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Child Guidance
inharmonious characters. They will be apt and strong in one direction,
but greatly deficient in other directions just as important. They will
not be competent men and women. Their deficiencies will be marked
and will mar the entire character
Evils of Constant, Year-round Study—Many parents keep their
children at school nearly the year round. These children go through the
routine of study mechanically, but do not retain that which they learn.
Many of these constant students seem almost destitute of intellectual
life. The monotony of continual study wearies the mind, and they take
but little interest in their lessons; and to many the application to books
becomes painful. They have not an inward love of thought and an
ambition to acquire knowledge. They do not encourage in themselves
habits of reflection and investigation....
Close reasoners and logical thinkers are few, for the reason that
false influences have checked the development of the intellect. The sup-
position of parents and teachers that continued study would strengthen
the intellect has proved erroneous, for in many cases it has had the
opposite effect
Censure Often Justly Belongs to Parents—The teacher should
not be expected to do the parents’ work. There has been, with many
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parents, a fearful neglect of duty. Like Eli, they fail to exercise proper
restraint; and then they send their undisciplined children to college,
to receive the training which the parents should have given them at
home.
The teachers have a task which few appreciate. If they succeed in
reforming these wayward youth, they receive but little credit. If the
youth choose the society of the evil-disposed and go on from bad to
worse, then the teachers are censured and the school is denounced. In
many cases the censure justly belongs to the parents. They had the
first and most favorable opportunity to control and train their children,
when the spirit was teachable, and the mind and heart were easily
impressed. But through the slothfulness of the parents, the children
are permitted to follow their own will, until they become hardened in
an evil course
9
Testimonies For The Church 3:26
.
10
Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students, 84, 85
.
11
Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students, 91
.