The Waterbury Democrat., 1932-02-11
HOW THE CHILD
 SHOULD GROW UP
Duty of Putting Him on Right Road Rests
 With Parents
Z. PRACTICAL TALK

If a child is to grow up to make a good adjustment to society with proper human relationships and re- spect for law and authority, the duty rests with its parents not merely to see that the child is obe- dient, but that he has the proper conception and respect of author ity, Dr $. Harcourt Peppard, direc- tor of the Bureau of Mental Hy- giene of the state department of health, declared to-day, speaking over station WTIC, Hartford, in the health departments weekly broadcast.
 Dr Peppard's talk was in part as follows:
 Parents represent the first authority with which the child comes in contact and the school represents his first contact with or ganized authority. From his early experiences with authority a child will form his conception of it. His meek submission, while believing 1t to be cruel and unfair, is not any more desirable than his open re- bellion. He should conceive it as an essential and understanding force, which is fair and just and designed to make living safe and harmonious.
 '"The attitude towards authority which is gained from early eXpe- riences may be carried over and later emerge, as the attitude to- wards law and order. If the habit of disobedience is not corrected it may lead to delinquent behavior and incorrigibility. Correction docs not mean that the child changes from disobedience to obedience. It means that with this change there are also changes in the child s conception of, and attitude towards authority.
 Ut is a we'll recognized fact that there is wide variation in chill ments, thus making it easier to train some than others, but care full analysis of the causes of dis obedience, however leads very def initely to the opinion that the most important single factor determin- ing it is how these problems have been met by the parents and teachers.
 "The training of child to obey should begin in infancy and no matter how young a child, he should not be permitted to do as he pleases on the theory that when he gets a little older he will either outgrow the habit or be made to
 "What is your attitude towards obedience? Do you expect your child to obey, or do you expect him to disobey? Do you repeat your request a number of times. speaking louder with each repeti- tion and finally. becoming angry, or, do you speak calmly and quiet ly, making sure you have your childs attention and that he under stands you? Children soon learn to tell by the sound of your voice when the "dead line" has been reached and wait until then before obeying. Do you give unreason- able commands, do you ask him to do unimportant things when he is busily engaged doing something tremendously important to him; or are your commands always reason able? Do you take into account what your child is doing. recognize his rights, give him sufficient warning, then allow him a reason able time to finish his activity? Do you make promises. then fail to | keep your word or uOcS youi IIliu trust you? Does he know that your threats are hollow, because you never carry them out and respond accordingly? Do you have to br1be your child to get him to obey? Has he learned that by holding out he can get bigger rewards or have you learned that promised rewards are of no permanent value.
 Docs your child enjoy the extra attention he gets and the excite ment his disobedience creates or are his needs for attention and ex- citement being met by less disturb, ing and more constructive means
 "From the above. it may be ap- parent that the essential thing IS not whether a child obeys or dis obeys, but it is, what is the child s conception of authority. and what attitude is he developing towards 1t? To make a good adjustment to society. and to maintain satis- factory human relationships. child must learn to respect and