Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB
[merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

AN EXPLANATION

IN preparing this little volume, the author has merely collected and enlarged upon a few notes, which she has used in her afternoon talks to mothers. We trust that the lack of logical order may be overlooked by those who chance to read these pages with a critical eye, as they perceive that this is primarily a message from one busy mother to other busy mothers who must do their thinking to the accompaniment of household activities. The thoughts herein presented can boast only a chronological order, accordingly as they were originated before breakfast, or after, while the vegetables were being cleaned, or during the occupation of dishwashing, while garments were being made or mended.

Had our object, in giving this simple account of how the "scientific vision" has helped us, been merely to write something "interesting," we should have awaited a time of greater leisure.

Our only excuse for offering so indifferent results in our treatment of a great theme (accomplished by intermittent snatches of the pen at

intervals between interruptions) is the realization of a great need. We are being urged to help to hasten the awakening to this need, even though we can only raise an incoherent voice in doing so.

This need is for mothers to see that they, more than any other class of persons, are engaged upon the great problems of world democracy that are occupying the minds of statesmen at this particular time. Our object is not only to offer a working hypothesis, or an hypothesis that has worked in the face of practical and familiar difficulties, that we ourselves may find an easy way of escape from the harassing perplexities of our relations to children. (Though in this instance, we believe that the scientific way is pre-eminently the Christian way, and that the words of Christ, "My yoke is easy and my burden is light," are surcharged with meaning to the mother who is puzzled as to how to "get along with children.") Our object in these brief essays is chiefly to show that, any cross section of the child's activities, involving his relations to others, is a functional unit of the life of the great social organism.

There are still thousands upon thousands of mothers for whom the whole of parental duty and the whole of childish virtue is epitomized in the words, "Children should be made to mind."

There is nothing so tragic as the misunderstanding of childhood implied in the assumption "unwillingness to mind." And yet this assumption is supposed to be a self-evident fact. The ultimatum, "Children should be made to mind," is delivered in tones of finality. It is supposed to thrust without the pale of inquiry those who are inclined to doubt that the subject is exhausted by this statement.

A young man wished to have the words, "From Charles to dear Mildred," engraved upon an engagement ring. The jeweler, being a waryminded man, offered some advice based upon long observation of similar affairs. He said: "Young man, do not have 'From Charles to dear Mildred' engraved upon this ring; I advise you to have instead, 'To my first and only love.' Then if necessary you could use it upon other occasions."

The phrase, "Children should be made to mind," is so fixed in the average mind that one must almost suppose it to have been forged in the medieval subconsciousness and engraved by tradition as a motto to fit all occasions. And so we find it doing, no matter how false its application, in view of variously specific and differing principles and sacredly personal elements involved.

Perhaps we may get directly at the heart of the

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »