Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1938-03-10

There are too many too good little
boys and too bad little girls nowadays.
Such is the general impression re-
ported by DR.. Helen Zachry of New
York, who has been conducting an ex-
tensive study Of adolescence for the
General Education Board, at meeting
of sociologists here last week.
The little boys meekly mind their
mothers, keep their hair combed and
their faces washed. and come home
from school to study. The little girls,
on the contrary. are hard to manage
and do not accept life so placidly as
they are supposed to do.
1t is a common family observation
when little boy is too meek and quiet
that he must be SICK If there are
lot of such little boys it may be that
society is sick"
DR.. Zachry, at any rate, considered it
as slightly abnormal symptom and, for
the benefit of the sociologists. tried to
probe into the underlying reasons.
First, the chief contacts of children
of both sexes are with women, their
mothers and school teachers Male
elementary teachers are almost thing
of the past and fathers leave care of
the children to the mothers. These
mothers were in high school and COL
lege in World War days. Then every
thing was governed by the hurry-up
psychology. Both boys and girls were
encouraged to rush through school to
provide more soldiers and to marry
early so there would be enough babies
to replace the men who were killed.
There were not enough people to fill
the jobs.
This spirit was woven into the per-
sonality of the girls. When they had
Children of their own they were imbued
with the idea of getting their offspring
ahead faster. The result has been pres
sure on the boys and punishment for
failure. They have succeeded in max
ing them almost unnaturally meek and
mild
The adolescent girls relationship to
her mother, on the other hand, is more
initiative. She has caught something
OF her mothers aggressiveness and
achievement anxiety with the result
that she is becoming aggressive to an
undue degree
This situation is aggravated, DR..
zachry said, by the fact that modern
inventions have relieved the housewife
In fairly prosperous circumstances of
much work so that she has almost all
her time to devote to her children,
trying to influence their lives in the
way she wants them to 60.
Then there was the complication of
the depression. The attitude towards
adolescents by society at large was ex-
actly the opposite from that during the
war. There were no jobs for them. 1t
was desired to keep them in school as
long as possible and even to retard their
progress so that they would not flood
the labor market and they were espe-
cially urged not to marry.
These too attitudes have come into
conflict-mothers trying to rush their
children ahead in a world where it has
become desirable that they emerge from
childhood very slowly. It must be taken
into consideration, DR.. Zachry stressed,
because of its possible effects in pro-
ducing neurotic conditions in the future
population.
"A good many mothers met with in
our survey" DR.. Zachry said, seemed
surprised and relieved when we told
them that 1t was all right for them
actually to love their children"
Their inheritance from World War
days had been the idea that mother love
somehow delayed achievement, and was
wrong In . world which needed finished
pgoductS tor cannon fodder.