Laying a Good Foundation by Louise Hogan

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 16, 1915

Laying a Good Foundation.

By Louise Hogan

THERE is no universal formula for the bringing up of children,— one that can be applied to all children, everywhere and always,— any more than there is a universal formula for fertilizing soil, or curing disease, or feeding babies. Yet there are certain general laws of child development, and certain general principles of child training, which have been derived from scientific studies of children, and which agree with the best thought and experience of those who have learned to know their children without the help of science. And these general laws and principles may be profitably learned and used.

The regularity which must be practiced in the nursery to keep an infant healthy has an educational influence as well. As the child learns by experience that its wants are supplied at a regular time, it becomes accustomed to an element of regularity and reliability. If it is not indulged whenever it cries, it soon learns the value of self-control. Regularity and self-control are large factors in discipline, and thus, unconsciously, even the infant can receive it. All so-called discipline—in the sense of breaking the will of the child—is to be absolutely forbidden. It breeds obstinacy, deception, nervous conditions, and many undesirable qualities; and all these may have their foundations laid in the first twelve months of the child's life, if great care be not exercised to have kind, sympathetic, yet perfectly just treatment for this early period.—Mrs. Louise Hogan.