Page 13 - To Dragma March 1932
P. 13

22 To DRAGMA                                                                  MARCH, 1932           23

physiciar - have sent young patients to Top o' the Hill for this normaliz-    "Keep Up appearances
ing treatfient. This is the West's answer to the charge that nothing ade-
quate is being done for convalescent children of the upper and middle         "Psychologist Warns Women
classes.
                                                                                         Reprinted by special permission of the "Philadelphia Public Ledger"
     Those who love children find a trip to Top o' the Hill an unforgetta-
ble experience. Driving east from Los Gatos into what many consider           THE "skin depth" measurement of beauty is out! The time-worn
the loveliest foothills in all California one comes to the nine-acre Farm,           measuring rule of thin-lipped foes to the importance of pulchri-
five acres of which are in orchard. Unless one arrives during meal time              tude has been discarded. Modern "social" scientists have found
or rest period there are always boys and girls playing under the oak trees    a "fourth dimension" to that quality which, heretofore, has been con-
in the normal, carefree way children have when they are supervised but        signed to merely the gratification of the esthetic sense. Beauty is not
not directed. Pets have meant much to the city children, who have not
been able to have horses or goats at home. There are dogs, and often
a litter of puppies; a few rabbits, ducks and chickens, especially after
Easter. But the greatest joy is learning to ride the ponies, two of which
are always on the premises.

     Incidentally a behavior problem has several times been worked out
through fostering a child's love for animals and suggesting to the par-
ents that they provide a dog for the boy on his return home.

     But whether the visitor sees the children playing with their pets,
swinging under the trees, or lined up in some outdoor game, the things
that most impress him are their beautiful brown bodies, their happy
carefree voices and their evident enjoyment of their physical and mental
freedom. Seeing the children at a meal is likewise a pleasure. Although
a house mother sits at each table and the Hibbs family occupies a nearby
table, the children are not made self-conscious by the presence of their
elders. All appear to be talking at once, and in such a happy environ-
ment is it remarkable that children who cannot be made to eat at home
soon eat as much as the hungriest? For eat they must! A normal, well-
balanced and most attractive menu is provided, and there is no coaxing
or arguing about what shall be eaten. Even the tiniest tot learns on her
first visit to the dining room that she cannot leave the table until she
has not only eaten all the food on her plate but a slice of bread and
butter and a glass of milk as well.

     Apart from the great physical good hundreds of children have de-
rived at the Farm, few have sojourned there without also improving
in behavior. Especially is this true of the "only child" who has always
had his way, and of the delicate child who has used his sickness to
tyrannize over his entire family. Such children learn from their com-
panions what they cannot learn at home, and usually return to their
parents much better citizens. But when a firmer voice is needed there
is "Auntie Kay," as the children lovingly call Mrs. Hibbs, and as a last
disciplinary resort there is "Doctor," who stands for no foolishness. That
the system permits of no argument is a great surprise to the modern
child, but it offers him that other thing he greatly appreciates—justice.
Many a child has written home, telling about some prank, " I got called
for it, but I had it coming to me. I ' l l say this, Doctor is always just."
One of the most effective punishments meted out by Dr. Hibbs to the

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