losely while there, for health is far more important to them than
education. "Infant prodigies" lack the mental staying power and physical
robustness which real success demands, though they may do well for a time.
Go to your old school: the successes of to-day were dunces twenty years
ago; about those whose names are proudly emblazoned in fading gold on Rolls
of Honour, a discreet silence is maintained.

Keep a keen lookout for symptoms of over-effort. Sleepiness, languor, a
vacant expression, forehead wrinkled, eyebrows knit, eyes dull, sunken and
surrounded by dark rings, twitchings, restlessness, or loss of appetite are
all warnings that the pace is too strong for the child.

"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