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Aviation History
1915
1915 - 1027.PDF
DECEMBER 17, 1915 11 I KNOW nothing of the Child Study Society. Until I read of it in the Times of last Friday, I did not know that it existed. I should have thought, had I thought of it at all, that such a thing was unnecessary ; having read of it, I am left wondering. Dr. C. W. Kimmins is Chief Inspector of Schools for the London County Council, and he has lectured to the Child Study Society at the Royal Sanitary Institute upon the subject of "The Interest of London Children at different ages in Air Raids." When a doctor lectures to a society at an institute, ordinary people must be respectful, and so I simply wonder. I can imagine that society formed of great ladies, needing to be lectured to on the study of children. Possibly they recognise their shortcomings as " fanciers " in the new hobby, in order to study which, they have perhaps given up stamp collecting, or the breeding of pedigree Pekinese pups. I should like to lecture them myself, but I fear they would not acclaim me at the con clusion. I feel something of that antagonism of which I wrote last week. I should like to form children into a Society for the Study of Mothers, and I would promise them interesting psychological phenomena when we got below the surface of our subject. Fathers, I think, do not as a rule require lecturing to on the Study of Children. Should there be any father in doubt as to best methods, I can put him on the track at once, and without a lecture. Don't attempt to study children, they are far beyond the powers of your under standing, and will upset all your theories. Let your son study you. Set him the example in living, and call him "Old Chap " or "Old Fellow." Always when I hear a good father call his little son " Old Fellow," I know that child is on the way to honourable manhood. A child's mind is extraordinarily perceptive, and example appeals to him beyond measure. Whether it be as an Engine-driver, or as an Officer in His Majesty's Army or Navy, little Willie always wants to be "like Daddy " when he grows up, and object lessons are the greatest teachers. Child Study Society! Great Scot! Most of these mothers—-if such there really be—would benefit in experience by watching a cat tend her kittens. But I do not believe it necessary. Inept as we live in the twentieth century, twenty centuries of ineptitude could not eradicate maternal instinct. An example. Last week the Channel Boat brought over a little Belgian refugee mother. Little more than a child herself, she yet cuddled to her, in an only shawl, concrete evidence of Hun "Kultur" thrust upon her in the presence of her afterwards murdered parents. ' Her eyes, flashing at the thought of her wrongs, were instantly changed to express love and tenderness at a whine from her child, whom she nestled more closely to her, and cooed to silence. God grant that that son shall prove a blessing to his tender Mother, and live long to hate his unknown father. (Small f, Mr. Compositor, please.) But to get back to our lecture. .. ~ ^ . It was, as I have said, on Air Raids as Seen I Children, illustrated by a series of essays by school children, eleven to thirteen years of age, " Even at that age, the girls looked after the younger children." Damning evidence against the nt < the Child Study Society, unless it be that 1 am mistaken m their object, and that it was formed in order that the study of children should be beneficial to mothers, which is as like as not the case, and quite capable of bearing good results. "At nine, the boys thoroughly enjoyed the raid, spending as much time as possible in the streets." Of course they did. British boys would. One boy wrote :— " A picture over mother's bed fell on her head and on baby ." I believe had a picture fallen on the head of one of those lectured, under like circumstances, it would not have hurt baby—Baby would have been in the night nursery robbing some other poor mite of its natural sustenance. " At twelve, the boys still gave no sign of fear, but began to hunt for souvenirs." Little rats—also guilty of scrumping in orchards on occasion, I'll be bound ' The following is an extract from the copy of a boy of eleven : " My cousin pointed to a star and said she thought it was a Zeppelin. ' Fathead,' said I, politely. ' It cannot he a Zeppelin. It does not move.'" Though I cannot agree with his views on politeness, I feel sure that boy must read " FLIGHT." Indeed, I dare say he could have told her that the star was Jupiter. " Throughout the essays there was evidence of the mothering attitude of young girls towards those imue helpless." I feel sure I was mistaken as to the ofajactl of that Society. But why is it, if, as we well know to be true, the mothering instinct is so strong in girls of older school-age, it becomes wanting in women of greater years ? Perhaps—but there, I am a mere man, engaged with most other men in denying women their rights as free and independent beings, and so cannot be expected to under stand, or understanding, cannot be expected to admit. I am no Sherlock Holmes. I have eyes without seeing. I could not tell you off hand how many steps there are up to my sleeping apartment, though I have climbed them these many years, and I should make but a poor guess at the pattern of the wall paper, even if there be any pattern at all. But I can see the future of the boy who wrote this:—" Suddenly a piercing beam of white light shot across the sky. Guns spat viciously out of the darkness at a cigar-shaped body far up in th< clouds." I can tell him that his goal lies in a great city—jn that portion of it bounded respectively by an obstructive memorial and a busy circus- and built over an old ditch. Starting from the memorial he shall step so many paces toward the rising sun, which number of paces shall be conveyed to him later by letter in reply to his application. And in time to come, when, old and worn, I shall enliven the evening of my days by reading the efforts of others, I know I shall find entertainment in the article of "Our Special Correspondent." 991
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