The Health bulletin [serial] - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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October, 192", The Health Bulletin 17
time. It may be that because the
\Yriter of this article is afflicted \yith
sufficient deafness to protect him from
this
useless chatter that he has a perspective
and a viewpoint that people
of normal hearing generally do not
have. This talking to excess drains us
of energy which would much better be
conserved for more useful purposes. A
man goes to the lodge meeting and
listens to hours of idle talk; another
goes to the medical society meeting and
the talk is often even more useless
still another will attend a political
gathering and the gas expended is still
more useless ; and worst of all are the
street-corner loafers and those who
take up their time hanging out at such
places as filling stations, around drug
store counters, and so on, where talk
is ninety-nine times out of a hundred
useless if not really damaging to the
character of somebody. "Women folks
have their clubs and bridge parties
which have now-a-days taken the place
of the old-time sewing circles at which
so much fun was pointed by the wise
ones in the days gone by, just like the
filling stations and the drug stores have
taken the place of the old time crossroad
grocery stores of days gone by.
They come home exhausted and irritable
and nervous ; and what has it all
amounted to For the most part an
expenditure of energy in idle talk.
Mr. Child, in the same syndicate
article mentioned, says that "probably
nine-tenths of the hate, fear, passion,
violence, and distrust in the world
comes not from acts that make real
difference, but from talk that makes
none.
Science is accomplishing many wonderful
miracles now-a-days, but it can
never devise a method for helpfulness
to the human race in this matter that
will surpass the command given and
quoted at the beginning of this article
"Let your communication be, Yea, yea
Nay, nay."
ARE WE HELPING OUR CHILDREN OR
HINDERING THEM
By GEORGE S. STEVENSON, M.D.,
Field Consultant, The National Committee for Mental Hygiene
It is a hopeful sign when we can
honestly ask for criticism of ourselves
and particularly so on such a i^ersonal,
touchy subject as whether we are helping
or hindering our children in our
efforts to rear them properly. Too
often, when doubts assail us, we look
merely for support and confirmation of
our ways of handling family problems
instead of for constructive criticism.
It is true we are all more or less
agreed, in general, on what we are aiming
for with our children. We may
differ considerably as to the measures
used in training, but we believe the
ends desired are, on the whole, the
same. Whatever the particular terms in
which we think of our children's interests,
in the long run we hope that
they will attain in their adult lives to
two things : First, they must get as
much satisfaction out of life as possible
and, second, they must be as useful as
possible.
The question arises : "Are we doing
for our children that which hinders
them or that which helps them to become
happy and useful adults" There
is no question here about our aims or
good intentions, but there is just as
surely .
question that many of the
things we do interfere with a complete
realization of our hopes. We try hard
to do the right thing, but, being human,
we get. excited when we should remain
calm, we are selfish when we should
consider the child's interests, we "let
things slide" when time can only make
them worse, or we fail to look ahead
as we should to anticipate future needs.
Our difficulties arise from the complexities
of present-day civilization
that make the natural, undeveloped assets
of the child frequently so inadequate
for adult demands. Were we living
under the conditions of primitive
man, we should be spared many of our
problems and our children would grow