THE EDUCATION OF YOUR CHILD

Grey River Argus, 14 March 1940, Page 9

THE EDUCATION OF YOUR CHILD

By

H.C.D. SOMERSET.

• (Community Centre, Feilding). ON TELLING THE TRUTH. In every field of human thought there is a continual search for truth: every little bit of real progress iepresents a victory of truth over falsehood. Out beyond the litt’e world of mon the Universe is unimag nably tiue to its own law. Wo cannot think of the stars 'n their courses deviating for one moment. This recalls to me a drawing I once saw in a humorous paper. An Irish guide was standing with a patty or tourists awaiting the sunrise at J/aitop of the Giant’s Stairway. The artist had drawn the gu de with one eve on his watch and the otii. r on , .o horizon, and saying, “Ii it doom hurry up it’ll be la-ate.” The humour of the incident lies in the impossibnit.) of the sun ever being late and in intact that we arc only too prone to project our own fallib’fity to som thing outside ourselves. The aim ° -. ,:;enc.- ha.- been, in the past, to discover the laws upon which Nature works: in other words, its alm search for truth.. Science has becparticularly successful in this search, and we daily reap th? benefit of -t-> findings. A motor car that works u a bundle of eternal laws each truthfully working out its mcvitab c Destiny ■» Physical and Mental Science.

But science deals with phenomena that can be isolated and studjed separately. In the mental and moral realm in which human beings Lve, the search for truth is by no means easy. We live among a complex ot forces that are changing with time. We have to be alert, therefore, and live to the full strength of our powers. An v dependence on out-worn ideas is apt to lead us astray. And. truth cannot be given to us by anyone: as Ruskin put it the corn must be thrashed out from the ear, every man for himself.

Action and Reaction.

A few weeks ago, in describing the human instincts, I tried to show that any system of education, to be elective, must use our instinctive energy for its purpose. We must recognise our instmets and use them in the nurture of the human spirit. But this spirit cannot grow in a vacuum, and the child soon becomes a member ot a society whose peculiar forces act and react upon him.

Honest Answers to Honest Questions.

In order to prepare your child for his entry intn the larger world of tne school and of the community in which you live, you cannot do better than ty to preserve intact ffis reverence for truth. You do not need to teach y our children the truth: they are Jar more truthful than adults, as jou have often found out when visitms are present! It is absolutely neces sary always to be straightforward and ruggedly openhearted with children. If a child can frame a question it deserves an honest answer. *At no stage in our child’s development must you ever turn his questions aside with a falsehood.

A Definite Training in Lying.

Worse than falsehood in an answer, however, is the definite training in lying that parents often give their children. I have always trusted children in my dealings with them and can honestly say that I hav never had a lie from them unless they had been definitely told ‘ lie Many of you will doubt tms statement—but. if you consider the number of times adults say, Now mind, if Mr So-and-So asks you—. sav .” And then follows a slight tv cream-coloured deviation from the truth, you will realise what a devastating effect it can have on the im presfionable child. He begins to see that there is a simple way out of and before long his sense of truth is lost. And when he has ne»come a thorough-going young the misguided parent JS Prphe timentalise over the whole affair-a process which leaves h:rn worse Mt than before. Much trouble could be avoided if all parents and teachers realised that we must be greatly truwith children, simply because the stars in their courses are true, as Afarlyle put it long ago. Imagination. So much for this type of lie that, represents a deviation from observed fact There is, however, another aspect of child life that needs careful attention. The child lives m a world where imagination plays a large part. It plays a large part in your adult life also, but you differ from your child in that you know where tact ends and fancy, begins. But the child does not. He lives in the here and now, and the outside fringes of his horizon blend away into the land o faerv. He can enter this enchanted realm at will, and bring its treasures to your wondering ear. Every adult should read Kenneth Graham’s ‘The Golden Age” and “Dream Days, to understand this point of view fully. These fantastic adventures are as real to your child as your next meai is to you, and they should be accepted as real. If vou can remember your own childish “excursions into the unknown you are doubly fortunate for you Will share them quite naturally with vour boy or girl. And who knows that these kingdoms of fancy are not more real than our own factual world? Poets have thought su. ! Shakespeare found no aifficulty m sflitting5flitting from one to the other m tween the acts of a play. It is t sence of poetry to become as littis children. Yet I have known parents who were alarmed at the natural imagination of their children—and confused it /yW their own clumsy attempts at'falsehood! Childrens Questions. The subject of truthfulness towards children is so important that I hopnto devote this column next week to a consideration of some “Children’s Questions.”