New Foundations, 1921, page 14

 

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themselves. One little girl said she liked collecting the eggs, they were such a beautiful shape. When selling a litter of rabbits, the owner of them remarked, ** I am keeping the one with the very nice face, you know which one I mean ? ” Another child said she liked the ducks best: 44 There is one that simply stared at me, so I stared at him, and then he winked at me.” Most children are curious about the mystery of birth. The arrival of a new family in the farm is usually a time of questioning, and if the questions can he simply and naturally answered, according to the age and understanding of the child, surely that is the best method of sex-mstruction. One child asked another why 44 Duchess,” the black cow, had a brown calf. 44 Well, you see,’ he said thoughtfully, 4‘ it seems th at Duchess’s husband, so to speak, was a brown cow.” Knowledge, of all kinds, should always come to a child gradually, and in the measure in which he is ready to grasp and assimilate it. If he can slowly see and unfold things for himself, so much the better. It is wrong to force knowledge upon a child which he is unready for, and still more harmful to withhold from him things about which he is curious to find out; this applies to all teaching. When the children are older, it is hoped to give those who seem best fitted for such a life, thorough, practical farm training. They will probably learn to manage the different departments of the farm entirely by themselves. Anyone who has had to look after animals will know that it is only by patience and kindness that they can be managed and will thrive. Men who are gentle and kind to animals are kind and loving to their fellow-men. In teaching children to care for animals, we are teaching them many good things which will grow to be a part of their characters. Hanging on a wall in the chapel, which is the old coach-house, we have Fra Angelico’s picture of St. Francis and the Birds. It is in the spirit of St. Francis that we would have our children love all living creatures.