The mother shares many of these tasks with the father. Responsibility
for discipline, decisions, and training must be joint, but the actual
carrying out of these duties is the mother's. Usually the older
children help with the care of the younger, but the final
responsibility rests upon the mother.
[Illustration: A SLOVAK MOTHER, NEWLY ARRIVED]
UNPREPAREDNESS OF THE IMMIGRANT MOTHER
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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