TO-MORROW VERSUS TO-DAY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 139, 15 June 1931, Page 11

TO-MORROW VERSUS TO-DAY

TEACHING CHILDREN SELF-RELIANCE. Ju the course of a very thoughtful address to the New Zealand Women Teachers’ Association the other day Miss E. Andrews, of New Plymouth, spoke of teaching—or it might be more correctly said the failure to teach—-self-reliance in the schools. It is a remarkable fact, Miss Andrews said, in connection with our treatment of children that the very virtue which is extolled as one of the fundamentals of a happy, healthy baby-hood—self-reliance—is tho one which usually is the most quickly destroyed in after life. We see in adolescents and in tho adults the result of the wrong viewpoint given to chi’ "ren, of the creation of a feeling of dependence on outside stimuli for all pleasure and entertainment, of tho destruction of enjoyment in simple things. Wo appear to have developed a horror of being alone, a lack of contentment in one’s own company, a fear of the inadequacy of one’s own thoughts. Cur pleasures are artificial when they might bo natural, costly when they might bo free. We need to bring to new life our taste for simplicity, to cultivate our sense of appreciation of Nature’s gifts, Io go out in the fields and listen, and feel, and live. A baby depends on his ten toes for most of his amusement and entertainment. He is independent of tho rest of the world, he is sufficient unto himself. Alone ho learns to walk. Alone ho learns to talk. Then wo step in and begin to undermine tho rock of independence and self-reliance upon which his babyhood has been built. He cau hardly crawl before we want him to stand, hardly stand before wo urge hin to walk. We surround him with toys, we give him all kinds cf artificial stimuli, wo rob him > f his contentment with simplicity. Ho fights for his independence. Mud-pies have never lost their charm for children; and who has not met the child who goes to sleep night after night with arms clasped round a battered rag doll, while the expensive wax beauty lies neglected in a cupboard? But we persevere—wo de our best to create in. his heart an appreciation for pleasure, a dependence on outside stimulus, and often he comes to school at five with marred for life. e rs i/ii 11 ' x;;! 1 * 111: