TEACHING PSYCHOLOGY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17881, 24 June 1926, Page 4

TEACHING PSYCHOLOGY.

To the Editor. Sir, —I trust that you will print these few lines, an appeal to teach and develop in young girls the finest and best that is in them. When we follow the trend of evolution and see the marvellous results of man’s handiwork in all things, arts, sciences, radio, electricity, etc., a feeling of perfect satisfaction possesses us. We note with pride our buildings, gardens, amusements, schools —everything tends to the advancement of the race—and yet I feel we lack a vital necessity. Our hospitals, asylums and prisons are based on a high standard of efficiency. We spend thousands annually on their \ipkeep. Every day we see evidence of crime, sickness, and sorrow, and deal with it accordingly. Psychology says there is no sin. We are cast into the world as driftwood, so to speak, and float with the tide of environment, oblivious of the fact that we can swim from the fatal tide of destruction, and make environment our slave, xather than be its slave, if we know how. I earnestly suggest a school where plain psychology could be taught to all girls attaining girlhood. I know that much is done in the schools ot day, but not enough. We want more,

and we Avant girls to realise their true importance, the major part they play* in the race yet to bg. Our girls must know how to prepare themselves for wifehood and motherhood, must know the great bearing their thoughts and action haA’e on the unborn child, from the time of conception to the time of deli\*erance, that the child’s Avhole future expresses itself according to its pre-natal influences. For example, the child of a drunkard will be Aveak-willed and lacking in strong mentality. Any excess of emotion Aveakens the will. Any great nation must have great men and women with giant minds, strong wills, else they fall. No seed planted and left to the wind, can mature to perfection, it must have care and right treatment frorr\ the setting. Man tends to the mechanism of his car and neglects himself. Now, let us help him to help himself in the next generation, by teaching the fundamental laws of nature to our girls. Let us grasp firmly the key* to this vital need and help to empty our prisons, hospitals and asylums. We cannot expect to eliminate in one generation, what has been handed down for ages, but we can help by teaching and discussing good literature bearing on all such matters, making the school an uplifting, happy meeting place. What has been the dominant poAver of great men through the ages? A strong AA’il! rightly gOA’erned, enabling them to direct their thoughts along a chosen line at will, for the will governs the thought, the thought the sub-con-scious and the conscious, mental and physical, works out according to the pattern set. Psychology has far-reach-ing possibilities and I know of many Avho would gladly help if such a school were founded. I sincerely trust that this little seed of suggestion will bear fruit. Let us follow America’s grand lead and start now if only in a small way at first, knowing that great forests from little acorns grow; that knowledge is pOArer and that \ve can gi\-e untold happiness to many Avho do not recognise the limitless possibilities within themselA*es.—l am. etc., N. BUTCHER.