THE HEADSTRONG CHILD.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 520, 23 November 1912, Page 7

THE HEADSTRONG CHILD.

There are few children so difficult to manage as the headstrong, the children of strong determination, wayward in their impulses and masterful in their associations with their playmates. Yet the child of this type contains much of promise for the future. It is from the ranks of such as these that men of high adventure and daring achievement spring, and women possessed of such strength or character are seldom failures in anything they undertake. It therefore behoves parents to be exceedingly discriminating in their training of headstrong children. Such natures, un.ess carefully matured, are apt to 'make shipwrecks their lives. High spirits- should hot be repressed. Yet of ten-times the wilful boy is treated as if he were naughty of set purpose, as if the overflow of animal spirits had nothing to do with the escapades. Such children should be led, 'never driven. '1 hey should be trained particularly in the gentler virtues—consideration for others, kindness, and unselfishness. These all tend to modify masterfulness and to tone down the character without in any way repressing the "life force" which animates it. It is foolish to try to eliminate constitutional qualities. ''Drive out nature with a fork," said Horace, "and she comes running back."