The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1934-05-11
Child Guidance
by
Frank Howard Richardson
M. D.. F. A. c. P.
Black Mountain, N. c.. and
Brooklyn, N. Y.
SCHOOL MARKS

Do you look forward with
dread to the day of the month
when your boy or girl brings
home the school report card? Do
you register pleased and proud
surprise, or panied and sorrow
full detection, according to the
size of the number by which the
teacher strives to express the
dizzy heights of algebra, biology,
writing, or honesty to which your
offspring has attained? Do you
offer prizes for "being on the
honor roll" and did you indulge
in fiction regarding your own at
tainments along this line!
If you are still naive enough
to believe that interest or ability
to understand equations, or love
of poetry, can be expressed IN a
scale of percentages running
from one to 100. or by a scale
of letters running from A TO
Cor to 2, for that NATTER then
for goodness sake wake up ana
be your own intellectual age.
Realize instead that children Of
ten lie or cheat or forge in or
der to get these fictitious grad
ings, in order to please parents
who have set up unfair stand
ards: and don't think you can
learn anything worth while about
vour child's problems, from look
ing wisely at his report card,
praising him for gain Of IL
per cent, or berating him for a
drop of two letters.
How than are you to learn
about his progress in school? In
the same way that you learn
what needs to be done to your
automatically going down and
talking to the one who knows.
Why not get acquainted with the
teacher; she can tell you things
lots better than she can express
them on a report card, even with
the aid of 100 numbers or seven
letters. Give her a chance to
talk to you about your child!
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
QUESTION: Dear DR.. Richard
son: The teachers and the school
doctors want my 10-year-old boy
to be protected against diphth-
eria. l distinctly remember his
taking the Schick test a few
years ago, however; so / have
refused to allow him to be pro-
tected again. For how. long
time does the Schick test protect
"a child against diptheria?
ANSWER: The Schick test does
not protect child at all. 1t is
simply a means of finding out
whether the child has developed
enough diptheria antitoxin in his
down body to counteract the pos
sible attack Of the diptheria
germs, known as the Klebs-
Loeffler bacilli. If you were
told that he was "Schick-posi-
tive" that means that he could
develop diptheria, if exposed to
it. If he was "Shick-negative."
that means that he is safe-and,
so far as We can tell now, safe
for life against invasion by the
diptheria germs.
QUESTION: Nv child was pro-
nounced safe by the Schick test;
yet he was given the toxin-anti-
toxin. Is this possible.
ANSWER: Yes. Most people
develop an immunity against
diphtheria by the slow process of
natural immunization: but in
many cases they do not get their
immunity in time. Hence the
campaign for hurrying up the
development of enough antitoxin
to protect, by the artificial injec-
ton of toxin-antitoxin. Your
boy happened to be one of the
lucky ones who developed enough
antitoxin without outside aide.
You have no need to give him in
'ections of toxin-antitoxin: or of
the newer and more popular pro-
tective substance known as "tox-
old"