Salt Lake Telegram | 1937-03-01 | Page 10 | Special Caution to Parents to Avoid Handicap Inhibitions

Special Caution to Parents to Avoid Handicap Inhibitions This Is the first of two articles on regimentation: By OLIVE ROBERTS BARTON In a recent column on "regimentation'' or conforming the child to home government, I mentioned the fact that supervision could be gradually withdrawn, as "elf-control or self-government" be- came a habit This nsede explsinlng. You can't let any child, accustomed accus-tomed to being bossed continuously, go all at ones on his own. Not any mors thsn you can release the hand of a baby learning to take his first steps and aspect him to wslk suddenly. sud-denly. Or row a boy to dsep wstsr and tell him to swim. Self -discipline musUgsin its own confidence before being thrown entirely en-tirely on Its own. No one ever learns It complstly. Many never learn It at alL But It Is the perfect goal for the someday some-day perfect man. Inhibitions Are "Policemen" However, there Is an Important point to be made, la this mattsr ol saslng off the super-Imposed discipline disci-pline of parents, teachers, and so on, to the self-conduct of the boy or girL It concerns Inhibitions. I wish I could find a word that flavors less of ths gulds book. But I can't So let's get on with It Inhibitions Inhi-bitions are thoss - ropee, or policemen police-men or accusing fingers In the mind that hold us back from doing things, or even thinking certain things. There are some natural Inhibition! such as ths instinct that tells us wi can't eat bark and live on It Auk latent Inhibitions that tell us w must not kill or steal. . The east with which civilisation has fixer t thess Ideas In neighbors, shows thai the material was there, ready foi growth. - But most Inhibitions era man' made. They had to be, so that w could live together. But they went berserk. Bigotry and prejudice crept In. It waa considered sinful at ons time to admire beauty, and wicked to dress In colors. It wss even wrong to smile. Again, there was contempt con-tempt for other denominations or creeds, and children were taught that It was wicksd to love, or sven like, one belonging to these cults. Inhibitions Handicap Adult It has been considered wicked. In the space of history, " sven to spsak, and whols sections wsnt mute for years. And as for dancing that la wsll within ths memory of most of us, whsn to dance was to go straight to ths devlL All these things rssultsd In many an otherwise sans adult finding 1 himself powerless, once the bars wsre down, to smils, or to spsak, think sven, of perfectly normal things. As for dancing, maybe he eventually tore away tha mental ropee that bound him, but hie feet never moved In the stateliest minuet 1 without a feeling of furtive guilt in 1 his heart He had lost ths powsr of enjoying i soms perfectly legitimate fun. So In this matter of regimenting i ths child, it Is necessary to be care- i ful about tha "kind" of Inhibition! we Instill. Hs must havs msny, as thess hold-backs are necessary, but hs can also be filled full of non-I non-I ssnss, thst will rob him of ths t power of personal choice later on ' and fill him with guilt whsn doing a perfectly reasonable thing. We must analyse our own prejudices i and be surs of what ws are doing.