Children, like the young of all animals, are imitative,
and if they can only be started right in the journey
of life they will be saved much trouble, mortification,
and suffering in later years. One writer has said,
"The time to begin tO' train a child is before it is born."
A mother once asked a clergyman when must she
begin to educate her child. ''How old is he?" asked
the clergyman. "Three years," replied the mother.
"Then you have already lost three years," was the
answer. Easy and graceful manners come by having
good and refined training early in life. In the colored
race there is a great tendency on the part of some
mothers to be cross and impatient. When they should
take their children into their hearts and listen to their
complaints and console them, they drive them away.
And you will often hear this, "Go on away. I am
tired, I got no time to listen to your foolishness."
Children are sharp; as soon as they find their mother
will not let them open their hearts to- her they will
soon seek some one that will listen to them, but this
one thing has caused many a girl tO' fall, boys to
wander in the streets and become rascals from per-
haps no other reason than this one ; that they were not
80
loved and taken IntO' the hearts of their fathers and
mothers. An excellent plan in training children is to
listen to them talking and playing among themselves,
without their being conscious of your noticing them.
By doing this you will find just what the child has in
mind, and you will know just where to put your train-
ing ; the kind of training they need. Again, you will
hear a mother say, ''I have no patience wtith children."
How sad for any mother to say she has no patience
with her own child.
Mothers talk to your girls, teach them to keep noth-
ing from you, teach them that anything mother can-
not know), no one else has a right toi know. Mothers,
do not scold your girls when they tell you wrong
things that they have done, but love them, talk gently
to them, love them in the wrong as well as in the
right. Help them to overcome their weak points. Do
not throw their faults before them all the time. Dis-
cipline them when they need it, but be sure you do it
at the right time and in the right place. Teach them
to be neat and to be prompt about meals and any duty
they have to perform. The writer has a friend who
is grown and married who says she never can forget
an unjust punishment, she received from her mother.
She says that after her mother found out she had
punished her unjustly, she never told her that she was
sorry. Parents! need to be careful not to prejudice
their own children against themselves for such a thing
can be done.
The wise men of the world are turning their minds
toward the study of girls and boys. They know
that they are training men and women who' have to
rule the world later on. Any mother or teacher who
81
Page 33
Presented as published in 1905. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
A modernized reading is not available for this page yet. You are seeing the original text.
Children, like the young of all animals, are imitative,
and if they can only be started right in the journey
of life they will be saved much trouble, mortification,
and suffering in later years. One writer has said,
"The time to begin tO' train a child is before it is born."
A mother once asked a clergyman when must she
begin to educate her child. ''How old is he?" asked
the clergyman. "Three years," replied the mother.
"Then you have already lost three years," was the
answer. Easy and graceful manners come by having
good and refined training early in life. In the colored
race there is a great tendency on the part of some
mothers to be cross and impatient. When they should
take their children into their hearts and listen to their
complaints and console them, they drive them away.
And you will often hear this, "Go on away. I am
tired, I got no time to listen to your foolishness."
Children are sharp; as soon as they find their mother
will not let them open their hearts to- her they will
soon seek some one that will listen to them, but this
one thing has caused many a girl tO' fall, boys to
wander in the streets and become rascals from per-
haps no other reason than this one ; that they were not
80
loved and taken IntO' the hearts of their fathers and
mothers. An excellent plan in training children is to
listen to them talking and playing among themselves,
without their being conscious of your noticing them.
By doing this you will find just what the child has in
mind, and you will know just where to put your train-
ing ; the kind of training they need. Again, you will
hear a mother say, ''I have no patience wtith children."
How sad for any mother to say she has no patience
with her own child.
Mothers talk to your girls, teach them to keep noth-
ing from you, teach them that anything mother can-
not know), no one else has a right toi know. Mothers,
do not scold your girls when they tell you wrong
things that they have done, but love them, talk gently
to them, love them in the wrong as well as in the
right. Help them to overcome their weak points. Do
not throw their faults before them all the time. Dis-
cipline them when they need it, but be sure you do it
at the right time and in the right place. Teach them
to be neat and to be prompt about meals and any duty
they have to perform. The writer has a friend who
is grown and married who says she never can forget
an unjust punishment, she received from her mother.
She says that after her mother found out she had
punished her unjustly, she never told her that she was
sorry. Parents! need to be careful not to prejudice
their own children against themselves for such a thing
can be done.
The wise men of the world are turning their minds
toward the study of girls and boys. They know
that they are training men and women who' have to
rule the world later on. Any mother or teacher who
81