The Waterbury Democrat., 1939-08-15
INTROvERSION AND PHYSICAL
 DEFICIENCY

INTROVERSION AND PHYSICAL
 DEFICIENCY
 What do the psychologists mean by introversion and introvert? Don't let 1t get ou down. Introversion is simply finding ones satisfactions in the inner life of thought and fancy: being endowed with imagination; in- clined to think more and perhaps talk less than others do. So 1t is not at all bad to be an ntrovert-unless you take morbid view of 1t and de- velop an inferiority feeling.
 What this world needs right now is more introverts. If there were only some means to keep introverts from drifting into morbid daydreaming and idle speculationl As things are there is always the danger that the habit of thinking may pass over the line into the realm of fantasy. Per- haps the best preventative against this aberrant propensity is proper physical education Educators in general and parents are so ignorant of the significance and importance of physical education, that most children get little of it during the school days. Who directs and con- trols the physical side of the early training of boys and girls in Yank- eeland? Educators? Don't be silly. Sporting people elbow the qualified instructors aside and take charge of athletics. The parents, poor fish, have to like 1t, since they have nei- ther the knowledge nor the courage to stop the disgraceful exploitation.
 The introverted child with studi- ous indoor tendencies and weak muscles of poor tone, elasticity, agil- ity, is prone to develop spiral curva- ture. The child who is ,ear-sighted (myopic) is usually ''.clined to be an introvert, simply because such , child cannot see well enough to play his part in tive games with out glasses and with glasses the fear of injury inhibits the child's activity. So he turns to reading or other se- dentary indoor pastimes in lieu of vigorous outdoor play with other children.
 Even in hospitals for the insane the mental condition of patients is uniformly improved when they can be persuaded to play real games of agility and skill or participate in any kind of orderly, systematized ath- letic activity or physical work. It is difficult to say whether ne- glect of physical education in child hood and early youth leads to in- troversion or whether that type or tendency of mind renders the child incapable of enjoying normal physi- cal activities. I may be prejudiced, but 1t is my opinion that the pri- mary fault responsible for many preventable deficiencies and many mental alterations is poor educa- tion.
 Orthopedists recognize poor mus cle tones, flabbiness of the body, faulty nutrition as g. primary cause of spinal curvature. This does not mean insufficient food, nor does it mean lack of big muscles. It means rather that the young per- sons vitality, health, resiliency is insufficient to meet the strains put upon 1t. There may be a degree of rickets, or of anemia. The diet may be inadequate in such essentials as minerals and vitamins, or not we'll balanced-too large proportion of food being refined carbohydrates.
 The school nurse, schoo. physician, gymnasium physical instructor or family physician should recognize these predisposing causes of spinal curvature and advise parents about them.