Your Child Today and Tomorrow | Page 3

BEING AFRAID
VI. THE FIRST GREAT LAW

VII. THE TRAINING OF THE WILL
VIII. HOW CHILDREN REASON
IX. WORK AND PLAY
X. CHILDREN'S GANGS, CLUBS, AND FRIENDSHIPS
XI. CHILDREN'S IDEALS AND AMBITIONS
XII. THE STORK OR THE TRUTH
XIII. THE GOLDEN AGE OF TRANSITION
XIV. HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT
XV. FREEDOM AND DISCIPLINE

ILLUSTRATIONS
THE CREATIVE IMPULSE IS BORN WITH EVERY NORMAL
CHILD
THE IMPULSE TO ACTION EARLY LEADS TO DOING
IMAGINATION SUPPLIES THIS TWO-YEAR-OLD A PRANCING
STEED
NEITHER ARE GIRLS AFRAID TO CLIMB
ONLY A GOOD REASON CAN WARRANT CALLING AN
ABSORBED CHILD FROM HIS OCCUPATION
HABITS OF CAREFUL WORK FURNISH A GOOD FOUNDATION
FOR THE WILL
WORK IS PLAY

LET THEM ROMP IN THE WINTER AS WELL AS IN SUMMER
IN THEIR GAMES THEY SHOULD LEARN TO LOSE AS WELL
AS TO WIN
DON'T FORGET HOW TO PLAY WITH THE CHILDREN
THE BOYS NEED A CHANCE TO GET TOGETHER
IN THE COUNTRY CHILDREN BECOME ACQUAINTED WITH
THE FACTS OF LIFE

YOUR CHILD TODAY AND TOMORROW

I.
YOU AND YOUR CHILD
Housekeeping, in the sense of administering the work of the household,
has been raised almost to a science. The same is true of the feeding of
children. But the training of children still lags behind, so far as most of
us are concerned, in the stage occupied by housekeeping and farming a
generation or two ago. There has, indeed, been developed a
considerable mass of exact knowledge about the nature of the child,
and about the laws of his development; but this knowledge has been for
most parents a closed book. It is not what the scientists know, but what
the people apply, that marks our progress.
"Child-study" has been considered something with which young
normal-school students have to struggle before they begin their real
struggle with bad boys. But mothers have been expected to know,
through some divine instinct, just how to handle their own children,
without any special study or preparation. That the divine instinct has
not taught them properly to feed the young infant and the growing child
we have learned but slowly and at great cost in human life and

suffering; but we have learned it. Our next lesson should be to realize
that our instincts cannot be relied upon when it comes to understanding
the child's mind, the meaning of his various activities, and how best to
guide his mental and moral development.
Mistakes that parents--and teachers--make in dealing with the child's
mind are not often fatal. Nor can you always trace the evil effects of
such mistakes in the later character of the child. But there can be no
doubt that many of the heartbreaks, misunderstandings, and
estrangements between parents and children are due to mistakes that
could have been avoided by a knowledge of the nature of the child's
mind.
There are, fortunately, many parents who arrive at an understanding of
the nature of the child through sympathetic insight, through quick
observation, through the application of sound sense and the results of
experience to the problems that arise. It is not necessary that all of us
approach the child in the attitude of the professional scientist; indeed, it
is neither possible for us to do so, nor is it desirable that we should. But
it is both possible and desirable that we make use of the experience and
observations of others, that we apply the results of scientific
experiments, that we reënforce our instincts with all available helps.
We need not fall into the all-too-common error of placing
common-sense and practical insight in opposition to the method of the
scientists. Everyone in this country appreciates the wonderful and
valuable services of Luther Burbank, and no one doubts that if his
method could be extended the whole nation would benefit in an
economic way. Yet Burbank has been unable to teach the rest of us
how to apply his shrewd "common-sense" and his keen intuition to the
improvement of useful and ornamental plants. It was necessary for
scientists to study what he had done in order to make available for the
whole world those principles that make his practice really productive of
desirable results. In the same way it is well for every parent and every
teacher--everyone who has to do with children--to supplement good
sense and observation with the results of scientific study.
On the other hand, there is no universal formula for the bringing up of

children, one that can be applied to all children everywhere and always,
any more than there is a universal formula for fertilizing soil or curing
disease or feeding babies. Yet there are certain general laws of child
development and certain general principles of child training which have
been derived from scientific studies of children, and which agree with
the best thought and experience of those who