Women’s W.E.A. Group Formed

Franklin Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 32, 22 March 1939, Page 4

Women’s W.E.A. Group Formed

PUKEKOHE BRANCH FIRST MEETING HELD INTERESTING PAPER READ There was a good attendance at the first meeting of the recently formed Women’s W.E.A. Group, representatives of the Pukekohe, Paerata, Puni, and Karaka branches of the Women’s Division, and of the Pukekohe Women’s Institute, attending. Mrs R. C. Clark was elected leader of the group, and Mrs Les Hart treasurer. It is Die purpose of the group to make a thorough study of a selection of the excellent lectures prepared by the W.E.A. for women’s organisations, thus preparing the way for the presentation of the lectures at the monthly meetings of the W.I. and W.D.

The Under-Five Child

A paper entitled “The Child Under Five,” by Mrs C. E. Beeby, M.A., was read and discussed at the March meeting of the group. In her introductory remarks Mrs Clark mentioned the experience of delegates at the first conference of the Pan Pacific Women's Association. The Conference was divided into five sections: Health, social service, education-, women in industry and professions and women in Government. This seemed to be a very varied list of subjects for discussion, yet before many days had passed one central idea emerged—that is, the importance of the very young child. Dr. Valeria Parker, leader of the United States delegation, summed it up as follows: “The young child for the first five years of life is an organism so tender, so easily damaged, so easily broken, that it needs all the care that first class intelligence can give it.” Dealing first with the importance of the early years, Mrs Beeby’s paper gives apt and striking illustrations of the truth of Dr. Parker’s statement quoted above. The needs of the young child were then unfolded, these being dealt with under the headings of security, serenity (i.e. a calm and peaceful background), routine, control, and freedom for growth. Children, said Mrs Beeby, do not like sentimentality, but they do like to feel that there is a solid wall of serene and matter-of-fact affection between them and the outside world. ' Security, for the young child, means not only the security of-a home, but also the emotional security which a home should give. The Need for Love

A striking example (from Dr. Susan Isaacs) of the need for love in the early years is given. Dr. Isaacs describes how a group of adolescent girls who had been sent to a reform school, | were for several years given the best j possible treatment that experts in both bodily and mental ills could provide. At the end of the period it was Jjpund that only half of the girls had benefitted enough from the treatment to be able to return to their homes and live normal honest lives. The ; experts tried to find why their treatment had failed with the rest of the girls, and they finally discovered that there was one thing in common to all of them, aJack of love in the first three years of life. Some were illegitimate, others were orphans and the remainder had suffered from cruel or neglectful parents. ! Under the heading of routine, Mrs , Beeby states that every child needs a : .background of regularity and routine to his life. He likes to feel that things go on in an orderly rhythm, . ard this should be provided for him i by his parents, though it is a mistake to expect him to conform to this rou- ! tine too soon. Exercise of Control In the section headed “Control,” I there is given an admirable statement j ! of modern educational theory. Some people, Mrs Beeby states, seem to imagine that bringing up a child in the so-called ‘modern’ way means letting him do exactly as he likes. Any sensible person knows I hat this is impos- j siblc. and knows also that the child is not happy unless he feels that there is some control over him. Little children have strong violent emotions which they have not yet learned to control, and they are unhappy if left to the mercy of these intense feelings. Later on they learn to control themselves. but in the early years they } need the help of their parents. This does not mean that a child should be prevented from doing all the normal, happy, messy things that young children want to do, or that we should be perpetually saying “Don't” to them. But it is unwise to let any young child feel that the destructive, violent feellings inside him are stronger than he is.

Finally Mrs Beeby deals with freedom for growth, which is, perhaps the greatest need of all. Although the child needs to feel that he is safely tucked into the family circle, he also needs to feel that he is free to grow', and adventure out of it as his powers develop. The kind of tucking in that is necessary at three, he will And stifling at thirteen. The new-born baby is absolutely dependent on its parents. The adult should be com-

Parents Must Help pletely independent of the parents, and able to face life by himself. It is our job as parents to help the child to grow from complete dependence to complete independence. Various ways in which even the toddler may be helped towards independence are given, the paper ending with the admonition that perhaps the most important thing to remember, in this difficult job of bringing up children, is i that successful parenthood depends on our attitude of mind rather than upon any rigid observance of rules. A programme for the next three meetings of the group has been arranged as follows: Thursday, April 20, talk by Mrs T. Bloodworth, on child welfare work; May meeting, a paper on childhood endowment; June meeting, a paper on the economic status of women.