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Show Children Not Naturally Destructive. Be gentle with the child who smashes his toys. The fault is not' his, but yours, who provided him with toys too complicated for his immature little mind to understand. Dottoressa Maria Montessori, in her lecture at Carnegie hall, said little children were not naturally destructive, as most parents par-ents had reason to suppose, but that the instinct to pull the object to pieces was the only natural thing for a child to do with something it did not understand. Most toys given to children are too complicated, Doctor Montessori asserted. "Instead of expecting children to amuse themselves with toys they do not understand, mothers should assume as-sume more responsibility for their children's entertainment," she continued. contin-ued. "The mother who drives her child away from her side when she is working makes a pitiful mistake. It is impossible to estimate the effect upon the child's mind if he were never turned away, if he could always be sure of sympathy and understanding understand-ing from the person he loves most of all." |