Towards Mental Health in School
- Author:
Roger Myers, M.A., Ph.D. University of Toronto
Press, pp. 151. 7s.
This is an excellent little book written for teachers. It is brief, clear and, if in places a little too dogmatic and unduly optimistic, it is none the worse for that.
As the author says, education is largely a waste of effort if the recipient is not in good health, but while teachers have done much in the past to promote physical health, they pay scant attention to the mental health of these pupils, which is even more important.
If we are to keep mentally healthy we must face facts, and two chapters are devoted to the exposition of the true facts, as to the frequency and nature of mental illness and to exploding false notions commonly held by the lay public regarding them.
The next two chapters are devoted to mental defect, which the author very rightly describes as a minor problem compared with mental illness. This is a point that might well be taken in this country, where intellectual impairment is still erroneously regarded as far more impor- tant than emotional impairment. The causes of mental deficiency are discussed; and if the author lays less stress on heredity than some would consider justifiable, he rightly points out that while mental defectives cannot be improved in their mental capacity, they can all be raised to the limits of their capacity by careful and suitable instruction. Many teachers would do well to take to heart the remark, ” It would be as senseless to whip a weak child for failing to lift a heavy weight as to punish a mentally defective child for failing to add or spell correctly.” The mental diseases are next discussed with remarkable accuracy, considering the simple language used. Exception might be taken to the implication that the functional psychoses are nothing but perpetuations of faulty habits of adjustment to environment acquired in child- hood, but nothing but good can come of the exhortation to teachers to do their best to help children to free themselves from, or better still to avoid faulty attitudes towards life. Amongst the methods, perhaps one of the most important is the avoidance of too much competition, especially speed tests, for in these the same children will almost always lead and the same group will always fail, and whether the over- weaning conceit induced in the first group or the inferiority of the last is the greater evil is a moot point.
In the second part of the book, which deals more specifically with the problem of the child in school, these faults are excellently described and the proper attitude of the teacher is outlined. The latter is specially warned that the naughty child is much more likely to be emotionally healthy than the over-good child, and a very true adage is quoted: “There are three main principles to employ in the treatment of the timid child “, or, indeed, of any child. ” The first is tact, the second is tact, and the third is tact.” Finally, there is a valuable chapter on the preservation of the teacher’s own mental health, for, as has been statistically proved, it is found that there is a greater proportion of emotionally unstable children in the classes of teachers who are themselves not well adjusted in their emotions, than in those with a sane and calm outlook on life.
Altogether an admirable little book which all might read with profit.
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