p. 12 | Self-Reliance by Dr. L. F. Barker

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Apr 4, 1911

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 38, No. 14.

Self-Reliance

By Dr. L. F. Barker

TRUE kindness will teach the child to rely more upon self-help. The sensitive nervous system, if overprotected in the early years, suffers keenly when later on the principle of protection has perforce to give way to the principle of exertion. How to manage a child in a fit of temper has been much discussed. When possible it is desirable to cut it short at the beginning. Some parents rejoice to see their children reveal a violent temper, and are glad that they can fly into a passion, turn red as a beet, clench the fists, and attack the individual with whom they are angry. Such attacks, if frequently repeated, are very deleterious to the nervous system.

All children are easily frightened; but the child predisposed to nervousness, more easily than the healthy child, becomes the victim of abnormal fears of timidity. The mother, the nurse, the maid, and the servants still frighten the child with tales of the bogy-man, of goblins or ogres, of wizards and witches. How often is a child frightened to tears, its disposition spoiled, and its life made a burden, by tales, threats of tortures, which make it timid and shrinking! Sometimes fears are thus started that last through life. One must learn how to deal with the fear of being alone, the fear of the dark, and the fear of thunder and lightning. Certain fears common to childhood are easily overcome, especially through the example of courage set by the parent, the nurse, or the teacher.—Dr. L. F. Barker.