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Show OUR CHILDREN 8 By ANGELO PATR1 KEEPING PROMISES WHEN one makes a promise to a child one must keep It or lose the child's confidence. The loss of a child's confidence costs the ! child dearly and makes no happiness ' fur the one who was responsible. Christmas was drawing near and little Harry was excited. He got into all kinds of mischief. He discovered dis-covered new ways of being troublesome. trouble-some. New ways of getting into danger. Altogether he rode on the consciousness of his family day and night until his mother lost all patience pa-tience and said, "Listen to me, young man. You've gone just far enough. Another such exhibition as this and you get nothing for Christmas. Christ-mas. Not a thing. Santa Claus will not come to a bad boy like you." Harry seemed to consider this for a time and his mother thought she had made an impression upon his mind and that he would behave a little better. But she changed her mind about all that when the cook brought Harry into her presence and charged him with breaking every egg In the pantry and smearing smear-ing the place with the mess. "Just for fun I did it," he said. "Very welL You get nothing for Christmas." But when Christmas morning came all the present were ready and Harry enjoyed them to the full. Neither he nor his mother moth-er mentioned the threat about bad boys and Santa Claus. By and by his birthday approached ap-proached and he began the same wild antics. "Now look here, young man. If you don't behave yourself you'll get nothing for your birthday." birth-day." Harry forgot all caution. "Huh. You said that about last birthday and I got my presents. And you said It at Christmas and I got them too. I'll get them just the same.." Well, that time his mother held out and he got no presents. A sad little boy went to bed that birthday birth-day night, and a sadder mother and father. Threats are promises, and If you make them you have to keep them or have a very good reason for not doing so One that the child will accept them as true. "Be a good boy, Daniel, and go to the dentist and have that shaky tooth taken out and I'll take you to the circus," said Aunt Minnie. "Don't believe her, Dan. She told me that and never took me," said Hortense looking up from her doll's carriage toward her guilty aunt. It Is better to be slow at promising promis-ing good or 111. Before the event can happen there, are so many things likely to Interfere, so many chances for change. Anyway a surprise Is better than a promised treat. And threats are better left out of things. POOR VISION TpHOSE who would help children must have clear vision. They must see the child truly. Now there Is none among us so wise as to know the truth about a child. None to us has the true vision that sees the truth, the whole truth. The most any of us can expect to see is a glimpse of the spirit that is the child. That suggests the rest, and we according to our wisdom, must fill In the rest. It Is sad that so many well meaning mean-ing teachers and supervisors cultivate culti-vate a warped vision of childhood. They are so Intent upon redeeming the child from his errors that they fix their vision on that point and see nothing else. Have you not known the teacher who all day long kept saying, "How many had you wrong?" and when Informed of the enormity of the error, er-ror, shook her head and wrote down a failure In red ink? Have you not knowD the supervisor who examined a class to find out what the children did not know? If he finds they know one thing he drops that and goes on searching until he finds the weak spot in their knowledge. Then he dwells there measuring the extent of their Ignorance. Ig-norance. Have you not known parents par-ents who kept reminding the children chil-dren of the mistakes they had made, reciting all their poor marks, impressively im-pressively lecturing about their lack of effort, their low aim? It was but yesterday that I heard a parent say to a tine boy, "Yes, I know you have an average over 95. I know you have a 100 in three majors, I know all that. What I want to know Is why you couldn't get a high mark In music?" "Maybe it is because I'm not a musician. I can't be everything, you know, mother." "You could get an honor mark In every subject of the curriculum if you put your mind to It. I don't want any low grades. Nothing below be-low A is any good. Work up that music." Consider that. Do you Imagine for a moment that this exacting lady had made such grades in her school days? You know she did not Thb right vision sees the effort the child has made; sees the struggle strug-gle and the triumph that shines through the low rating ; sees the steady upward growth of the child who is feeling his way through the j tangled maze of school lessons and adult standards and queer regula- ! Hons. B. Bell Syndicate. WNT3 Service. |