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Show PHOTOGRAPH BY CAKl BAKER This Gaiijornia community prescribes a devoted to adolescent ailments h By BRUCE LEE he was 17 and a senior in high school, Tom been a steady, responsible youngster. Then, for no apparent reason, he had suddenly begun swearing, smoking, skipping classes, and generally making himself disagreeable. Finally, Tom got into real trouble: he started a street brawl and knocked down a policeman., , The police remanded Tom to the Youth Guidance Authority. The authority, in turn, sent Tom to Dr. Arthur Roth, who is director of the Oakland, Calif., Teen-Ag- e Clinic, the nation's only medical clinic designed exclusively to help adolescents. The boy was suspicious and defiant as he slumped in a chair beside Dr. Roth's desk. He expected more blame, more lectures. Instead, Dr. Roth chatted casually about the football game Tom's school had just won! Within a half hour, the boy's churlish attitude had disappeared and he was laughing at the doctor's conversation. . Then Dr. Roth asked easily, "Now whatXthis all about, Tom? You've never had a black mark until this semester. Why now?" Tom looked steadily at the doctor for a moment Then he made a decision. He Unbuttoned his shirt' . and said unhappily, "Looky Tonj's problem was a familiar one to the doctor. His body suddenly had .begun to grow rapidly and, as is quite common among teen-ag- e ? included a swelling of breast tissue. Tom was bitterly ashamed of what he was certain were abnormal swellings, and had to prove to himself and the world that he was very much a man. Proving took the form of meanness, and led to the fight with the policeman. ; "Tom had nobody to explain to him," Dr. Roth recalled, "that the embarrassing swellings merely were a part of growing up and soon would pass. In the meanwhile, standing and sitting at military attention were dandy solutions." Dr. Roth's Teen-AClinic is geared to explain the endless list and emotional troubles that plague the adolescent Until - boys,-this-gro- high-scho- age-gro- up ms wth ge andVif-iiecessaryire- Growing up is a bewildering and frightening exproblems, whether perience and all the teen-ager- 's real or imaginary, are very important to him. "I believe it's time for adults to stop blaming teen-age- rs and try to understand them," says Dr. Roth. "I have yet to see a youngster I didn't think would make an excellent adult if only someone would take the time to find out what's bothering him and then propose a logical and acceptable solution to his problem. r "Medical science should be a source of information about growjngiip, available to a teen-ag- er when he needs iunost during the process. Aleen-ag- er balksat going to a pediatrician a baby's doctorand the adults' physician has neither the time nor the training to find out what's behind the .adolescentVbehavior and. aliments." ' a month visit the nine TMore than 500 teen-age- rs doctors at the clinic. Some are sent by distraught ol principals; others by the Youth Guidance Authority. However, most come voluntarily, anxious to find peace of mind. Says Dr. Roth: "We are general practitioners that medical science focusing on an heretofore has almost totally neglected. The teenager has all the medical and psychological prob-leof the adult plus some that are unique." any problem can have With a youngster, results. This, according to Dr. Roth, is because the teen-agereaction is closer, to the surface and his anxieties are more violent. With r's neither the experience nor the maturity to with- heed- stand tension, he spins off into one of those less tangents that puzzle and dismay adults. : The truant, for example, may have skipped school because he was convinced that the strange lumps on his body meant cancer. The girl with the excruciating headaches which led to a graceless rebellion against authority may be reflecting dread f eanor, pretty, more. Arrested by police for loitering,-obviousltrying to solicit men, she wasndirected taDr. RothV clinic. He discovered that she had nestled in a parked car with her. boy friend and, for the first time in her young life, she had permitted herself to be kissed. By coincidence, Eleanor's face broke out a few days later with acne. Certain that the pimples were evidence that her sinful kisses had resulted in pregnancy, the girl decided to earn money and run away from home. "Eleanor was not unusually na'iye," Dr. Roth ' says. "Fortunately, police saved her from doing irreparable damage to her life. But how needless the entire episode if she had only realized there was somewhere she could go for a quick answer to her problem. 7 "Every community should have a clinic for teenagers," Dr. Rothj:ontinues. "Growing up is a more complicated process than ever because of the speed-u- p in living, but our youngsters aren't getting the help and guidance they so urgently need for the process." There is a rich, warm reward for the teen-agedoctors. "I imagine it is much the same," says Dr. Roth, "as the Vninister feels in the quiet of his 15-year-- old rs' stress often produces asthma. And more pi f tory-aterhe4iaselped ally strong." COVER: linan, the teen-ag- er having such a grand time epitomizes the joy of millions of children beginning summer vacations. But vacations can be troubled, too. See above. high-scho- ol y at Captured byplwiograpKeirD enntsHdP es had tragic consequences for ElIgnorance nearly sopho- -rec- of-physi- are caused by unrequited love than an overload of hot dogs and milk shakes. "Teen-age- rs today have more anatomical information available to them than ever before, thanks chiefly to Hollywood," says Dr. Roth. "But' they have not been told the proper and moral functioning of the body. describes the strange, new "When the teen-ag- er sexual urges that course through the body, he should receive a fast, authoritative answer or' he may be headed for very great trouble." stomach-ach- June 4, mi LEONARD"? r ERNEST V. HEYN Board of Editors" BEN KARTMAN Executive Editor ''Vice President ROBERT FITZGIBBON Managing 'Editor . Director Advertiting ' MARGARET BELL Feature Editor MORTON fUMiKmrector of Publisher Rektiont PHILLIP DYKSTRA Art Director Send all advertiting communication to Family Weekly. .. .. MELANIE DE PROFT Food. Editor 153 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago 1, III. t ' Bob Driscoll, John Hochmann, Jerry Klein, Harold London, Address all communication about editorial features to Family Weekly, 60 E. 56fh St., New York 22, N. Y. Murray' Miller, Jack Ryan; Peer Oppenheimer, Hollywood. DAVlDOW"Wr-nr5nrPiWwfci- r WALTER C.DREYFUS PATRICK E. OTtOURKE 1961, FAMILY WEEKLY MAGAZINE," INC., 153 N Michigan Ave., Chicago Editor-in-Chi- 1,-1- 11. All rights ef reserved. |