Volume 3, Issue 10, page 10

lave -airrerent- cnildren, and that one
such child in a family didn't mean there
^ad to be another. Iu fact, mongoloids seliom appeared other than singly in any family. There were exceptions, of course. It
Nas good to know, however, that other chiliren of the same pair had every chance of
producing at least average offspring, and
night even produce children considerably
above.

Parents usually love their "different"
hildren more deeply than they do their
formal ones. The "different" ones need love
nore, perhaps. And usually, -brothers and
jisters of the "different" lavish love upon
the "different" ones. But not always. There
ire some parents who blame each other for
"different" children, and even some parents
who blame the children, and misuse or negLect them.

These first women, whose interest and
preoccupation with the "different" increas3d with experience with them, found that by
studying "different" children they were
Learning more about why average or normal
people, including themselves, behave as
they do. Clearly, the "different" were "hunan". It was more than enough to go on.
"Different" children seemed, largely, at
lome with one another., They looked at one
-nother, and knew. What they knew, nobody
lse did, but there seemed always the hope
f finding out. Mongoloids "talked" among
;hemselves. "Different" children of a l l
;ypes "communicated", if not with their
;eachers -- first the two interested women,
;hen State-paid teachers specializing in
the "different" -- with one another.

Each mother or close relative, each
father, or uncle, or cousin, studying a
`different" child, was struck by this:
Phere is a solution to that child, a key of
;ome sort, in the eyes, in the behavior, in
;he way he studies others, in what he would
;ay if he only could, hidden in him somevhere struggling, straining to get out.
Ve'll find the solution, uncover the key.

A child who habitually throws blocks, or
inything else that can be thrown, is taught
;o pile them instead, to build with them.
mother child responds to music, another to
;miles, another to something else. If a
;hild can learn his name, can learn to eat,
;o speak, to go to the bathroom, to dress
iimself, can he not learn other things?
For example, so many "different" chiliren, unaware of the outside world, finding
it quite beyond comprehension when exposed
to it, seem perfectly happy. Happiness it;elf may be a key, an opening-to a solution. Isn't the pursuit of happiness one of
the inalienable rights of Americans? What
if the mongoloid already has happiness? He
an be very unhappy, too. If tney can be
cept happy, do not those who keep him so
)bey tne Will of the Father?
And if he can be kept nappy, can he not
e happier doing something? Are there not
bimple things such children can do well en
ugh even to pay some or all of their way
Ln the world? They nave discovered in the
louse on Martha Avenue .that mongoloids can
e taught to read very simple things; they
an be taught to work in rubber, leather,
vood; they can be taught to make shapely
andles. rney have infinite patience when
they are "working". They are happy if their
In T 1. o S R
hands are busy, most of them. Can they earn
anything by the simple "professions" which
their teachers, inheritors of the dreams of
the two women whose determination led to
the House on martha Avenue, have nelped
thun, or are helping them, to master? They
cau. They may not go out into the world of
normal people and make a living, but they
can tremendously relieve their parents of
the burdens of themselves. They can occupy
themselves instead of demanding attention
constantly. They cease to be hardens for at
least some hours of each day. Thus they
save their parents time and money.

And money saved is money earned, even if
the "different" children never actually
earn a cent.

Mothers of "different" cnildren were not
much interested in whether their children
could make a living, as adults. They were
concerned with them as with all their children, in whether tney were happy, or had
some chance of being happy. They did not
wish them to live out their lives in exile.
Nor did they wisn them to be the butt of
jests in the world of the normal. All mothers knew what happened to even the slightest different, among the normal, especially
among children. They also knew that in such
matters, far too many adults were just
grown-up children.

Bat tne women didn't limit themselves,
or set a limit on wnat their children could
be taught.

They wanted qualified teachers to take
up where they had left off, teachers who
wouldn't set limits either, teacners who
believe that children could be trained,
whether or not they could be educated.

Long before they had gotten together the
34 or 35 boys and girls who now are trained
in the House on Martha Avenue, the two
founders of the Child Development Center
had opened scnool in the Martha Avenue
House.

The State provided four teachers, all
women, and paid their salaries. Every one
of those teachers believes that much more
can be done with "different" children than
educators generally have hitherto believed
possible. Only mothers, up until now, have
believed as completely in the possibilities
of their "different" cnildren as do t h e
four patient, persevering, eternally observant, eternally listening teachers of the
Child Development Center.

THE END
Oc10c
THE WORK YOU LOVE LOVES YOU
BY DEAN D. CALLMAN
Some folks just love work.

You may love your work so much that you
do not find time to work your love.

Work without love is slavery. Love without work is a delusion.

When you love your work enough to work
your love on everybody on that job, then
you have found the true secret of living.

ODsOD
More than a score of churches have been
burned during the last year, a news summary
reports, and it is believed that more than
a few might have been incendiary. One has
only to remember the "burn- 'em-at-the-stake"
history of Churchianity to wonder if this
isn't just another example of "filling the
oven with mud doesn't produce fine cakes".
4RCH, 1957