LEARNING POISE

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 54, Issue 32620, 12 September 1945, Page 2

LEARNING POISE

TIWO LITTLE GIRLS TASKS FOR INFANT TEACHERS Lilias was an unfortunate youngster. An only child, .she had a ' piayroom and dozens of expensive toys, but her father was dead and her mother had other interests, with the result that Lilias was- starving for companionship. Impulsive and warmhearted, when she first enrolled as a pupil in a city infants school she went wild with delight. So boisterous was she and so demonstrative, that it must be admitted that she was a. nuisance. In her desire to revel in companionship she broke up the groups she was so eager to join. Fortunately the infant mistress, a woman of twenty years experience, through whose hands hundreds of new entrants had passed, sized Lilias up from the outset. In her nature she was loveable and she did so want to be liked, to be accepted as a full member of the juvenile community she had just entered. Although her conduct, seemed forward, .she was bidable and anxious to. please. Therefore, she was never reproved, but was kindly reminded of two rules “walk, don’t run”, and “talk quietly”. Tactful, kindly and often humorous comments on her behaviour were well received and very soon, such is the unconscious adaptation of little girls, she was matching her manners and her activities with those of her fellow pupils. She had, in other words, acquired the poise or balance needful to the harmony of a room containing thirty others. She was intelligent and rapidly made good her leeway in regard to the three Rs. but an educationist would have regarded her social progress as far and away the most valuable thing she had gained from her schooling. Ada, unlike Lilias, was shy, she would most likely remain retiring all her life. There was a tendency for her to keep too much to herself. Uncorrected her disposition might have produced a personality solitary and selfcentered. The problem of giving Ada social poise was more difficult than that of giving it to Lilias. Partly, the class-room routine solved it. More than half her time Ada found herself teaming .up as one of a little group. She could be quietly and pleasantly sociable with three or four, whereas the whole class of thirty drove her into her shell. But. in spite of her reticence she was brought, out. She recited very well with a natural fecility of expression and, judiciously seizing the opportune moment, the infant mistress got her as one of a number to say her piece. The ordeal didn’t prove so terrible after all, and the .honest applause of class-mates was pleasing. Ada, still quiet, gained a measure of self-pos-session which, in her case, was the foundation of poi.se. Though still retiring, she was learning a way in which, when and if need be, to play her part in social life.