Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1955-04-07

1 should like to commend your
Health for ALP column of
March Bird because 1 feel that
such a common sense attitude to-
wards understanding our teen
ayers cannot be over-emphasized
When a boy or girl moves from
the sixth to the seventh grade in
Montgomery County, the change
may be almost as great as when
he or she enters school for the
first time. The change from a
class with one teacher all day long
to several teachers requires some
adjustment. When the teenager be-
gins growth squirt, when body
changes cause different parts of
the body to function at different
rates of speed, when an imbal-
ance of hormones makes it diff
ficult to get into gear, it is no
wonder that the teen-ager's be-
havior is not always consistent.
The bursts of energy and seem
,ngly limitless capacity to resist
fatigue not infrequently astound
teachers and parents just when
they feel most sure that either
fatigue or 'laziness" is the char
1cteristic pattern.
1t is very appropriate then to
get a perspective on those tired
less symptoms. His teachers, the
counselor and the nurse in the
school have often made observa-
ions effectively. They can help
evaluate whether the periods of
icing mixed up and of anxieties
over conflicting impulses are no
more than to be expected for his
Individual personality or whether
you should consult your physi-
clan concerning the many rea-
sons for excessive fatigue symp-
-oms. Are his complaints about
ceiling ill, his nervousness, his
headaches, his upset stomach and
Intestinal complaints, the girls
menstrual difficulties or even her
weeping and giggling seen clear
ly as negligible or deserving care
full medical study?
Adolescence is indeed a period
of storm and stress, when pre-
yious certainties are questioned,
when he is moving toward the
future in which he will have a
lefinite role to play. When the
teen-ager is seeking to establish
lis sense of identity, he needs
lime to catch up on his rest,-in-
Iced to sleep on Saturday as
,ong as is necessary for his in
lividual physiological needs and
20 recover his bodily residence.
Because the teachers in the
.unior and senior high schools do
not have the same opportunity
0 know and understand each in
dividual boy and girl as we'll as
the classroom teacher in element
airy school, Montgomery County
has recognized sthe need for a
full time nurse in all but the two
smallest high schools. She is
trained to deal with the pupil re-
ferred by the teacher-the child
who says he feels sick. She can
evaluate those real or supposed
illnesses because she is not a
part of the authority system of
the school and the nurse readily
breaks through the false front
of supposed ailments that are not
valid. She is friendly and gets
the pupils real reaction. She skill
fully observes for the develop
ment or abatement of symptoms.
When the teacher attempts to
take the time to understand the
meaning of every complaint of
illness, she must neglect her 9TH
err pupils who are there to learn.
But worse yet she is insecure in
evaluating the severity of symp-
toms. She knows a lot about teen
ayers but symptoms of disease
are not her speciality. In any big
secondary school the teacher with
over one hundred different per-
sonalities in her classes every day
can hardly be expected to recog-
nize the earliest signs of mental
illness. She might even fail to
discover the case who needs ex-
pert diagnostic study or the min
or illness that leads on to neuro-
sis and psychotic trouble. But just
as important as recognizing the
symptoms of mental illness is the
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