Evening star., 1935-06-01
Delinquent
And Truant
Need Study
Punishment Stirs No
Proper Response
From Mind.
BY ANGELO FATRI.

THE delinquent child needs help,
L not punishment. The child who
is the terror Of the school, who talks
boldly and In crude terms to the
teachers, who, breaks windows, steals
supplies, plays truant, fails in all les
sons, gets into the courts, is more in
need of q physician than he is of =
beating. Beating Is about as useless
for. such children as human ignorance
can devise.
Before you can treat an illness you
must know its cause. 1t would be
stupid to buy a shoe for fallen arch
when all that was the matter with
your foot was = corn ON the little toe.
Then, before we deal with delinquent
children and herd them OF into re-
form institutions, we ought to investi-
gate very completely in order to find
the cause Of the trouble and then put
them where the cause can be treated.
What makes children delinquent?
Mental illness, physical illness, caused
by Inheritance; poor training, bad
housing. wrong diet, poor home rOu.
tine, the wrong education, general
mismanagement. The most common
mistake Is that Of doing something to
the child to punish him before exam
lining him to discover the reason for
his behavior. That is wasteful be-
cause 1t is ineffective. It is wrong
because punishment that bears no re-
lation to the cause of the trouble is
misunderstood by the child and bit
terly resented. 1t makes him the
hardened case.
he should be separated from his
group, observed by q specialist, and
sent to another specialist for testing
and examination. Here are some of
the causes that resulted in delinquency
among a group of children who came
to my attention. One was an epileptic
whose attacks came on only at night
50 the school people knew nothing
about it. One was suffering from
abscessed teeth. The casual onloOker
saw no sign of the assesses. A
truant had a home background that
was enough to drive anybody away
from it-a drunken father and mother,
q couple Of brothers engaged in under
world activities that brought them
into frequent clashes with the police;
nothing to eat. no place tc sleep. no
home worthy Of the name. A boy,
who made no progress In school when
he got there, but who seemed very
bright. indeed. was feeble minded and
had not suficient good sense to take
care of himself in the commonest sit
uations A girl who had terrible TEN.
per tantrums was found to be suffer-
ing from a tumor. All these we're
very troublesome school children but
punishment would be utterly useless
to restore them to normal working
conditions.
We do not need punishment. We
need enlightened experts. suitable
schools. trained teachers, and much
understanding and benevolence of
spirit in dealing with delinquency. No
child wants to be bad. No child
wants to be different from the great
group of his fellows. When one is
different he heels inadequate and in
his effort TO adjust himself to the
right size he singles himself out by
wrong means and gets into trouble
with the general group.
Every community should have its
children's specialists, its trained
teachers, its special school equipment
for adjusting the individual child, the
one who is different and in danger Of
being delinquent. A delinquent child
Is a challenge to the community.
'Copyrisht. 1a35D