Page 16 - All India Magazine Jan-2025

manuals that have already been and are still being published on
the subject.

Sleep exercise relaxation
But in any case a child, whatever his activities, should have a
sufficient number of hours of sleep. The number will vary accord-
ing to his age. In the cradle, the baby should sleep longer than he
remains awake. The number of hours of sleep will diminish as the
child grows. But until maturity it should not be less than eight
hours, in a quiet, well-ventilated place. The child should never be
made to stay up late for no reason. The hours before midnight are
the best for resting the nerves. Even during the waking hours, re-
laxation is indispensable for all who want to maintain their nervous
balance. To know how to relax the muscles and the nerves is an
art which should be taught to children when they are very young.
There are many parents who, on the contrary, push their child to
constant activity. When the child remains quiet, they imagine that
he is ill. There are even parents who have the bad habit of making
their child do household work at the expense of his rest and relax-
ation. Nothing is worse for a developing nervous system, which
cannot stand the strain of too continuous an effort or of an activ-
ity that is imposed upon it and not freely chosen. At the risk of
going against many current ideas and ruffling many prejudices, I
hold that it is not fair to demand service from a child, as if it were
his duty to serve his parents. The contrary would be more true,
and certainly it is natural that parents should serve their child or
at least take great care of him. It is only if a child chooses freely
to work for his family and does this work as play that the thing is
admissible. And even then, one must be careful that it in no way
diminishes the hours of rest that are absolutely indispensable for
his body to function properly.

16 All India Magazine, January 2025