OUR CHILDREN
Patri, Angelo
Our Children By Angelo Patri WE want to keep the children in the best possible health. We know their nerves must be controlled, their bodies well nourished, their minds at peace. It is of supreme...
...If children are raised in poverty— not so much the poverty of material things, but the poverty that makes for spiritual as well as physical emptiness—they are a prey to illness, sensationalism, wrong doing...
...Children Need Fun Choose the children's friends more carefully...
...tell them stories...
...Be kind and patient while keeping the children occupied and useful...
...Teach them games...
...By the right children I mean the healthy minded ones, the cheerful, sturdy ones who are not looking for tales that make them shiver...
...Fathers and mothers will have to go out of their way to strengthen children spiritually in order to bring them through without lasting defects of body, mind, and character...
...Take them to church and send them with other children to Sunday School...
...have story books on hand...
...Teach them by example, not by talk, the quiet strength of courage, the healthy practice of work, of service for others...
...Make Home Cheerful Make home cheerful...
...If they have every material thing and lack these, they are bound to suffer spiritual poverty and if they have them, though lacking many refinements of comforts at home, they are quite safe...
...The murder tale, the pictures of war's havoc and terror are not for sensitive children, and all children are sensitive these days...
...It is of supreme importance that the backgrounds being supplied by the home are healthy in physical and spiritual values...
...Choose the children's occupations and entertainments carefully, remembering that they need different nourishment than their elders require...
...Children need fun, the fun that is in games they play together, in work they do together, in experiences they enjoy together...
...Make it easy for them to know the right kind of children and more difficult for them to be with the unfit...
...These experiences are what build the backgrounds of health that sustain spiritual and physical growth...
...They are to supply the power this child is to use in his maturity and their quality is certain to affect that power...
...Poor people often have enough to eat, enough to nourish the children's bodies, but if they do not supply spiritual food with the material sort, the child is still under-nourished and still prey to evil...
...Choose the books they read, and if you have not the time to do this leave it to the librarian and the teacher...
Vol. 8 • August 1944 • No. 35
