Salt Lake Telegram | 1931-04-16 | Page 20 | Your Children

YOUR CHILDREN Are we whitewashing life to th the children Yes we we are and were we're no not fooling anybody but but ourselves Certainly Certainly Certainly we ve are not fooling them And all the time we are so prim prim- prudish and about what they hear what they read what we tell them their eyes are wide open and their ears too and dont don't think they ore are missing a a. thing We are helping them hem with this liberal education with our left hands at the same time we weare weare weare are censoring their books with our right S SAnd And just how are arc we helping with I this his backdoor educating By Dy ref refusing using to acknowledge present day And when we refuse to acknowledge acknowledge ac- ac knowledge anything it is It dangerous business We have to face things admit they are there if we dont don't want wan dire things to happen Present life must be a good Joke to toe e children They read tead in their hell boo books 1 about bout such people as Lincoln and Florence Nightingale and Livingston Livingston Livington Living- Living ston ton and King Arthur That Is fine and nd as it should be Idealism flee Ice and courage incarnate in these They close these books and hear jokes okes about bootleggers hear their older kier brothers or relatives talk wild parties and even help to prepare for them hem at home They hear the scandals scan- scan dais dals als next door discussed They read the daily dally news acidly idly for or news must be printed even if it isn't flavored with attar of roses Again many children live In a n sort I of f artificial atmosphere of trying to impress Nothing matters to some I families except to keep up front By I I all means front must be kept up The social lie is 15 part of or that front and the he children help Where Is Lincoln now That book is lying ling on the table able These children are of life in life mixed up with real life in 1931 yet we stick our noses in the clouds and pretend that the only influences at work in their young lives are Sunday school the moral tales in their readers read read- ers ers and the nice biographies biographies' we bought for them so carefully at Christmas These three will do the work and make them good good chil chil- dren then What then should we do Fill their minds with sordid things No No we are spared the trouble I dont don't mean that the minds of dren ren are sordid I merely mean that growing children are arc pretty wise and mow know enow a a bit about the textures of ot life much more than we think We dont don't talk to them enough about bout real things or help them to see matters clearly or select their val val- ues es We should teach them to think critically but not unkindly about facts acts and not build a a. card house of dreams reams