Evening star., 1940-03-13
Medical Care
Cannot Help
Character
Child Can Correct
Himself With, Aid
OF His Elders
BY ANGELO PATRI.

Medical care does not, of itself,
cure character defects. It helps to
cure disease and it is easier for q
healthy person to be good than it is
for an ailing one. But, and this is
worth the consideration of parents
who have delinquent children, char
acter defects can be cured only with
the full cooperation of the child
himself. He must wish to do better,
try to do better, resolve he will do
better. before any change will take
place in him.
Because we have been careful to
do what was possible to remedy
physical defects in delinquent chill
dren in the hope of making it easier
for them to behave better, some
people have the mistaken idea that
medicine will cure stealing, lying,
running away, general good for
nothingness. Medical care will help
to clear some of the difficulties in the
child's road to goodness but it can
not and will not cure his bad habits.
Children are not born with bad
habits. They acquire them by re-
peating a thought and an action
often enough to set them firmly in
their nerve cells. The good habits
and the bad ones are set the same
way, and for the same reason. They
are ways of behavior that the actor
found convenient or agreeable or
both. They did not spring from his
glands. The deficient gland lowers
his resistance, clouds his thinking,
but 1t does not initiate action. That
Is left for the child's own decision.
He will, or he won't. If what he wills
is bad in the eyes of society it is
unfortunate for all concerned. If
1t is good, it is most fortunate and
everybody is happier.
But suppose it is bad? Max had q
disturbance of the glands. A serious
disturbance. He was not as intelli-
gent as he would have been had
those glands been in sound health,
functioning normally. But he did
know what was forbidden. He loved
sweets. He connected sweets and
money-he could not get enough
money-because he could never get
enough sweets and those sweets
were bad for him. He went out to
beg. He was the most expert little
beggar imaginable. Pathetic, help
less, needed money to get home,
please. Hungry, tired, sick, needed
a nickel to get home, please, and the
smile that accompanied the request
was charming, irresistible.
He was being treated for what
allied him by the best physicians in
the city. Still he did this. One
evening he returned to his home
after full days absence, his pockets
full Of coins. Where did he get
them? How? He got them from
people, for the Salvation Army.
Good" said his mother. Nov you
come and we will give them to the
Salvation Army" He handed over
his loot with tears and beseechings
for just q few pennies for a lollipop.
He did not get them He got a supper
Of bread and milk and went to bed.
From then on his mother made it q
point to take any pennies he had,
feed him the barest necessities, no
sweets at all, and no liberty that
could be taken from him, when he
begged.
He did not like this at all. He
began saying, If you let me play
with the boys this afternoon I'll stay
with them and I won't beg or ask
for candy" and his mother began
saying, "You can 60. If you keep
your promise you get chocolate when
you come home. If you don't, you
get nothing, 60 to bed. and stay in
the yard under my eye" Within the
year he had stopped begging. He
had intelligence enough to choose
the pleasanter Of two experiences,
and to decide to help himself to be
happier.
The medical care he got helped
him greatly, but it did not reach
those character habits. It cannot
do that. The child must help him.
self, aided hv his elders.