OCR Text |
Show INFANTS' UTOPIA Youngsters Play at Will While Students Peek INFANTS' UTOPIA Youngsters Play at Will " While Students Peek " - y v j I srsas v ,. f'n'- I f: & i & $ i ' mil "f Here's how youngsters are allowed to conduct themselves in the special nursery of Fordham university's class in child psychology: Upper left: Playing with educational toys while observed (without their knowledge) knowl-edge) by students behind one-way screen. Upper right: Removing and hanging up their own hats and coats. Lower left: Ironing the wash, "just like mama" (the instructors say little boys are better at this than little girls). Lower right: Arising fresh from a daily rest period. By WILLIAM C. UTLEY IF LITTLE Johnny Jones next door makes up his mind that your youngster's sled is a prettier red and therefore there-fore more desirable than his own, and proceeds to appropriate it through the simple expedient of biffing your youngster in the eye and taking it away from him, don't tell your boy to turn the other eye and regard his neighbor only with humility. Tell him to biff right back maybe twice, just to emphasize his point. Tf vnnr HnnpMpr insists nn rilav- 1 ing with her dolls so long that she is late for school, let her be late; she'll soon find out she can't get away with it. And if you don't agree with these suggestions, you're probably not the only one. Nevertheless, they are characteristic of the New Deal in child psychology which is being given giv-en exhaustive "laboratory tests" for the first time in America at Ford-ham Ford-ham university, New York city's seat of higher education in the Bronx. Frisch Had the Idea. Fordham, distinguished as the alma al-ma mater of Frankie Frisch, is not accustomed to training her young hopefuls in unorthodox ways. Frankie, who used to play a whale of a lot of second base before aging legs forced him to the sidelines as manager of the garrulous Gas House Gang representing St. Louis in the National league, once gave managers heart failure by sliding into bases head first. All the laws of decency decree that it is far more desirable to slide feet first, so that your spikes may make hamburger ham-burger of a stubborn baseman, than to come into the bag head first, making it a cinch for the same baseman to plant a hard sphere none to gently in the center of your physiognomy. But Frankie insisted on sliding his own queer way, just like he had been taught at Fordham, Ford-ham, and lo!, year after year he was discovered to lead the league in stolen bases when the annual statistics sta-tistics were compiled. Now comes th Rev. Walter G. Summers, S. J., head of Forfiham's department of psychology, with the announcement that the university is testing methods of child training which may appear to the average parent just about as practical as sliding head first appears to the average baseball coach. The experiments are being conducted con-ducted with ten bright-eyed youngsters, young-sters, five boys and five girls aged three to five, sons and daughters of college graduates, and "signed up" by their parents for a year's study. For the babies, known at Fordham as the "Control Group for Study," it looks like a pretty slick deal, for they do nothing but have one grand time. The happier they are, the rfore successful is the course. They are perfect physical and psychological psycho-logical youngsters, normal in every respect. Talking harshly to them is strictly taboo. No one will punish them; no one will say. "Ah. an- mustn't touch!"; no one will "mama" them to the Nth degree; no one will hurry them up to eat their meals: no one will nag them, and no one will make them cry. In short, this is an infants' in-fants' Utopia. "Talent in Every Child." Fordham's pre-scJ-.ccl nursery is directed arid maintained accord-ing accord-ing to the teachings of Dr. Charlotte Char-lotte Buhler. cf Vienna, world-famed world-famed exponent cf child psychOp. I is und.-r the immed.ate direction of Mrs. Eir.r.ie D. Schlcemcr. assisted as-sisted by Mrs. .Viiia E'.ia. Dr. Buhler's principles are simple enough. Expressed fundamentally, they are: "Don't force a child's development develop-ment let it come naturally. There is talent in every child. Guide it when it arrives. Nature varies the pattern of every individual." Students of the course will be able to follow closely, under ideal conditions, con-ditions, the normal development of a child's behavior. Focal points are reaction to language growth, physical phys-ical development, intellectual development, devel-opment, emotional reactions and socialization. so-cialization. On the third floor at Keating hall, Fordham's new graduate school building, is a specially constructed nursery. Every day at nine the children arrive and every day at noon they are taken home. So far as the children ever suspect, they are being brought simply to a pleasant pleas-ant nursery where there are lots of interesting playthings, a place to rest and no one to spoil their fun. How to Stop "Gimmes." But they are not so isolated as they think. On four-foot-high stools behind a one-way screen, students of child psychology watch their actions, ac-tions, unobserved. The onlookers will be able thus to learn first hand why babies cry; why they shouldn't be nagged to eat their food; why they should be encouraged to take off their own hats, coats and rubbers; why they should not be rushed through their meals; why they should be encouraged encour-aged to return a blow struck intentionally; why they should not be rushed into walking; why parents par-ents should not be over-anxious about the early expressions in a child's talk; how to stop a five-year-old youngster with the "gimmes" (one who says "gimme this" and "gimme that"). To put it briefly, the observers may learn how to be better mothers moth-ers and fathers. "After all," says Mrs. Schloemer, who interprets the Buhler theory in the nursery, "you have to live with your children 25 years, and a few common sense applications in bringing bring-ing up a youngster might make the difference between a life of happiness happi-ness and one of regret." This does not mean a few "common sense applications" ap-plications" on the seat of the pants, either, she says, and she has personally per-sonally given individual training to 500 children. Parents Are Impatient. "Don't hurry your youngster," says Mrs. Schloemer. "Too many mothers rush their children through breakfast, rush them off to school and pepper them with a barrage of 'don'ts' only an adult could remember. remem-ber. Let your child be late to school once in a while, but show him calmly that he did the wrong thing. The average parent has no! ! enough patience. Any normal child i wants to do the right thing and u .il. if he is given prcjier direciicnal stn-! stn-! bi'.ity. F.ushir.g children thrcu-h 1 breakfast results in nerve us ind.go.-tion. ind.go.-tion. and fareir.g them to eat cjl-' cjl-' tivalcs it- I h..ve seen cn.ijrcn two to three years old vomit when food is put before them. Cause too much nagging by the parents. The sight of food has become revolting. re-volting. "When one youngster hits another, anoth-er, let him strike back. Up to a certain age, all arguments should be settled this way. It creates independence, in-dependence, assertion and ultimate understanding. Please do not misunderstand mis-understand that we advocate sponsoring spon-soring hand to hand engagements. To children two, three and four years old, words mean little. It is action that registers here. Naturally, Nat-urally, in adults it should be a battle bat-tle of words to settle a misunderstanding. misun-derstanding. "Don't over-Mama your child. It robs him of self-development. There's too much Mama-ing from grandmother, sister, aunt and cousin. cous-in. The child's mother should be the mother." Keep Promises to Children. She stresses the importance of adults' building respect through integrity. in-tegrity. "Don't change your mind," she warns. "If you promise to take your child for a walk in the park do it. Don't say, 'I've got to do something else.' A child wants to respect you. Before you promise something stop and figure out if you will be able to keep that promise. "Don't spank your child it is only on-ly an extreme measure. "Don't give your children trick toys, such as balls that roll back when they should go ahead or gas balloons that go up when they should come down. This is unnatural; unnat-ural; a young child cannot understand under-stand it. Let him play with toys that exemplify such things as rolling roll-ing down an incline when pushed, rubber balls that bounce, project blocks that teach formations. Let him play with sand, and with paints he'll figure things out for himself him-self very quickly. "Don't rush your child to walk. As soon as the organs are sufficiently suffi-ciently strong he will be impelled to walk. A child seven to eight months sits up and starts to roll over; at ten months he'll pull himself up on a crib and shortly after that he'll start to attempt the first steps at locomotion. You Can't Know Everything. "Don't rush your child to talk, either. He'll talk when ready. If he pronounces words incorrectly, don't attempt to correct him. Do that in later years. You can't speak a foreign language correctly the first time. You understand what words mean and later on you correct your mistakes in pronunciation. pronuncia-tion. Language development in a child is similar." Mrs. Schloemer declares no ordinary or-dinary father or mother knows everything about a baby, and advises ad-vises that a doctor be consulted occasionally, oc-casionally, especially in preference to experimenting when there is any doubt. "Don't give your children too much money for toys," she continues. contin-ues. "Even ten cents a day is too much. A daily contribution is a short cut to creating the 'gimmes' in your child. If he gets into tantrums tan-trums say 'no' and mean it hu ll get over it. Fordham's class was besiepod with babies for the special nursery when the tests were bein-; made, but the instructors are st.ll looking for a healthy pair of twins to arid to the class. In fact, they'll be doubly welcome at Kcatin? hall. V.'r -'.rrn Ntwsp.pcr UnlAn. |