Hints on Child-Training

Book excerpt: Hints on Child-Training may be helpful, where a formal treatise on the subject would prove bewildering. It is easier to see how one phase or another of children’s needs is to be met, than it is to define the relation of that phase of the case to all other phases, or to a system that includes them all. Therefore it is that this series of Hints is ventured by me for the benefit of young parents, although I would not dare attempt a systematic treatise on the entire subject here touched upon. Thirty years ago, when I was yet a young father, a friend, who knew that I had for years been interested in the study of methods of education, said to me, “Trumbull, what is your theory of child-training?” “Theory?” I responded. “I have no theory in that matter. I had lots of theories before I had any children; but now I do, with fear and trembling, in every case just that which seems to be the better thing for the hour, whether it agrees with any of my old theories or not.” Whatever theory of child-training may show itself in these Hints, has been arrived at by induction in the process of my experiences with children since I had to deal with the matter practically, apart from any preconceived view of the principles involved. Every suggestion in these Hints is an outcome of experiment and observation in my life as a father and a grandfather, while it has been carefully considered in the light of the best lessons of practical educators on every side. These Hints were begun for the purpose of giving help to a friend. They were continued because of the evident popular interest in them. They are sent out in this completed form in the hope that they will prove of service to parents who are feeling the need of something more practical in the realm of child-training than untested theories. H. Clay Trumbull Philadelphia, September 15, 1890 This classic parenting manual includes the following chapters: 1. Child-Training: What Is It? 2. The Duty of Training Children 3. Scope and Limitations of Child-Training 4. Discerning a Child’s Special Need of Training 5. Will-Training, Rather than Will-Breaking 6. The Place of “Must” in Training 7. Denying a Child Wisely 8. Honouring a Child’s Individuality 9. Letting Alone as a Means of Child-Training 10. Training a Child to Self-Control 11. Training a Child Not to Tease 12. Training a Child’s Appetite 13. Training a Child as a Questioner 14. Training a Child’s Faith 15. Training Children to Sabbath Observance 16. Training a Child in Amusements 17. Training a Child to Courtesy 18. Cultivating a Child’s Taste in Reading 19. The Value of Table-Talk 20. Guiding a Child in Companionships 21. Never Punish a Child in Anger 22. Scolding is Never in Order 23. Dealing Tenderly with a Child’s Fears 24. The Sorrows of Children 25. The Place of Sympathy in Child-Training 26. Influence of the Home Atmosphere 27. The Power of a Mother’s Love 28. Allowing Play to a Child’s Imagination 29. Giving Added Value to a Child’s Christmas 30. Goodnight Words