THE MODERN CHILD

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 150, 29 June 1928, Page 5

THE MODERN CHILD

FREEDOM TO DEVELOP ■ VOICES .FROM'[THE PAST (From "Th# Post's" Representative.) ..LONDON, 16th May. Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll, a daughter of thq late Queen Victoria and aunt of King George, made an impromptu speech on the training of children at the annual meeting of. the Church of England Wait's and Strays Society. She said: . . "I-.just.'■want-ell to say how.much Padmire and respect the work of the society's homes.- The teachers, in them lay the foundation stones, of'character, in the children.' They have a wonderful power in the moulding of these youiig souls. Lucidly the habit of moulding all 'children to the same pattern has gone out of fashion. I.fc was deplorable, I know, because 1 suffqr.cd ff'om it. Nowadays, individuality and one's own capabilities arc recognised." .', ... . .-,.' ' Considerable' interest has been aroused by these-r.ejparks, so feelingly made. Commenting on her .own upbringing:, Lady Islington says: "My own experience in childhood was that one had to bo cast oil a uniform pattern with other children. ' It was, of course,' always taught that little girls should be seen and not. heard. Questions were severely discouraged geu'erally, I am certain, because the grown-up did not know tlie answers to them. This.new-found freedom for children is all a step in the right direction. The success of public schools is remarkable, yet.tlm very charge always levelled against them is that they repress all individuality. It is curious that the thing which attracts people to a'public schoolboy m after life is individuality. The point to remember above all else is that one must have discipline. Without ■ discipline a child or a person will go to pieces."