What Makes Dumbo Run?

And so, concluded the tall, friendly colonel, the soldier deserted because he was afraid and lacked self-confidence. The seventh-graders nodded sagely, then piped up as their teacher called for comment on the visitor's story.

"The soldier's mother was to blame," remarked Billy. "She didn't allow him to be independent." A boy named Caleb thought the G.I. had deserted too soon: "If it had come to a showdown, the soldier might have shown more courage than he thought he had." John guessed: "Fear isn't always bad. Sometimes it's good. It makes you more alert."

Before the class was over last week, 25 or 30 boys & girls had spoken up, and before they knew it were talking about their own fears, despairs, excitements, joys. Even the shyest--after the class favorites had had their say--joined in.

The school kids at Mt. Pleasant Public School near Wilmington, Del., did not realize it, but they were guinea pigs in a new program in "preventive psychiatry," sponsored by the Delaware State Society for Mental Hygiene. The society's executive director, Colonel H. Edmund Bullis, prefers to call it "human relations in the classroom." His theory: psychiatrists spend their time straightening out maladjusted grownups; it is better to catch the youngsters before they get that way. Twenty-eight Delaware public schools have set up experimental classes in human relations.

Regular teachers conduct the once-a-week sessions. They start out by telling an anecdote, reading a poem, a short story or newspaper clipping, or playing a transcribed radio program. The kids are encouraged, says Colonel Bullis, to "speculate on the motivations lying back of the behavior [discussed] and indicate parallel situations from their own personal experience."

Some of the more spirited debates concern the personality of Superman; even shy children who clam up on everything else have strong opinions about the comics. Primary-graders talk about Cinderella, Dumbo and the Little Red Hen. More mature students may discuss the characters in Macbeth and how they got that way.

Says Bullis: "Because of their wider knowledge of practical life problems, some of the boys with juvenile court records have made excellent contributions to discussions and for the first time have achieved classroom success."

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