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Show OUR r CHILDREN .88 By ANGELO PATRI A BROKEN DAY VTISS MARIA made oat her daily plan. After morning exercises arithmetic drill, special emphasis on minus seven. Written arithmetic-special arithmetic-special emphasis on, a man had and a man gave away with special attention at-tention to Peter and Katherlne. Period by period was carefully set down, as all good teachers set them. : Miss Maria felt the first setback of what was to be a broken day w'hen the principal escorted two Indians In-dians In full regalia to the platform. "Dear, dear, I suppose they will talk half an hour. There goes my arithmetic 'drill." They did talk a half hour and the children leaning far over the edge of their scats took In every word, war whoops and all. "Well." said Miss Maria, as the class filed Into their seats with rather more noise than usual, ''we are a little bit behind tills morning but we will work hard to make up. Row one, stand. Seven take two " : The door opened and In walked the superintendent, note book In hand, spectacles adjusted to the see-ingest see-ingest angle. "Good morning, Miss Maria. I've Just come In to see how well these children are getting along: Perhaps they would like to read for me." Miss Maria groaned In secret. This meant getting out the readers. '-Somehow- they got through the morning. The afternoon session opened In comparative calm. "I may as well try to get in the drawing draw-ing lesson. The supervisor will be along and those spring pictures aren't ready former," thought Miss Maria. "Monitors, give out drawing material." The monitors did. Bang, bang, -bang, BANG, went the rapid dismissal gongs. All out on record time, lined up In the yard for Inspection. In-spection. When the class trooped back the classroonj was a. sight. A stray breeze had wandered In and the clean white drawing sheets were Uttered about the floor. "Monitors, pick up the papers. Martha, fill the pans. . Peter, bring a fresh package of paper. We will paint spring pictures." pic-tures." . ' ' "I'll let them paint as long as they like. There's no sense In trying try-ing to stick to a schedule on a day like this," said Miss Maria to her astonished and bewildered self. That afternoon . little Clarabelle looked up at her teacher and said, "Didn't we have a good time today? to-day? Just like a party." A broken day comes as a welcome break In the child's routine. He doesn't feel as Cad about It as you do, perhaps. Anyway it is not wise to allow a routine to become so firmly set that It:cannot be broken without catas-.trophe. catas-.trophe. When it comes make the best of It. THE WEAK BROTHER "VT" ESTERDAT my JImmIe went I Into the candy store. and spent a half dollar that he had taken from my purse. He gave all the candy to two boys In his class. I find that he has been doing like this for a long time. Well, all this term. Since he has been in the class with these boys. They make him steal for them. Ee Is afraid of them. I want them locked up right away. If they are not locked up my boy will get Into serious trouble." When such a thing as that happens hap-pens to your child sit down by yourself, your-self, and think. Think the thing through. Why was It this child was selected to do the pilfering? Why was It not one of the other children? chil-dren? Why did the child not tell you about his troubles? Because he was the boy or she was the girl, ready for the job. Not that the child willed to do such a thing. It Is possible that ho never thought of It But that he was mentilly weak enough, spiritually spirit-ually weak enough, to fall under the pressure of the stronger spirits. spir-its. ! Test his physical condition. It may be that he has a hidden defect that Is lowering his vitality below the safety point Waste no time In berating the children who used the - child for their own ends. Children have no understanding of the moralities In question. Sometimes a child Is driven beyond be-yond his powers In school. The parents par-ents are so anxious to have their children shine that they push them on, make them take courses they are not fitted to take, make them try to adjust to situations for which they are mentally, socially and physically unfitted and the children worry themselves Into weakness and Illness and trouble. These things are likely to happen even when we have done our best to provide good associations for the children. Even the best neighborhood neighbor-hood produces Its wayward ones. But the weak child Is the victim every time. If he Is weak the other children chil-dren soon find It out and pick on him. They chase him and make him redeem himself with a ransom. Have the weak child examined and treated. Change 'his school. Change his associates. Say nothing noth-ing about his old' trouble. Build I him up to standard and his fear will I vanish with his weakness. J S3. Bell Syndlcato. WNU Scrvic. ' |