Man and Woman Youth and Age
Youth : A Book for Two Generations. By Elizabeth Sloan Chesser. (Methuen. 2s. 6d.) Way are boys and girls sometimes sick of home and sick of school? asks Dr. Chesser ; why are they sometimes ill through hate and resentment and unsolved conflict ? The answer, she tells us, is because parents, who may be educated in the conventional sense-in that they can speak two languages and are able doctors, lawyers, soldiers, or what not, are ignorant of the human mind, unable to understand how to help young people to " find themselves." This little book is designed to remedy that ignorance both as regards parents and children.
Worry, bad temper and rudeness are all signs of a disordered emotional life. The perfectly poised person is never rude; and has almost certainly found a solution for those psychic conflicts that disturb the generality of mankind. In child- hood, however, it is abnormal to be perfectly poised and it is normal to be rude, or at least to have a tendency thereto. All healthy children _revolt against authority, and too severe a repression of high spirits may induce complexes which will be very harmful in later years. If, therefore, a child is in- tractable or bad-teinpered; er dull itAiis work; the difficulty may come from his-..emotionak life. . There may be some problem unresolved, some fear unfaced, which can be brought to light.
Again, the child:has as Fowl( right_ a&tlie adult to antipa- thies with regard to food; The cruel -plan of forcing children to eat things which they dislike runs counter to all modem ideas : far, better to allow them to go hungry if they will not eat simple food, rather than that they should be stuffed with what revolts, them. ,
Dr. Chesser has some plain wOrds for parents. A mature mind in a young body is now a commonplace among those of us who are in oily` fifties and Sixties, and the approximation of the generations which has been going on for the last two or three decades should make for happier relations in the home. To expect children to give up love and marriage and useful work in order to stay with their parents in their old age is pure selfishness and will soon be a thing of the past.
" Too many people's lives are' a Muddling through of mis- directed activities," adds the author—" periods of excitement alternating with depressing emotional moods." Especially in adolescence there must be direction, enthusiasm, energy. The question of diet is of the greatest importance, for the physical side of life is the key to the Mental.- " A great need of the moment is a commission of inquiry into the food supplied to children in school."- Here we most - heartily agree with Dr. Chesser. Undoubtedly there is an insufficiency of fruit and salads supplied in even the best boarding-schools and a lamentable dietetic ignorance on the part of those responsible.
Dr. ,Chesser has mach to:say op education, and_is. a. great advocate of co:education. Sex separation in her view is a hindrance on human progress. Here we are less inclined to agree with her. An enormous amount of illness and mental suffering, is caused by the ignOranice of both sexes, Of the psychology of the other.: It is-wise words. such as these which will make men and women see each other more frankly and fairly and will help youth and crabbed age to understand one another. Above all, this is a book for young women, for it should, do much to prepare the mothers of the future for the civic and political responsibilities they are about to accept.
Previous page
