THE FREEDOM OF THE CHILD.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17462, 13 February 1925, Page 9

THE FREEDOM OF THE CHILD.

(.By A TEACHEU.) The emancipated schoolboy or girl will soon be a thing of the past. Only those who hare been in bondage can experience the loosening of bonds. And we are doing away with bonds in these days. Young people are allowed too much freedom nowadays,” say those of the "old school. “ AVe had to obey our parents and teachers when 1 was young.” We did. And we were, many of us, like the garden plant which has grown up in company with a stout stake—we toppled to the ground when the stake was removed. There can scarcely bo anyone living who has not seen the evil.! w hie Ft result directly from tli© 6kl gvSten* of education, both at home and at- school. The etijkl who Iras dictated to* as **> h-ws gOfrig out and coming fe. Was,when he arrived at a time of life" when v f he should use his own judgment, found j to be Jacking in judgment. Parents who arc always imposing their own ideas and judgments on their children do them the greatest wrong. They rob them of that power to think and act independently which is absolutely necessary to the healthv life and development of the individual". Teachers, as well as parents, have erred in this matter. Many teachers, even now, are not only content but eager to act as thinking machines for their pupils. These teachers produce the child who. with its exercise book open in front of it, asks: “Please, shall I have room to do it here, or shall I go on a neAv page P’ * This sort of child makes in time the kind of man or woman tvho does not know his or her own mind—the kind of hopeless person who lets others make his decisions and then quarreis with the clecisions when they are made. What we need to give to our children is the freedom to think and judge and decide for themselves. This is being done in many schools and in a few homes. ,In the schools we find froedom beginning its work of cha.raoter-training. Children are told what they have to do and are allowed to do their work when and how they will. T'hev are beginning to learn, even in the kindergarten, that their teachers cannot think for them, but that they must think and judge and decide for themselves. Schools are throw ing a wav the props of a spurious discipline. * They are training the child at last to be his OAvn master so that his coming liberty may not be to him a means of bondage, the slavish following of the dictates of an unformed character.