The development of the child / by Nathan Oppenheim.

  • Nathan Oppenheim
Date:
1898
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The development of the child / by Nathan Oppenheim. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    institutions goes, very little that is pleasant can be said. In most cases, the occupations are those involv- ing but little skill, they are generally of a low grade, and do little to train either mind or body. The chil- dren are kept at a method of employment that rarely varies, that blunts and stupefies nascent energy by violations of almost all the rules of healthful develop- ment. Steady work in such ways as picking hair, making paper bags and the many similarly trivial things which one here finds, may, especially when well paid for by the charitably inclined, add consid- erable amounts to the revenues of the institution. But this is gained at the expense of brain and nerve energy in the child. But even where the nature of the work is more profitable, one may still be sure that the children cannot gain thereby. For the essential characteristic of the child body and mind is the in- ability to concentrate attention or efforts excepting in a small degree and for a short time. Thus, no steady employment, even where it does not make a slave of the child, can do anything but harm. To obtain a proper diversity of employment is practically impos- sible in a great asylum, even where the ruling powers would be willing to follow any plan that could improve the results of their work. One should keep in mind that children, whose permanent welfare is a matter of importance, should never be expected to do work for the sake of an immediate money return. For such