We should never ask or want him to "put away
childish things" at this age, for these childish things are a proof of
his normality and good health. His buoyant life and good health may
prove disastrous to the furniture in his home, but far better marred
furniture than marred childhood. If, at this age, he should become as
quiet and sedate as his father, his parents and teacher would have cause
for alarm. It is the high privilege of the parent and the teacher to
direct his activities, but not to abridge or interdict them. If the
teacher would reduce him to inaction and silence, she may well reflect
that if he were an imbecile he would be quiet. He will not pass this way
again; and if he is ever to have the sort of life that is in harmony
with his age, he must have it now.
=Childhood curtailed.=--He has a right, also, to the full measure of
childhood. This period is relatively short, and any curtailment does
violence to his physiological and psychological nature. All the years of
his childhood are necessary for a proper balancing of his physical and
mental powers, that they may do their appointed work in after years.
Entire volumes have been devoted to this subject, but, in spite of these
volumes, some mothers still try to hurry their daughters into the duties
and responsibilities of adult life. One such mother went to the high
school to get the books of her fifteen-year-old daughter and, upon being
asked why the daughter was leaving school, replied, "Oh, she's keeping
company now.
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