Russell on Parents

Should doting but fixation-fearing parents kiss their babies by a stop watch? Should a father merely shake hands with his moppet before retiring? Is it bad for a child to like his nurse? In the current Parents' Magazine, Bertrand Russell, famed British philosopher, takes it upon himself to refute some new-fangled ideas about parenthood, to disseminate a few commonsense tenets of his own. Excerpts from his treatise, entitled: "Are Parents Bad for Children?":

"So far from imagining themselves equipped by instinct to deal with their children, they [modern parents] read great books about all the mistakes they are likely to make, until they become so terrified that they dare hardly breathe in their children's presence and are tempted to leave the job to what are called 'experts,' i.e., to people who have read more of the great books in question. . . . Freud it was who first terrified parents with the idea that there is something sinful, dark and disastrous in the affection of children for their parents. Watson, who disagrees with Freud about almost everything, nevertheless agrees with him about this; he apparently considers it a very unwise decree of nature that children have to have mothers, but he hopes that the state will soon improve on nature's plan in this respect. . . .*

"A cat likes to lick her kittens, but her behavior to them is not in any way similar to her behavior in the presence of a tom. Yet I feel that Dr. Freud, watching her physical caresses of her offspring, would suspect her of incestuous longings. The Oedipus complex, where it occurs, is always caused by a wrong attitude, in the mother--an attitude mainly, of seeking from children a spurious imitation of satisfactions only fully derivable from sexual relations between adults. . . ."

Six ways in which parents can be bad for a child, as compiled by Philosopher Russell: 1) lack of love for the child; 2) possessive love for the child; 3) overstimulation (too many cinemas, plays); 4) too much repression; 5) discord between father & mother; 6) failure to inspire children to confidence.

Hall to Dartmouth

Dartmouth men were glad to learn, last week, that Edward Kimball Hall, vice president of American Telephone & Telegraph Co., chairman of the intercollegiate football rules committee, was at last to fulfill his longtime ambition: to teach at his alma mater, whence he was graduated in 1892./- Intimates of Mr. Hall knew that he was as anxious to live in Hanover as he was to teach there. At Dartmouth he will lecture on industrial relations, business management, public utilities, in the Amos Tuck School of Administration and Finance. Incipient Pedagog Hall will not have to worry about teacher's pay; "no arrangements for compensation have been made."

A famed Dartmouth alumnus, he four years ago built an infirmary for the college--Dick Hall's House--in memory of his son who died at Hanover in his sophomore year (1924). No small reason why Mr. Hall is interested in football rules: a famed footballer married into his family. His son-in-law is strapping Larry Leavitt, Dartmouth fullback in 1923-24-25. Of his entrance into pedagogy, said Mr. Hall: "For many years I have planned and hoped to retire, live in the country, travel when and where I choose, study, read and lecture at Dartmouth--my college--on the work in which I have had so much practical experience."

* His friends know that Dr. John Broadus Watson, famed behaviorist, vice president of J. Walter Thompson Co. (advertising), is quite normal in his relations toward his own two sons, Albert and James, that he eschews "modern" schools, sends them to an "oldfashioned" day school (Bovee) in the winter, to a summer camp during their vacation.

/- Another business man who retired to take up pedagogy was John D. Clark who last month joined the faculty of the University of Denver (TIME, April 14).

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