Ideals of the ChildBy Sidonie Matzner Gruenberg(American Contemporary. From “Your Child To-day and To-morrow.”)
By Sidonie Matzner Gruenberg
(American Contemporary. From “Your Child To-day and To-morrow.”)
We should make a special effort to discover our children’s ideals, for several reasons. First of all, by knowing what the girl or boy has nearest the heart we shall be able to enter into closer sympathy with the child, we shall be able to understand much of the conduct that would otherwise baffle as well as annoy us....
It is very easy to ridicule the ideals and ambitions of children when they seem to us too high flown or futile. But a person’s ideals stand too close to the center of his character to be treated so rudely. It is better to ignore the many trifling flights of fancythat are not likely to have any permanent effect, and to throw the child into circumstances that will force the emergence of more deep-seated or far-reaching ambitions.