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Waikato Times, Volume 100, Issue 16748, 15 March 1926, Page 6

Dr. O'Brien, of Christchurch, gave a timely warning in an address to the Conference of Rotarians at Duncdin last week. He said that a mother had come to him with.a child (o have its eyes tested. He-had found nothing wrong with the girl's eyes, and the mother, in conversation, had then told him that the girl was very slow in her lessons. She was, indeed, only in the. Some class as her sister, who was two years younger. This information moved the doctor to ask further questions. Ho supposed Maggie, wc shall say, was often told that Mary was much the smarter child. The mother agreed that that was so. "And 1 suppose father also rubs it in, and that Maggie has come, lo imagine that she is quite a duffer." Mother again agreed. "Is there anything that Maggie can do?" asked the. doctor. The mother admitted that Maggie, was very useful about the house—that, she. could make the beds, and so on. "Well," said Ihc doctor, "why don't you praise her, and keep on praising litr for this. I will tell you; if you allow the girl to gel the impression that she cannot do anything, when she reaches the age of about 11 she wilt probably run away." Then the mother hung her head, and said that, .Maggie had already done this once. The parting advice from the doctor to the mother was to go home and praise her girl for the good work she could do, and not to hold her up lo ridicule because she was not as good a scholar as Mary. Later in his address In-. O'Brien wanted lo know why gjcis reaching the age of puberty were taught algebra, Euclid, and rubbish of that sort inslead of flic principles of motherhood.