Looking after the physical well-being of the children is primarily a
matter of maintaining them in health, and hence the discussion of
these problems is left to the division of this study devoted to that
subject. It is sufficient here to note that it is a peculiarly
difficult problem for the foreign-born mothers. Modern knowledge of
child feeding and modern ideas with regard to daily bathing are of
recent origin. In many of the countries from which these women come
they are unknown. A Croatian lawyer, who translated some of the
Children's Bureau publications, was very much interested in the one on
the care of the child of pre-school age. He told the investigator that
there was nothing like that in his country, and he hoped that this
translation might be used to reach the women in Croatia.
If this is true in matters that pertain to the physical welfare of
children, it is even more marked in matters affecting their education
and training. The modern idea is that the child should not be trained
and disciplined to be subservient to the parent, but should be helped
to develop his own personality. It is based on a greater respect for
the intelligence of the child and on the idea that the early placing
of the responsibility for his acts on the child himself will better
train citizens for a changing world, and especially for democracy.
These ideas are of comparatively recent formulation, many of them
dating from the impetus given to the study of the child by modern
psychology. Although of gradual growth, they have been for a long time
implicit in the current practices of the most enlightened section of
the community. They are understood by a relatively small part of the
community. They are acted on by much larger groups, so that it is
common to hear members of the generation that is passing lament the
lack of discipline of the children to-day.
The situation is complicated by the fact that many people who talk the
most about developing the child's personality stop in practice with
the removal of restraints, without attempting the more difficult task
of developing his sense of responsibility. The point to note is that
the native born, in part through their own conscious choice and in
part blindly moved by forces they do not understand, have been
gradually moving away from the old tradition of strict and
unquestioning obedience such as is exacted by military authorities.
With the immigrant parents the situation is very different. The
countries from which they come are not republics, and hence the
opportunities for training for intelligent citizenship have been
lacking, especially in the lower economic groups. The idea of the
government has often been rather to foster that training that makes
for good soldiers. Moreover, the civilizations from which most of
these people came were at the time static, so that the evils of blind
obedience and rigid conformity were not present to the same extent as
in our more rapidly moving civilization. Thus the tradition of
absolute obedience of child to parent remained practically intact.
Wherever this tradition existed the usual method of enforcement was
corporal punishment, generally inflicted with a strap. It is not
intended to assert that a great deal of child beating was prevalent in
the old country; in most cases the child learned quickly that the
penalty of disobedience was the strap, and threats became as effective
as its actual use.