HISTORICAL COMMENTS BY GEORGE CHEVALLIER 7-7-12

Little Children

There have been many tales regarding children under school age. I think the best age for a young child is about four. By this age, they can carry on the conversation that only a four year old can give you. They can feed themselves and dress themselves, often with humorous results. The old adage of “children should be seen and not heard” is depriving some adults of some memories that will last for the rest of their lives. They are not in school yet and subjected to the influence of other children. They only reflect what they have learned at home, either from their parents, siblings or the bane of all civilization, television. Some shows on television are very good for the average 3-5 year old and they can learn a lot from them. It is the shows that project things that are too violent or have language that is inappropriate for the young fertile mind from which they should be insulated.

The best of times are when you engage a four-year-old in a one-on-one conversation. The more you let them believe that what they are telling you is true is when their little mind runs wild. Growing up next to a four-year-old gave me the opportunity to have many a conversation with him. Did you know they have grasshoppers in Texas that are four feet long? I know this because he told me so. He was just delightful in his imaginative narratives. By the way, he is now a doctor. So, you never know what that little mind will develop into.

My granddaughters are two and eight. Before the young one was born, I used to call her sister “my girlfriend”. She was six and in kindergarten when her sister was born. I used to ask her if she had a boyfriend at school. She told me that she did but he didn’t know it! I sadly told her that I guess I would just have to have her little sister as my new girlfriend. I will never forget her reply, “She can’t be a girlfriend because you have to be six to be a girlfriend”.

When she started losing her teeth, it was time for the ‘tooth fairy” to leave the customary quarter under her pillow to replace the tooth. Her father decided to leave one of the new “golden dollar” coins. When she got up and found it she didn’t know what it was and went to her Daddy with it. He said “Gosh, that’s a dollar; I only got a quarter when I lost my first teeth”. She told him that the “tooth fairy” must like her better than him to give her a dollar. Ah, little minds.

Throughout the years, a lot of what children learn is learned from a child that is somewhat older. A lot of the hand-me-down knowledge is taboo to parents and any person over the age of eighteen. Children’s secrets are precious to them because it gives them knowledge of something that “old” people don’t know. It is up to the parents to teach the child the difference between keeping a secret and being sneaky. One will benefit them in later life and the other will be a detriment to their adult personality.

The young, fertile mind is like a clean slate. Years ago, children were not encouraged to just be themselves. They had to start acting like a grown-up from day one. I have found that they have ideas about things much differently than we grown-ups do. To engage them in a conversation and get these ideas might just give you a new insight on something. Try it sometime.