4

MISS MUNSEL (VO) (CONT'D)

The table set.

Mother in the kitchen making breakfast . . .

orange juice . . . scrambled eggs . . .

toast . . .

MCU GLADI AT DOOR.

GLADI

Shan, Biff, Eric, bring David down.

Breakfast is ready.

MS SHANY DRESSING

MISS MUNSEL (VO)

This is Shany. She's seven. Her full
name is Darshan. It means happiness.

MS ERIC TYING SHOES

MISS MUNSEL (VO)

Eric. Age five.

MS DAVID ON STAIRS

MISS MUNSEL (VO)

David. Twenty months. His problem is going
up and down stairs.

JACK COMES DOWN, SCOOPS HIM UP, TAKES HIM TO THE
TABLE, PUTS ON HIS BIB, SITS DOWN.

MISS MUNSEL (VO)

David's father. The Reverend John Russell,
Jr. Not an average family, because no family
is really average. But a family very much
like many other families.

(MORE)

aac

15

## GLADI (VO)

But Biff ... from the time he was
born ... was different from the others.

## MS BIFF HITTING FRIEND

He cried ... he never seemed to sleep ...
he demanded attention all the time ...
he still does ...

And nothing I did seemed to help.

## MS CHILDREN ON JUNGLE GYM

Finally, when he was four, I decided being
with other children might be good for him.

## MISS MUNSEL (VO)

In September, 1957, Biff was enrolled in
the Milford Cooperative Nursery School.
His teacher was Mrs. Terry Kahan.
She remembers him well ...

## CU MRS KAHAN

### KAHAN

Gesell says that four year olds are out
of bounds and Biff was four years old and
he certainly was out of bounds in every way.
He was very loud, very noisy and very
active. Sometimes his activity would
cause children to get hurt.
Sometimes it was just too much to handle.

(MORE)

bg

16

KAHAN (CONT'D)

We tried different methods of getting him to cooperate. We tried inveigling him with stories, with little separate attention, but many times it would just simply fall apart. He would reach a certain point and then decide that he wasn't going to cooperate any more. We had conferences about his behavior and tried other things too but we got to the point where we felt that perhaps we didn't have enough experience with handling children quite so extreme and I suggested to Mrs. Russell that perhaps it would be wise for her to seek professional help.

DISSOLVE TO:

BIFF READING COMIC MAGAZINE

GLADI (VO)

When someone tells you something like that about your own child it's a shock. Automatically you say: it's just not true. But I know it was true.

ECU GLADI

I'd known it for a long time. But now I had to face it and do something and I kept thinking: what shall I do?

DISSOLVE TO:

MUNSEL IN THE STUDIO

18

FADE IN ON:

MUNSEL IN THE STUDIO

MISS MUNSEL

In the first part of this program you met
a boy named Biff who lives in New Haven,
Connecticut, and you saw what his mother
meant when she talked about the problem
of coping with his moods. Biff is six
now . . .

PAN CHILDREN SINGING AT SCHOOL

MISS MUNSEL (VO)

He is in the first grade at the Worthington
Hooker School . . .

He likes school . . . most of the
time . . .

CU BIFF SINGING

MISS MUNSEL (VO)

The times Biff doesn't like school are
when he isn't allowed to do what he feels
like doing. Then he goes into one
of his moods.

Then he is the way he was two years ago
when his nursery school teacher said she
couldn't keep him in her class.

CU BIFF WORKING

bg

21

## GLADI

I was shocked when Dr. Hamburger said
that I could dislike my child. I think
we all have advice from so many different
places and so many different people.

I have read the books, as many people do,
when the children were very young and I
have consulted with these books on how
to handle a type child as Biffy is. The
books have said to be firm, to be friendly,
to be just, to be positive, and here I've
been told to be something else again.

## MS GLADI

And then we have our friends, and my
friends, and each one tells me how they
would handle Biffy but they seem to feel
that if Biffy was their child they would
handle him this way or that way and
therefore the advice that I've gotten
from these friends has been overwhelming
because it is all so very different.

## MS PAT QUISH

### QUISH

Gladi and I are best friends. We disagree
with the bringing up of our children --
and very violently. I would discipline
Biff. I wouldn't let him get away with
things that other children in other
homes don't get away with. I would
punish him when he's wrong. (MORE)