238 THE: EDUCATION OF THE: FATHER 



all seen the mother blamed for every mishap by the father whose 

 assistance might have averted them all. Let a group of fathers 

 order a push-cart man, selling over-ripe fruit, bad ice cream 

 and dust covered sweets out of the neighborhood and it would 

 have more effect upon the situation than all the lectures on this 

 subject from the desk of the clinic. 



The mothers form but part of the public opinion. The interest 

 of the fathers must be enlisted if the most successful results are 

 to be obtained. To bring home to the fathers of the neighbor- 

 hood a sense of responsibility for the health of their children 

 is the next step in the complete education of the mothers. 



The reply of one father when asked what help he gave his 

 wife with the children, "When dey's little, I play wid 'em; 

 when dey grow up I beat 'em" is full of meaning and sugges- 

 tion. The average father of our foreign population indulges the 

 baby and is "too hard" on the boys and girls, as the mothers 

 say. Sickness and death are blamed upon the mother, often 

 justly, but too often by fathers who have done nothing to help 

 until it was too late. 



In many cases, it has been found that only an appeal was 

 necessary to bring out a new interest in the father. Often to 

 maintain his authority as the head of the family, he says nothing 

 because he is perfectly conscious of his own ignorance and the 

 same traditions of his race which support his place as head of 

 the family, have also given the care of the children entirely to 

 the woman. The result is, he lets her do her worst and then 

 blames her thoroughly for the results. All this comes back to the 

 clinic through various channels, the mother, the visiting nurse, 

 the gossip of interested neighbors, the children, until the doctor 

 in the clinic begins to feel that not until he has reached the 

 fathers can the ounce of prevention he attempts to plant bring 

 forth the full pound of cure. 



It would seem then that definite plans to enlist the interest 

 of the fathers to educate them along lines of health is the next 

 step in the fight for the prevention of infant mortality. To edu- 

 cate the mother, only, is to neglect, in many instances, the only 

 channel through which the education may be effective, the intel- 

 ligent co-operation of her man. 



DISCUSSION 



Dr. Herman Schwarz, New York: I should like to say a word in 

 regard to the education of the fathers. I have some interesting 

 figures taken from our charts. In 706 families where both parents 

 could read, 2,426 children were born and there were 326 deaths, or 

 136.7 deaths per thousand born; where the parents were illiterate, 

 the death rate was much higher, so it is shown by our statistics 

 that the intelligent care of the children is better where one or the 

 other parent, or both, could read. It does not seem to make much 



