Observations

Northern Advocate, 3 June 1939, Page 1 (Supplement)

Observations

J WAS very interested in an article which I read during the week, dealing with a conference of American teachers who discussed among other things: “Religious and social ideals held in homo, school and community, and their effect upon the (Child,” The comments of the teachers, though applied particularly to the American child, have equal applicability to the child in New Zealand, where the same problems present themselves. My readers may therefore be interested as I was in the observations of teachers at the conference. * / "W E must realise that true freedom is gained through recognising and mastering limitations,” said Miss Lucy Gage, one of the conference leaders. She said that America was a land of vast opportunity. Everything seemed unlimited. What kind of control were they going to emphasise in order to work out a genuine freedom? They must get hold of how to free the child, for he wasn’t free to grow normally unless he had right control in home, school, and neighbourhood, a “framework” in which to work.

by “The Man on the Look-Out.”

T he totalitarian state was all con-

trol, But the danger in America was that things were let go uncon-

trolled. The order, or control, in a

democracy must come from the people,

not the State, and the child must be helped to build, his own right limitations, and work through them to freedom in its real sense.

JJISS Gage said she didn’t know of

anything finer than a child facing the limitations of a piece of material and working out a result. And it was for teachers to learn what kinds of limitations the child can face, which at each stage of his growth would enable him through mastery to gain increasing freedom.

faith with the child “liv-

ing honestly” before him both by teachers and parents, was another point discussed. For normal unfoldment the child must have a sense of security, built up through a confidence in those closest to him and a feeling that he “belongs.”

“J>UT our ‘living honestly before

him.” Miss Gage said, “must be done from the child’s point of view. Children are very literal. The adult world is full of compromises, but children do not understand compromise.

A promise must be Imp! exactly as made, if wo are to help the child keep his faith in our integrity.

“ we brave enough to face every kind of issue with a child?” she challenged. “Are we strong enough to make ourselves uncomfortable to the extent of facing facts with him?”

CONFLICTING stories as to what had

happened to a child’s kitten, all of the stories lies, were cited as an example of the way a child’s sense of security is sometimes broken down. His questions on fundamental issues, when given, need to be answered by parent and teacher with honesty and understanding, giving him “the information that will just take care of his experience at that stage of his development.” it was pointed out.

TjET us be true to each situation,”

Miss Gage urged. “Let the child get the full force of it, but take care of him as ho gets it. This is the only way. Lies and ‘softening’ make it easier at the moment for the adult, but they are, in the long run, at the expense of the child.”

r HO, with experience of children

will deny the truth of the observations to which reference has been made? I, for one, will not.