to accept the teaching, be eager for it...
...Nagging is not teaching...
...They are not born with the attitudes of grown-up people, most fortunately for all concerned...
...He will strain the bounds of safety, caution, and conservatism placed around him by grown-up people...
...Nobody will put up with him and he will be an outcast and a failure...
...He stuffs his mouth full, he tries to talk with it in that condition, he puts his fingers into his plate, he licks them, he bites into a whole slice of bread, he wants to jump up from the table and return, he talks too much and too loudly...
...Suppose you have an eight-year-old boy whose table manners are bad...
...Cheer up...
...That is the way all children are...
...Select one phase of his activitiy and correct that one and let the others, no matter how irritating, wait for their turn...
...A child is a dynamic creature geared for action at high speed...
...The only thing they can do for him is teach him, and the best teaching is done through experiences that actually touch the child's way of life...
...If his table manners can be set right the whole series of activities and their expressions can be reached and modified...
...Any grown-up person who tries to keep up with the activities of any active child will end in bed suffering from fatigue and a sad disillusionment...
...They have to be studied and taught and trained according to their needs and in harmony with their gifts...
...One Phase At A Time Instead of looking at the child as a mass of faults look at him as a child in need of helpful experiences...
...Nagging Isn't Teaching His table manners reflect a whole series of ways of behavior...
...He is a bundle of instincts stimulated by curiosity...
...If he grows up this way, nobody will have any patience with him...
...A party, a trip to a restaurant for dinner and the music of the band, some place where good table manners are the entrance fee to a rewarding experience, is needed...
...Select an important phase of behavior and keep at it exclusively until it is under the child's control...
...Write down the points you want to teach...
...He is a creature of impulse, not reason...
Vol. 8 • January 1944 • No. 1
