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S c h o o l days are here again, and before long millions of our youth, boys and girls, will begin wending their way to thousands of grade schools and high schools. To most of these it will not be a new thing, but for many thousands it will be a brand new experience, an im portant milestone in their lives, as they enter kindergar ten or the first grade. For the first time in their lives they will leave the shelter of the home and the constant care of mother, to be entrusted to the custody, for several hours each day, of strangers. Much will depend upon the new teacher, but the future of these children has already been largely determined by the years they spent at home before they entered school. The conduct of that child in school, its manners, obedience, politeness, and coopera tion will reveal the homes from which these little ones come. A school teacher, whose interest in her pupils went far beyond the matter of a mere job for a living, said that she could give a fairly accurate and detailed description of the home of every one of her pupils after having them in her room only one day. These little ones, five years old or less, told the entire story of the homes from which they came by their actions, attitude and conduct in the school room, as they reflected the atmosphere of the family from which they came. Most Important Years I make bold to say that in the formation of character the most important time of a person’s life is the first five or six years, while the child is under the constant care and protection of the home. Here it is that character is determined. Neglect during these first few years can never be completely overcome. Subsequent training may correct it in a measure, but its influence can never be obliterated. Sin is like a disease, beginning incipiently arid becoming more difficult to cure the longer it is neg lected. It is like a weed in a garden, easily uprooted when small, but unmanageable when allowed to grow to matur ity. A child is bom with the depraved nature of father Adam with all the possibilities of sin already present. It is not the business of the school to convert our children or teach them spiritual things. That is the business of the home. It cannot be left to others, not even the church. You parents passed on to your children that sinful nature, and it is your job to take care of it. What a tragedy, therefore, when mothers with small children will leave the burden of care and training of these little ones to others, while they are occupied or employed away from home for a few paltry dollars, while neglecting the prec ious trust given to them as parents of these precious lives. Only Neglect Them The importance of those early tender years, while a child is still completely under mother’s and father’s care, finds its root in the fact that babies are not bom “ little saints” and then later through bad example may develop into “ big sinners.” Mother’s “ little angel” has by nature more of the Devil in him than an angel, as many a doting, indulgent mother has found out to her own grief. While we would not underestimate the value of good example, it is not enough; there must be' positive in struction as well. Solomon says: . . . a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame (Prov. 29:15). This is but the negative way of stating the positive, as given in Proverbs 22:6,
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by Dr. Martin R. DeHaan
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THE KIN G 'S BUSINESS
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