Life — January 17, 1901 — page 14: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

The Training of Parents. TPE training of parents is much neg- ~ lected. It is apt to be overlooked, not only by the parents themselves, but by the children, who are busy with other—per- haps more important—things, Yet we not but believe that if children really knew—if this could be brought home to them in the right way—the importance of training their parents early, much more might be accomplished. By the time they are old enough to have found their parents out, they themselves (alas!) are well on the road to the same end. The sad part is not that the children are jnvariably right; but it is that they are in most cases obliged to yield, just because the parent has learned certain superficial tricks which turn the balance of power in his favor. A parent can talk more or less persuasively, and by long practice in the art of dissimulation knows how to work upon a child and make him do the thing which he is much better able than the parent to decide about. ol Parents need looking after—now, perhaps more than ever. ‘There are too many theories about education nowadays for a An Ill-Balanced Preacher. HE REVEREND MR. PETERSON, of Deep River, Con- necticut, is reported to have preached a funeral sermon on December 28th, in which he assured his hearers that one might say with certainty that the deceased had landed in hell. In our opinion Mr. Peterson went somewhat too far, and, indeed, e: for hell itself is no longer a sure thing. But his general dispositions seem to have leaned in the right dirce- tion, for the prevalent habit in speaking of the departed is to leave out the most interesting things that could be said about them and disclose nothing but commonpl Mr. Peterson certainly did not fall into that error, But he leaned too far the other way, and if his example was followed it would alienate folks from being buried at all, or at least from having funerals, which would be con- trary to the convenience and present tastes of society, ‘ Tit for Tat. MANHATIAN : I wonder why it is that so many society women go on the stage. Broapway: Perhaps it is because they are crowded out by the actresses that marry into society. child to go abroad with any degree of safety. He is almost sure to be lassoed with one, and the parent almost always draws. the noose. What we learn as parents we oftentimes regret, and wish it were not so firmly fastened within us-—and then we turn around and foist it upon our young ones, with idiotic conecit. But how are parents to be trained ? is the question. Children should begin young. They should also stand together. They may not hope to eradicate utterly the sophistry, the deceit, the artificiality, the injustice of the ordinary parent all at once, but they can make a, show, at least, of maintaining their own rights. Children are themselves often to blame, because they yield too casily. They do not know their own power, and having no other model before them, they try to hold their own by using the same weapons which they see their parents wielding to such effect, ‘ All men are liars,” said David, All children become so by mimic emulation. + Children should teach their parents, first, what to omit. Almost everything that is taught at present may be omitted. To appreciate this, we have only to think how much children might learn if they were not educated. Not to go to some schools is a liberal educa- tion in itself. Of course, i almost hopeless for children to do much with parents without the aid of the latter, Parents have too great a start. They have acquired too much ignorance to have it rubbed off the slate by a mere baby. This is always the penalty of stupidity. It knows too much. We parents, then, should ,co- operate with our children, and should endeavor to place ourselves in that humble attitude of receptivity which is the only way to acquire true wisdom. It is bad enough, indeed, for us to have all this slowly and laboriously learned fund of misinformation, but to hand it down raw to our offspring is a crime against nature. And we should not only guard them against learning anything from us, but we should prevent them from any outside interference. If we can only stop teaching our children, we may then rightfully con- sider that a great step in our own training has taken place. The child, left alone, will then teach himself. But this is an ideal we may never hope actually to reach, Toi Masson, “ ° aa f = THE VOICE & THE FING he loved hs vace, 7 nlas 1031 Teo grand, whee frst She heard hua Sig. That con Ste lated I mare, when Mey were beeen, ya Thad on trgagemenl (lig . * comicbooks.com