Your Child's First Day in School
Proudly, mother watches Johnnie enter the school building. It's his very first day! Mother might be proud — but not Johnnie! He's just plain scared, nervous, excited, apprehensive, thrilled, interested, confident and fearful all at the same time! New sights, new sounds, new smells — and for the first time in his life, a restroom with a label on it! Poor Johnnie! He's never BEEN with so many children all at the same time before!
Can we, as parents, get the picture?
Perhaps the majority of parents have sent their children to school without any thought of real preparation for school.
DISCIPLINE Most Important
Without exception, a well-disciplined child will be a good student! He might not be an all "A" student, since this also hinges on his heredity and his capacity but he will invariably learn more rapidly, and retain more fully, than others of his same capacity who are Undisciplined!
Space does not permit the publication of the literal TONS of evidence of the, virtual BEDLAM reigning in so many public schools in our lands today! Suffice it to say that America and Britain, swallowing the permissive swill of so-called child "psychology" have allowed their school systems to become, in many instances, mere mockery! With the teachers unable to administer proper discipline, with groups of "do-gooders" advocating the stripping of the ten commandments from the bulletin boards, and with the tremendous pressure exerted on so many schools through forced integration, is it any wonder our schools are falling far short?
But what about YOUR child? Your child is YOUR responsibility! Even though there are frightfully serious handicaps in today's Babylon of confusion, you, as a loving and conscientious parent, can instill right values and principles in YOUR child, and he can learn.
More important than any memory work, such as the alphabet or numbers, and more important than any other thing that a child should learn is DISCIPLINE! A well-disciplined child will invariably learn while others are standing still.
What then, are some of the most important HABITS that will aid your child in learning? WHAT should your child learn BEFORE going to school?
In the last number, we covered most of the basic, vitally important RIGHT HABITS that every child should be taught. Now, in the light of preparation for his first experience in the classroom, let's briefly review one of the most important ones.
Teach Your Child to LISTEN to Your Instructions!
"He is governed BEST who is governed LEAST!" goes the saying. But no one can be truly self-governed until he has learned HOW to BE governed! When your children begin in school, a great deal of the time they will have to be SELF-governed!
In today's unhappy situations, classrooms are bulging, teachers overworked, underpaid, and often poorly trained! Classes are mixed according to various ages, mental abilities, race, religion, and so-on.
The average pupil can get virtually NO personalized instruction in the large city school systems of this pulsating Babylon of confusion we call "society!" Therefore, he will simply HAVE to be well enough disciplined,. and SELF-disciplined, at that, that he will learn IN SPITE of terrible handicaps!
But what a task! You, as the parent, in today's world have a tremendous responsibility — perhaps far greater than you've ever before realized.
Begin giving your child a basis for attentiveness, alertness, careful LISTENING to instructions with your mind set on the long-range goals! THINK! Think of how badly he will need this GOOD habit later, when he's in a classroom literally FILLED with distractions, noises, confusion, disobedient children and, in some cases, a disinterested teacher! Be diligent in PREPARING your child for such an eventuality!
Begin' speaking only once. Speak firmly, quietly, telling your child to do certain tasks, one after the other. Tell him to fold his clothes, clean the room, draw the drapes, put certain articles in certain places.
Get him accustomed, to following detailed instructions, one after the other in proper order! He will be learning a vitally important lesson that will be a great aid to learning later on!
Remember to apply always, and never failingly, swift, sure, and yet loving PUNISHMENT for infractions! PATIENTLY explain the whole procedure. Tell your child EXACTLY what is required of him — then SEE that he follows through with your instructions to the ABSOLUTE LETTER!
If you tell him to pick up his toys, THEN get his book and color, or THEN put on his coat to go outside, MAKE SURE HE DOES IT JUST EXACTLY IN THAT ORDER!
A child will deliberately do things contrary to the WAY in which you tell him! But what is his ATTITUDE? What is the LOOK on his face? It is far more important that you as the parent come to recognize his ATTITUDE of rebellion or of uncooperativeness than merely making him perform the prescribed tasks — although both are surely important!
A first-grade teacher was telling me how a child, when told to sit up straight, would slowly "wriggle" in, a serpentine motion until FINALLY, after what seemed like MINUTES of ONE PART OF THE BODY AFTER THE OTHER "straightening up" he would be erect in. his seat! There is a case of OPEN REBELLION!
What if a child is told to fold his hands, and place them on the table?
What if the child does NOT DO IT? Or what if he is SLOW to do it? What EXCUSE would the average parent give? That he is TIRED, nervous, sick, or "didn't understand?" Probably — but we really KNOW BETTER, don't we? We know that if the child were OLDER, and more independent, he would be saying with a level stare "No! I'm not about to obey you!" But, since he is a child, we tend to EXCUSE, slowness to obey, and deliberate rebellion.
Make sure your child LISTENS to your instructions, and then MAKE him carry them out, and carry them out cheerfully, and in a willing spirit! It isn't easy — it won't happen the first few times, or even the first SEVERAL times but if you DILIGENTLY apply what you have seen in this series of articles, IT CAN AND WILL BE ACCOMPLISHED!
Teach Your Child to SIT STILL
Notice the example of a child going to school for the first time in his life.
In all of his youthful six years, he has never been actually TAUGHT to simply sit still for any considerable length of time! All of a sudden, he is thrown together with dozens and dozens of other children his own age, in strange surroundings, under a teacher he knows not, and is told to SIT STILL at his desk for perhaps many hours during the course of a day! He simply is unable. He CAN'T accomplish it so quickly! Hence, first, second and third grade teachers will tell you with almost one voice that their biggest problem is with a group of "fidgeters" who squirm, and writhe in their seats, look out the window, play with pencils, cards or papers, and who simply seem to be UNABLE to SIT STILL while in school!
Why? Simply because they have never been taught at home! Too many parents today wish to abdicate their responsibility of teaching their children ANYTHING — merely expecting to push them off on, a school system and have the well-trained teachers, by means of some unknown procedures and near-miracles, turn out decent, respectful, humble, obedient, kind and loving future citizens! This is nothing more than an idle dream — an abysmal miscalculation.
A child may be taught to sit still while still very young! Picking up the child after it has had a lot of activity and simply placing it in a chair or on the sofa and saying, "Sit!" is ample. If the child gets down, just one sharp swat on the buttocks, being placed back in the sofa and then being told with a pointed finger, "Sit" again might well accomplish a great deal as a first lesson. However — once you have begun even this first lesson — KEEP AT IT! You may be absolutely guaranteed, that whether it takes five or six spankings on this one occasion for the child to associate immobility in the chair with the command "Sit!" — he will certainly learn it. This should be learned very quickly after the child learns to walk.