BACKWARD CHILDREN.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVII, Issue 4954, 22 March 1926, Page 2

BACKWARD CHILDREN.

A DOCTOR’S WARNING " V

Dr. O’Brien, of Christchurch, gave a. timely warning in an address to the Conference of Rotarians at Dunedin last week He said that a mother had come to him with a child to have its eyes tested. He had found nothing wrong with the girl’s, -eyes, and the mother, in conversation, had than told him that the girl Was very slow in her leissons.' She was, indeed, only in. the same class as her sister, who was two years, younger. This information moved .the doctor to ask further questions. He supposed Maggie, we shall say, was often told that Mary was much the smarter child. The mother agreed that that was so. “And I suppose father also rubs it in, ajid that Maggie has come to imagine .that she is quite a duffer.” Mother again agreed. “Is there anything that Maggie can do?” a.sked tlhe doctor. The mother admitted that Maggie was very useful about the house—that she could make the beds* and so on. “Well,” said the doctor, “why don’t you praise her, andl keep on praising her for this. I will tell you, if you allow the girl to get the impression that she cannot do anything,, when she reaches the age of about 14 she will probablj/ run aw.ay.” Then .the mother hung her head, and said that Maggie had already done this once. The parting advice from the doctor to the mother was’.tp go home and praise her girl for the good work she could do, and not to hold l her np to ridicule because she was not as good a scholar as Mary. La,teT in bis address Dr. O’Brien wanted to know why girls reaching the age of puberty were taugh't, algebra, Euclid, and rubbish of that sort instead of the principles of motherhood.