my eyes off Umayma for a moment these days, for she med-dles in the affairs of the house — great and small. If she sees the maid washing the clothes, she gets there before her and puts her two little hands into the washing trough; and if she sees me cooking, she is at her wits' end over how she might join me in the cooking. She insists on taking turns with the maid at pounding the kibbeh, imitating her to perfection, and whenever we ask for something and cannot find it, we are certain that Umayma, without a doubt, is the one who has been meddling with it."

These are examples that every-one who has lived with children under one roof has tested and continues to test. In most cases like these, the first thing that comes to our mind — as hap-pened with Umayma's mother — is to check the child and forbid her from practicing these tasks that are none of her concern; and the result is an increase of desire on the child's part, for "everything forbidden is desired."

The more we persist in for-bidding the child, the more his longing to practice the forbidden thing grows, and so the conflict in the house between the child and his people continues indefi-nitely... The method of restraint, then, is a failure, like most neg-ative methods. The positive view proposed by the most modern educators, who vouch for its success in this case, is that the child be given complete freedom to practice all the tasks he cares to practice. When he shows a longing to try the washing, the dusting, and the pounding of the kibbeh, and meets not the least resistance, his longing for them fades and he does not return to them of his own accord, because he will have satisfied the pressing desire in himself to test everything new. And so the

matter ends naturally, without the least collision occurring.

This positive method requires forbearance on the mother's part. And this forbearance must have its sacrifices. When the child wishes to help us set the table, and the plate falls from his hands and breaks, we must not make much of the matter and heap blame upon the child. For this plate has taught the child how to carry plates in the future. So hail to a sacrifice that is the first of the lessons of self-reliance and among the paths leading to freedom...

O you grown-ups, free your children from your chains... Let them face the world and test it for themselves, taste its sweetness and its bitterness, exult at their victory and stand firm before their defeat. And what an excellent lesson the child learns from his slip — he seldom repeats that slip once he is convinced that its result has been tested.

Do not pay the child's stumble much attention, for many a stumble teaches the child how to be steadier, and is more useful than the best sermon; it makes the child feel that he enjoys his full freedom, so that he relies on himself, his confidence in himself takes firm hold, and his morale grows strong, and he becomes a man — a hardy man who knows no fear!

So, O you grown-ups! Free your children from your chains. Open before them the field of thinking and of managing affairs, that they may act convinced, not compelled; that they may feel they are free, not slaves; and that they may understand at last that they have a share in the search for what is right — not that they are helpless, moved by the will of others.

Thus we shall be a society strong in its elements, firm in its foundations, and thus we shall build a nation that presses ever forward on the road of life!

The cover picture for this month shows Miss Nadine Salem, daughter of Mr. George Salem, one of the leading Lebanese emigrants in the United States, in her bridal gown. Her wedding was cele-brated in Washington to Mr. Jimmy Salman, son of Mr. Jamil Salman, likewise one of the leading Lebanese emigrants in the United States.

The celebration of this blessed wedding was most splendid; it was blessed by the Archimandrite, and attended by a distinguished gathering of Lebanese Americans, friends and relatives of the bridal couple, foremost among them Mrs. Eva Badr Malik, wife of the Honorable Dr. Charles Malik, Lebanon's Minister Plenipotentiary in Washington. Mr. Fuad Badr, general direc-tor of Dar al-Kitab, was also present, and thus The Woman's Voice was able to obtain the details of this celebration together with the cover picture.

The bride, Miss Nadine Salem, is a graduate of the American University of Beirut; she traveled to the United States some two years ago. When she was asked, in the name of The Woman's Voice, to address a word to her many friends, men and women, in Beirut on the occasion of her auspicious wedding, she said:

"I shall never forget the years I spent in Lebanon, the mother homeland, nor shall I forget the warm friendships I have there, especially in the circle of the American University."

The Woman's Voice congratu-lates the two dear newlyweds and wishes them a happy and serene life.