And insult is added to injury when they finally end up wearing at school a handkerchief blatantly pinned to their smocks so that they will not lose it. The shouts they hear and the insulting epithets that are hurled at them hurt their feelings. since they are constantly being scolded on this score, they are sensitive about it. Children have a particular difficulty in blowing their noses. It then occurred to me that I had perhaps touched a sensitive spot in their little social world. I had never heard such tiny hands make so much noise, and I had no idea that such small children would applaud so enthusiastically. I wondered why, but I had hardly finished my demonstration when they broke out into applause that resembled a long repressed ovation in a theatre. The children watched me in rapt attention, but failed to laugh. I took out my handkerchief in such a way that they could hardly see it and blew my nose as softly as I could. Since after I had shown them different ways to use a handkerchief, I ended by indicating how it could be done as unobtrusively as possible. “One day I decided to give the children a slightly humorous lesson on how to blow their noses. Montessori writes about her experiences in the original Casa dei Bambini and dignity: In her book, The Secret of Childhood, Dr.
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