A MOTHERS’ MEETING NEW STYLE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17038, 11 May 1923, Page 4

A MOTHERS’ MEETING NEW STYLE.

(By DOROTHY PENROSE.) A company of women were gathered round the inevitable teapot, discussing the extent.- to which one can. be influenced by what one reads, and the extent of a mother’s duty in supervising her children’s reading. 1 doy't believe books have nearly so much influence as is generally thought,” said one. “ Look at ‘ 'Phis Freedom.’ I doubt if any mother has given up her Ojutside work- and interests through reading it. And yet the moral couldn’t have been put more clearly.” *• Ah there’s the rub!” exclaimed another. “ Don’t you tiling it was put too clearly? The consequences were exaggerated. Most women would agree that it was ridiculous for tragedy to follow, because the mother went to business! Aly theory is that books do not influence us. but only when we are unconscious of it. That’S why I don't think it’s a bit of good giving children books with an obvious good moral. AA hen they are influenced, it is indirectly and often inexplicably. A'oti cannot force good impressions on them b good books, or guard them from bad ones, apart, of course, from ruling out quite impossible subjects.” ' I agree with that,” said a third woman. “ AA'hen I was young, my parents were determined to shield me from the knowledge of suffering in the world. AA’hen my small heart was saddened by the story of Joan of Arc they told me her death wouldn’t be very painful ns she would be qnic-klv suffocated by the smoke. Then I read Chambers’ * Cardigan ' a book children love and at the end. when a man was burned at the stake, 1 found the phrase ‘ It took .him the whole long summer’s afternoon to die.’ Something in that phrase seized on me. and it has haunted me ever since. “That’s it.” said one of the others. “ You can't keep everything from :i child, and the things that will have an effect on tlie mind can’t be foretold. Apart from careful watching and ruling out utterly unsuitable stuff. I think that we must leave it to luck.”