The colored child should be taught to think and should be given opportunity for a quiet hour for self communion and self entertainment. It should be taught to live a period of solitude so that in after life it may not always be compelled to hunt around for entertainment and excitement.
How can the child be expected to love reading if the mother does not read to it?
How can the child love music if the mother does not play or sing to it or teach it songs?
How many nights are wasted that might be spent in giving colored children ideals of home life and right habits in reading and home study?
Colored children have been left alone too much.
How many of them have a children's hour? How many have been given something to think about? How many spend their spare moments in reading? How many can recite poems or give quotations from the master writers?
The mothers themselves must put some time in exerting their minds in reading and thinking with a view towards mentally improving the next generation. They must observe and note what is passing on in the great world. History is being made every day. How can the child resist the desires of the lower nature when its mother has tantrums? The colored mother must refuse to express passion. A mother can not shame or beat her child into gentle manners when she is rough or coarse.
How can the child be careful and controlled in speech if the mother has not the power of expressing herself in good English. Language is too powerful a weapon in reaching, compelling and swaying the feelings of others and in winning friends—to be neglected.
Children always betray home training. If they have not been trained properly as they are not adepts in dissembling and they reflect their mothers in all their thought, speech and actions.
The mother who is strict in her own conduct and who pays careful attention to the home conduct of her children will seldom be ashamed of their deportment. Good habits may not be assumed at a moment's notice. The good breeding of parents is very truly reflected in the manners of their children.