TELLING OF UNTRUTHS. Making the child truthful is one of the hardest tasks of child training. Perhaps in no period of the Christian era has untruthfulness been so common and looked on so lightly as it is today. The average child thinks nothing of telling untruths to get out of a difficulty and the number of parents who will set the example to their children is beyond estimate. I have no sympathy for parents who are untruthful and yet who complain of the untruth fulness of their children. “Physician, cure thyself.” By no means, however, is this telling of untruths confined to children of such parents.
Many parents who love and practice truth find the opposite condition in their children. Before resorting to punishment for untruthfulness there should be the patient instilling into the child’s mind the seriousness of sinning against truth. If, however, this mild, careful form of correction fails, I do try spanking and am encouraged with apparent success. Apparent, since it is impossible to say absolutely that the evil has been eradicated.