OUR CHILDREN
Patri, Angelo
Our Children By Angelo Patri "NO I don't want her to work. I had it hard when I was a child, and my children are going to have an easy time. I'll give them a good education and let them enjoy...
...What men have done sheds light on what men may do...
...That span is the distance between success and failure...
...Boys and girls are graduated from high schools, ready for college, who cannot tell you what their expenses are, how much money they need for a term's work, nor how to manage it when it is in their hands, nor how to get it if they have to do so on their own...
...Not like me, working hard and having no fun...
...There is no kindness in going without necessary medical and dental care, needed clothing, so that the children may have extras...
...They come down to much and less, as applied to actual conditions...
...Much of our education is just as useful as that and all because loving parents say, "I had it hard...
...Work Is Salvation There is no kindness in allowing the girls to sit idly admiring their shining nails while mother does the dishes and clears the kitchen...
...He shall have it easy...
...Mathematics are to be applied to daily service—after all they are but the measure of man's knowledge about the world about him...
...Words never fit a child for life though they be the best words in the language...
...It affects their conduct...
...Children who are reared on books, filled with knowledge, reared on facts, without understanding the truth about them, get no education worth mentioning, no equipment for living worth the having...
...Let children learn about life in their learning time so they are not hurt by it when their learning time is over...
...The learner must apply the truths of history, science, mathematics, and the rest to his everyday way of life...
...There is no kindness in letting the boys sit about the radio, lie on the couch, drive about in the car while father does the furnace, the porches, the cleaning of the cellar, and the polishing of the car...
...He must learn to look at history in the light of his daily behavior...
...Books talk about life but they do not live it...
...That attitude has spoiled more children than it helped...
...Else why bother about it...
...No child can grow up successfully without experiencing the strain- of effort and the joy of overcoming...
...That is the simplest kind of applied mathematics, but they are at a loss to apply it...
...Work is our salvation and no injury to anyone...
...There is a wide span between overworking children and letting them go to seed for want of useful occupation...
...I'll give them a good education and let them enjoy themselves...
...Nor can a child attain successful maturity without bearing responsibility, understanding usefulness, mastering a skill that makes him feel superior to his circumstances, whatever they happen to be...
...Useless Without Practice The truth about such learning is that it is useless until it is put into practice...
Vol. 8 • October 1944 • No. 42
