OCR Text |
Show little more than your genuine interest in-terest to keep them pursuing the fascinating ideas and experiments which occur to them naturally. But because they do have so many ideas, it is the parents' job to help them stay at one problem long enough to think it through, to suggest ways in which they can do original work in a subject, to help them locate books and materials which will answer their questions and lead on to more. All children should be encouraged encour-aged to have hobbies and other out'-of-school interests for relaxation relax-ation and to aid in discovering their own partcular talents. But in addition to. these purposes the child for whom school duties are too easy must learn, paradoxically paradoxical-ly enough, through his leisure-time leisure-time activities how to work. Iff SUCCESSFUL PARENTHOOD By MRS. CATHERINE a EDWARDS Auodat Editor. Pannft Hagazin PUTTING THE BRIGHT CHILD TO WORK For several generations bright children have been one of the most neglected of our national recources. In pioneer days the teacher who taught all the grades often allowed the exceptional child to forge ahead in his studies as fast as his interest and intelligence intel-ligence would take him. But far less flexible were the schools of our own youth with their insistence insist-ence that the child spend a stated period in each grade regardless of ability to do the work in half the time. Among the unhappy results were lazy habits of work, inadequate inade-quate preparation for adult problems prob-lems which proved not to be as easy as passing an examination on a few hours' cramming, and an appaling waste of ability. Many victims of this keeping bright children marking time, have suffered all their lives from the restlessness which besets those who use only part of their abilities. Today there are still many obstacles ob-stacles in the way of providing the mentally gifted with sufficient suffic-ient stimulation from their school studies to take up the slack of their curiosity and varied Interests. Inter-ests. For one thing, public schools are too crowded, and the teacher's teach-er's individual attention is more apt to be given those who are having difficulty. There are, of course, many fine experiments being made with special spe-cial classes for superior students. And skipping grades is still warranted war-ranted if the child is ready to make his way socially as well as scholastically with older boys and girls. This used to be the only way out, often resulting in tots of nine and ten taking the honors away from twelve-year-olds and then being shunned on the playground play-ground by their vanquished classmates. class-mates. That the parents of exceptional children must provide the opportunity oppor-tunity and encouragement for the extra work and study such children child-ren need to keep them from being bored is nowadays generally acknowledged by educators. This doesn't mean that the parent must turn teacher or try to make an encyclopedia of himself by studying to keep ahead of Junior's Jun-ior's questions. Bright children usually need |