"These are the cases in which the School Board—who ordain that if children are well enough to play or run errands, they are well enough to attend school—should be defied."
This defiance must of course be reinforced by a doctor's certificate.
To the healthy, the strain of preparing for and enduring an examination is tremendous; to highly strung children it is dangerous. Home-work should be forbidden in spite of the authorities. Let the child join in the sports of the school as much as possible.
School misdemeanours form a thorny problem, for discipline must be maintained, and a stern but just discipline is very wholesome for this type, who are too apt to assume that because they are abnormal, they can be idle and refractory. On the other hand, parents should promptly and vigorously object to their children being punished for errors in lessons, or struck on the head.
Diet. Food, while being nourishing, and easily digested, must not be stimulating or "pappy". Meat, condiments, tea, coffee and alcohol are highly undesirable, a child's beverage being milk and water.
Meals should be ready at regular hours, and capricious appetites should freely be humoured among suitable foods, served in appetizing form to tempt the palate. Let them chatter, but see they do not get the time to talk by bolting their food.
Most children can chew properly soon after they are two, but they are never taught. Their food is
"mushy", or is carefully cut, and gives them no incentive to masticate. So long as food is digestible, the harder it is the better, and plain biscuits, raw fruits, and foods like "Grape Nuts", are splendid. Mastication helps digestion; it also prevents nasal troubles.
The desire for food at odd moments causes trouble, which is aggravated if the meals are not ready at stated hours. Gently but firmly refuse the piece of bread-and-butter they crave, explain why you do so, and though they weep, or fly into a passion, do not lose your own temper, or beat, or give way to them. When accustomed to regular hours and firm refusals they will not crave for titbits between meals.
It is very hard for them to see other members of the family freely partaking of condiments, drinks and unsuitable foods, and be told they are the only ones who must refrain. A little personal self-sacrifice helps immensely, and if your child must refrain so might you.