MRS. C. L. STONE by MRS. C. L. STONE

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 24, 1915

MRS. C. L. STONE

By MRS. C. L. STONE

Training in Habits of Order and Helpfulness — No. 5

MRS. C. L. STONE

My observation in teaching hundreds of children convinces me that children are interested most in doing the thing they know how to do well. No person, either adult or child, enjoys doing a thing which he does not know how to do, and which, though he do his best, must still be done in a bungling fashion.

Dexterity of hand is not acquired in a day. Just as the student of music must practice for hours day after day and year after year before he acquires the desired suppleness of touch, so the little child must be trained to a dexterity of touch in performing work.

Long ago in the schoolroom the discovery came to me that the healthy child, the child who could be set at a task and accomplish it, the child who could be depended upon to do his work neatly and well, was the one who had had careful instruction in manual training.

It may seem an indirect route, but I believe it is one of the surest ways of developing, in the end, helpfulness in our children. The desired dexterity of touch follows only much constructive work. Let them begin in earliest childhood with clay modeling and paper folding, tearing and cutting. A little later, introduce mat weaving and raffia winding, which are

preparatory steps for the later basket weaving. Not only do we teach dexterity of hand in these things, but in them we find opportunity for teaching artistic form and color arrangement. In this way an educated taste is acquired, which later will be very helpful in the arrangement of rooms, the selection of rugs, wall paper, etc.

As the children grow older, systematically teach them sewing, pasteboard sloyd, gardening, wood sloyd, cooking, and laundry work. In short, give them a complete course in housekeeping. The same course is not adapted to both boys and girls. Their natural tastes should influence to a certain extent.

It is of the utmost importance that, if we are to expect neatness and order in our children's work, they be trained carefully and systematically in the manner of doing it.

“To children active and restless, Employment is most of all; For useless pleasures, if often Repeated, are apt to pall.

“But work, of a kind congenial, Whatever they most enjoy, Will be to their minds a guidance, And their hearts and hands employ.

“‘Tis an inborn, primal impulse; What two years’ boy would fail To reach, if he could, the hammer, And try to drive a nail?”

Takoma Park, D. C.