FUTURE OF THE CHILD

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 190, 13 August 1931, Page 9

FUTURE OF THE CHILD

LIFE IN THE COMMUNITY. IS IT TAUGHT FOR THAT? Every child should be a Communist from the beginning. Naturally, in this context I do not speak of * political Communism, which being a matter of P°llcy, justice, and expediency, is for the consideration of adults only, writes Mary E. Richmond, in “National Education.” 1 speak of tho capacity of living rightly aud happily in a commur ity. We are all born in this kind of Communism. Are we educating our children wisely so that they may enjov its privileges, and fulfil its duties? Our most advanced educationalists seem to be all on the side of freedom, self assertion, and individualism in education; they understand the perils of a rigid system, and are out to avoid them. “Let the child develop from within, and don’t frustrate him,” they say. But there is a catch in this, as in every general maxim. The child is a bundle of opposite tendencies, and cot: tradictory elements. Hn is full of social and anti-social possibilities, and be comes a blessing or a curse to himself and to society, according to which side of his nature prevails. Here is where ) think the “go as you please” policy in education fails, in the opening of life the self-regarding faculties are. and must be, the strongest. They operate automatically to protect the individual, thp push of the self is powerful and absorbing. This is normal and wholesome, hut there is more in the child than thi>. He is born for self-development, but he is also born for the development of the life of others. The present pressure of education on the side of self-assertion, is no doubt valuable and necessary, but there is the community to be thought of. as well as the individual. It is well to remember tho child must be trained to bo fit and happy to live with his folioWs from the very beginning. A lively, healthy child will bite and slap his mother, ami qrab and break everything he can Jay hands on, unless ho is taught gentle BOSS. A soothing word and touch, will turn the biting ami slapping to love and caresses. The destructive impulse which arises from a natural desire to understand, things, may bo modified first into a respect for objects. The

baby should be modified first into a re spect for objects. The baby should b • taught while still in arms to touch everything with one finger. This enables him to investigate without hurting the things that arouse his interest. Ami later on, the destructive impulse will be sublimated and become construc-tivu and creative purpose. But. to imagine these beneficient transformations will take place without help from the educator is in most instances untrue. In the extreme youth suggestion begins to operate and ‘he | subconscious is trained through gentle, reticent physical ways. Modesty ar.d beauty of movement is learned, or may be learned, long before the child can speak. Love and kindness is also inculcated in the same unconscious fashion. It is not for nothing a mother naturally caresses her baby, and asks fo ra return in kind. A rightly nurtured infant comes into possession of himself with a richly stored subconsciousness, full oi blind social impulses. These form a protective “aura” and guard him fro’n evil, individual and social . But parents, nurses and educators must realise this, they must hold in their own minds ideas of discipline and order, ami by “yes and no” from the start help tho little ones to choose the social way. We live in a contradictory age. On the one hand, individual freedom runs riot; on the other, the Trades I nions lay down the law rigidly for all their members —seek to control the whole body politic, when a Labour govern ment is in office. How can education hope to reconcile these opposing forces. What is her proper function in a world like ours? I think the only way is, as I have said, to teach the child how to live in. a community from the, start. That means ho must bo trained in service and self-denial from babyhood. In all life something must be denied. No man woman or child can fulfil all the impulses of nature at once; a choice between various impulses must be made, one chosen and the others set aside be fore action is possible. To day we certainly need to cultivate the social impulses—love, consideration, and respect for others. J submit that education leaning far too much to individualism, ito separateism. Self-expression and i self-assertion are disintegrating orees. |ln families these qualities make tor quarrels, in social life thev make for false class divisions, and civil strife. Ln nations they foster aggressiveness, accentuate misunderstandings, cause recrimination and ultimately war. These perils must be countered by the school teachers and parents, and there is.no wav to do it but by teaching sympathy, service and self-denial from the beginning The service must bo social, ..nd the self denial personal. The child should be a Communist from the beginning. As time passes the pleasure and aptness for service grows, while the pain of self-denial fades and lessens, till somehow, at the last, the two are sublimated in the highest and fullest form of self-expression.