CHILD’S ROLE

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32350, 16 July 1970, Page 2

CHILD’S ROLE

The child was the paramount part of the family cycle as the whole of the future was in his manipulative hands, Dr Nell Begg told the Christchurch branch of the Plunket Society, yesterday.

If there Was something wrong with society, this was the time (when a child was' young) to start putting it ' right, he said. A child never really left his family but carried it with him always as an invisible prototype. i Dr Begg, the Plunket Society’s director of medical ser-' vices, was speaking at a luncheon held to celebrate the publication of his new book, I “The New Zealand Child and His Family,” Discussing his approach to writing the book, he said that history had been a comfort. I Modern society had various I pressures put on it, but such things had happened before. NOT NEW “We can hear voices rever-i berating through the ages,” he said. “Plato, for instance, said: 1 ‘Train children not by compulsion but as if by playing.' So perhaps we should make him patron of the Play Centre Movement.” Protesting adolescents, for example, were not new, he said. It was right, he felt, for young people to be antiestablishment and older people must be understanding of them. Looking further into history, he said that such problems as youthful aggressive-1 ness and sexual permissiveness were not unique to the present. CHALLENGE Professional people and Plunket Society members were partners in a challenge, he said. The professionals could sift out information and even advise. But advice was not the end of the story, however profound. It stood or fell on how it was applied. In writing his book. Dr Begg said, he had tried to put down something of value.

“But whether It is valuable depends on whether it is implemented and worked on.

“This is where workers of the Plunket Society can help by putting it into tangible action. The professionals have had their throw and it is with great pleasure that I pass over this book to you to translate what is worth while in it into what is actual." Mrs G. H. Grigg, a Plunket national councillor, thanked Dr Begg for writing the book for the society. HELP TO WORK

“I know what a great belp it will be to our work and it is now up to us to get the book distributed through New Zealand,” she said. About 60 guests attended the luncheon for Dr Begg. They included representatives of the medical and nursing professions, child welfare, social welfare and educational organisations, as well as members of the Plunket Society.