The Eugenic Marriage, Volume 2 (of 4): A Personal Guide to the New Science of Better Living and Better Babies — John Shaqi
The Eugenic Marriage, Volume 2 (of 4): A Personal Guide to the New Science of Better Living and Better BabiesHague, W. Grant (William Grant)
Science
The Eugenic Marriage, Volume 2 (of 4): A Personal Guide to the New Science of Better Living and Better Babies
Hague, W. Grant (William Grant)
Eugenics; Hygiene; Marriage
The father who adopts the habit of taking his boys (and his girls too)
out for long walks, at least every Sunday, and who spends an hour with
them every evening--is the right kind of father. One who has never
tested the merit of walks with children cannot possibly appreciate the
enjoyment and benefit that can accrue from them. It is not only the
physical good that results, nor the inspiration which one may draw from
nature, but the concrete advantages that come from the fellowship with
the children are a new and a real experience--this is what counts. You
will have opportunities of sewing seeds in their minds that will grow
into a harvest that will astonish you. Children in the right mood--and
they are in the right mood when they are happy, and they are happy out
in the open with an interesting companion--are alert, and responsive,
and eager to be told "things," and this mood can be put to marvelous use
by the "right kind of father." The father who wanders forth with the
fixed purpose of thinking out some business problem during the walk and
permits the children to find their own amusement is the wrong kind of
father. He must choose to be a child again, he must desire to please
them, he must make an effort to be in harmony with them, he must draw on
his experience to interest them, he must talk to them entertainingly of
every interesting problem which the walk itself suggests or he must
formulate a plan and select a subject with a definite educational scheme
in view. We can, in a most effective way, begin to build their
characters, and, by the right kind of talk and enthusiasm, he can
determine their resolves to be honest, truthful, just, clean,
sympathetic. He can instill into them, in a thousand different ways, the
determination and inspiration to succeed. It is a wonderful and a
precious chance, and it will make the "right kind of father" more just,
more sympathetic, more optimistic, and it will make him young again and
more successful. Try it.
Implant in the hearts of your children a love of home, make the evening
meal and hour by the fireside a period of congenial fellowship, when all
the little irritable ruffles of the day may be ironed out and swept
away. The secret is to be intimate. Tell them the secret of success from
your standpoint, how happiness is gained only by being efficient and
successful, and that, to be efficient, one must be energetic and
healthy. Drum into their ears the truth that life is a battle, and only
the brave "win out," and health is the one essential necessity. It is
astonishing how such talks will impress young minds. They will remind
you of things you said, that made a lasting impression on them, long
after you have forgotten the incident.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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