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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    work requires too much concentration of effort and attention to be undertaken with safety. Even under the luxurious surroundings of a modern asylum, such work has a number of features in common with “ child-slavery.” Too much stress cannot be laid upon the isolating circumstances of institutional life. Nothing is easier or more certain in results than to crush and cow a child by marking him off with unfortunate circum- stances from the common life of young children. Even in so mild a case as some slight physical de- formity, where the child’s attention is thrown in upon himself, he straightway begins to feel himself apart from the rest of the world, he shrinks together like a withered flower. He loses confidence in himself, feels that he is in an unfavorable and subordinate posi- tion ; he comes to believe that the world is a harsh and bitter place for him and such as he. In the case of an “institution child,” such effects are many times magnified. His home, his dress, the demeanor and discipline of everyday life, all impress him with the belief that fate has dealt differently and more harshly with him than with other people whom he sees. He realizes that his position is one of subjection, and of necessity he must crouch down to the level of a con- quered soul. In such an environment, it would re- quire a remarkable child to give a good account of himself, especially from the standpoint of final devel-