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Show HOME EDUCATION IS SOIL FOR RESULTS. The following article by Mary Starck Kerr appeared in the columns of the National Kindergarten association associa-tion : ''Good traits are like plants," said a woman to her husband one day when they were discussing the training train-ing of children. "Do you remember when I set out strawberry plants in our garden, and they failed to grow because the soil was too heavy for them?" The husband remembered. Haven't you seen examples of the same thing in homes where parents are trying to cultivate desirable traits in their children, but are not furnishing furnish-ing the right kind of soil ? " the wife asked. "At Mrs. Henderson's where I called this afternoon the home soil is acid with criticism and complaint, yet they are trying to teach their son courtesy and contentment. Now if "they just realized that they were furnishing fur-nishing the wrong soil for the growth of these virtues they could change it, just as the expert gardener does in some places; they could substitute praise for criticism, appreciation for complaint. In such soil, courtesy and contentment would thrive. 1 "Then some parents are trying to teach their children orderliness and promptness, when they are furnishing a soil favorable for just the opposite characteristics by surrounding them with disorder and procrastination. How can they expect system and punctuality to grow in such a soil?" "But how are you going to get the parents to realize that they are not furnishing the right soil, and how are you going to give the child the favorable favor-able kind?" asked the husband, encouraging en-couraging his wife to develop her point further. '"The school often helps to counteract counter-act the unfortunate effects of the home," said his wife. "Some of the mothers and fathers are set to thinking think-ing about it and to correcting it by their contact with the teachers and others who have1 studied the subject, and it is always a joy to see how the children respond to the change in their environment. One little fellow in my mission district developed de-veloped so rapidly ' when he was put into the right kind of soil, in the kindergarten, kin-dergarten, that his family later adopted adopt-ed some of the good methods followed by his teacher in their treatment of ,him, which still further aided in the growth of the behavior patterns they were trying to cultivate. "The church also helps, for it promotes pro-motes the growth of affection and unselfishness, the basis of all virtues. These are found in the kindergarten and in the church schools, the- latter emphasizing on Sunday what the child has been learning during the week. Parents, also, in many cases, are learning in the church schools what is expected of them in their relations to their children. Their responsibility for furnishing favorable soil for the growth of all good traits is made plain, and they set about doing so. "When they learn that sympathy and the -true understanding of ch'ld-hood ch'ld-hood are essentials for a good harvest har-vest cf desirable qualities from the seeds they are sowing, they make it their business to acquire them, for they can be obtained by setting aside selfishness, and substituting love of childhood, thoughtful study and pa-, tient endeavor." j |