CLIMBING RUAPEHU AND TONGARIRO

Otago Witness, Issue 2815, 26 February 1908, Page 48

CLIMBING RUAPEHU AND TONGARIRO

iSee descripti\e aiticle m last week's is=ue )

(Photos by H. E. Girdlestone )

OVER- TAUGHT CHILDREN

The extraordinary number of infant pio•digies that the last decade has produced. and whom the public flock to see and heai on stage or concert platform, snows plainly •enough (writes Mrs J. D. Hay Shaw in the Daily Express) that the modern mother is not content that her child shall be merely a healthy, noisy well-grown specimen of English youth TTcnfortunately. m too many cases the child's future health is ruthlessly and blindly flaorificed in ordeT that during his or her first years of life he or she may succeed in gratifying the vanity of a mother by out-

'■tupping the children of her fucrd- and thu, clothing herself with lmagmaiv gloiv in having produced, even to a small extent, a ' piodigj " of youthful brilliance The child of to-day has barely opened its eyes to the world hardly succeeded m distinguishing common objects, such as tallies ana chairs from plates and knives before it ik inundated with kindergarten toys and =cip rtific models, all designed and purchased with a view to training the tiny brain in I the path of knowledge; and the mother of a child of four who is able to lead unassisted , woids of three letters is an infinitely prouder I woman than the one who«e offspring of five same age revels in mud pies and bettered hats, and is unable to d slinguish B from T) | It is curious that so many peonle. otherwise practical enough, seem utterly incapable

oi leahsing that the buun should develop with the bodj and not bufoie it. and that to endeavour to pioduce a matured intellect at an age when the body is still in its mf<mc\ is as foolish as to expect a tree to b?ai fru t before it has passed the seedling stage Ju thes-e days of overwhelming competition i and inadequate means it is perhaps hardly to bo wordered at if parents are eager to } enrcuiage their children to pass examina- j tioa« and gam scholarships, and thereby solve the difficulty of providing funds for education: and yet one so often sees the) children ruthlessly forced along the road of' learning when it is obvious to the outsider that in thus compelling them to study beyond their natural receptive capacities they are undermining and retarding the physical growth and vigour, and tnat eventually thi=

mu-t ciiu-e a lCik-tion wlieii the meutcU po\st_i will weaken, prubab.v at the \eiy ni^UHMu when it should be enteiing on ltb naauue v.goui. J. -suppose there is not one case in twenty where the brilliant child develops into the bulhant man or woman. As a rule, when a boj flashes ahead of his fellows like a m-eteoi i tor a lew yeai&, the parents have to facfr the disappointment ai d swallow their chargin as best they can on seeing- the child, who has been talked of in the family circle as a j future politician or financier, suddenly and inexplicably fail at a crucial test and sink into mediocrity and insignificance, while some plodding, slow, and hitherto despised contemporary quietly steps into his place. i The wearisome unending grind of study i to which so many children are condemned nowadays is pitiable — lessons before breakfast

and after breakfast, a bnof intcr\al im lunch, and more lessous, another b lef interval lor tea, and then probably lessons again until late in the evening, ponng over bjoks and shut up in the schoolrooms when the sun is shining and all other young nature at play. And so we have a spectacled, palefaced, listless generation, amorg whom nervous complaints run riot, and " treatments," " rest cures, and patent foods have to be resorted to to repair the prematurely worn-out tissues. If parents would only reah=e that in not one case in a thousand has any lasting work of value been given to the world by an immature brain they would be more content to let their children be children when Nature nit-ended that they should be. instead of relentlessly keeping their weary little feet on the tradmill of books and examinations.

Back Row Messrs Geo Wright (Go\einor) J M. Simmers M.A. (Principal) Second B.i\v Messrs A W Collett E A Raisom Tiios Ban (Govern, i=), Mi = = G F Gibson MA (2nd A=s i Mi-- J R Barr, M A (Ist. Asst ) Mr ±1 M Rie« (Mayor) Mr Clone <Pn\.ite Secretary to Minister) SITTING R^v Algx Grant (Secretary J J Patterson (Chairiiiai)), Hoi Gco Fow ds .'Minister for Echuatu."). Ch.i«= Ha! 1 MP.

(Photos by W. A Taj lor )