Orleans County Monitor

DON'T PUSH THE CHILD.
There is no more important part in
the work of wise training, than the
holding back a good and a bright
child from over study and from over
interest in study. The better and
brighter the child, the greater the
danger in this direction. And the
more the parents of a child value
knowledge, and delight in intellectual
attainments and progress, the larger
their liability to err in over stimulating
that child in the pursuit of
knowledge. There are; doubtless,
children who need a strong pressure
to make them study at all; but the
parents of such children are least
likely to exert that pressure, and such
children are themselves least likely
to be affected by the pressure.
When parents are pleased and proud
that their children are at the head of
their classes, that they have high
"marks," and that they win prizes
at school, then there is danger to the
children. The children of such parents
commonly need holding back
rather than pushing ahead in their
studies. It requires some courage,
it is true, and some self denial also,
for a parent to see his neighbor's
children going ahead of his child.
winning praise and honors that a
little pressure on his child might
secure to that child; but not to exercise
that courage and that self denial
is often a wrong to the child, and is
likely to prove a cause of bitter regret
by and by. This is a real practical
evil, one that is most prevalent
in the better class of families, and
that is operative chiefly against the
more deserving class of children. It
is pre-eminently an error in America,
where almost everything runs to
high pressure; yet it is not unknown
elsewhere. Prof. Huxley has said
pungently: "The educational abomination
of desolation of the present
day is the stimulation of the people
to work at high pressure by incessant
competitive examinations. Some
wise man (who probably was not an
early riser) has said of early risers
in general, that they are conceited
all the forenoon and stupid all the
afternoon. Now whether this is true
of early risers in the common acceptance
of the word or not, I will
not pretend to say; but it is too often
true of the unhappy children who
are forced to rise too early in their
classes. They are conceited all the
forenoon of life, and stupid all its
afternoon. The vigor and freshness
which should have been stored up for
the purposes of the hard struggle
for practical life, have been wasted
out of them by precocious mental
debau chery, by book gluttony and
lesson bibbing." Bright children
need curbing rather than spurring in
the school race. Many a parent
looks well to the duty of stimulating
his child in study. Parents do not.
so commonly as they should, consider
the duty of holding their children
back from a high standing and successful
effort in school competitions.
—Sunday School Times.