The Flower of the Family : Part 5

The Family and it's Members
by Anna Garlin Spencer

(Page 14 of 20)

Genius Universal in Nature. - If any family has in it a real genius, that family shines forever in the reflected light of its choicest treasure. Yet a genius belongs to no family, even to no country. Such belong to the world. Mary, we are told, "pondered the things in her heart" which marked the boy Jesus out from all the other lads who played about the carpenter shop of Joseph. And it is not alone poetic imagination that shows her as troubled as well as humbly proud at the testimonies of His coming greatness. Many other mothers of those destined to high achievement have had misgivings as the shadow as truly as the sunlight of that greatness passed across their vision. For true greatness is solitary and often dedicated to tragedies of experience. The family life may be the only refuge from a misunderstanding world while the hero lives and only after death may the high quality of his service be known to all.

Genius Its Own School-master. - The most comforting thought to parents who have children "different" and perhaps different in ways not yet appreciated by the world around them, is this: nature, which takes care that we shall not have too many geniuses and doubtless will still take such care when we grow wise enough to give all the children a chance to prove whether or not they are geniuses - nature sees to it that the most gifted among the children of men carry within themselves their own school-master. If the regular lines of education do not suit their needs they promptly emancipate themselves from the useless pedagogy, and going after what they personally demand for inner nourishment, get it at all hazards. Sometimes, not infrequently, all the gifted child needs is a library and a chance to be free, or a studio and the companionship of an artist and just his own sort of training, at the time he can best appropriate it.

Varieties of the Gifted. - Happily all the flowers of the family are not geniuses or specially talented. Some are just beautiful to look at and yet unspoiled by flattery. It is a great gift of nature to be able to give happiness just by allowing people to look at one! The contour of the face, the turn of the head, the light in the eye, the freshness of the complexion, the grace of the movement, and the sweetness of the voice all go together, if the manner and the feeling only match the coloring and the form, to make it well worth while just to be alive.

And some flowers of the family are not beautiful but charming, those of tact and graciousness and understanding of others and consideration and unselfish behavior. These are they of whom one has said, "The charm of her presence was felt when she went, and men at her side grew nobler, girls purer, as all through the town the children were gladder who pulled at her gown."

Some flowers of the family bloom late and come to their beauty only when some disaster threatens destruction of the home or some sorrow wrecks its happiness. Simple, plain, unassuming, neither very wise nor very strong in other matters, they have a heart that can love with such intensity that it warms the coldest spot and is the refuge most sought when misfortune appears.

And sometimes the flower of the family is but a memory of one who early passes on. Emerson sang in his beautiful "Threnody":

"The gracious boy, who did adorn
The world whereinto he was born,
And by his countenance repay
The favor of the loving Day, -
Has disappeared from the Day's eye;
Far and wide she cannot find him;
My hopes pursue, they cannot bind him.

Nature, who lost, cannot remake him;
Fate let him fall, Fate can't retake him;
the feet
Of the most beautiful and sweet
Of human youth had left the hill
And garden, - they were bound and still.

It is of such that affection speaks most tenderly.

Questions on the Flower of The Family

1. How far should the general family life be burdened for special development of the genius, the near-genius, and the specially talented member?

2. What added social provisions should we seek to secure to aid in the self-training of the specially gifted?

3. What type of education may lead more surely to the discovery of talent and special faculty in the mass of children?

4. Should the chief aim be to bring the subnormal or backward up to grade or to give a free and helpful range of opportunity to natural qualities of leadership? If both should be aimed at equally, how can the public school aid in the double task?

5. A suggestive list of Books for Parents, issued by the Federation for Child Study, headquarters at 2 West Sixty-fourth Street, New York City, includes several of special value in determining the mental powers and special requirements of children diverging from the average quality and capacity. Read at least one of the books indicated and compare local provisions for examination of children with those advocated as desirable.

Copyright, 1923 by J.B. Lippincott Company

About the Author

Anna Garlin Spencer (1851-1931) was an American educator, feminist, and Unitarian minister. Born in Attleboro, MA, she married the Rev. William H. Spencer in 1878. She was a leader in the women's suffrage and peace movements. In 1891 she became the first woman ordained as a minister in the state of Rhode Island.