Personality begins very early and persists very late

Persons concerned with education need to remind themselves constantly that the family has had the child under its influence long before the school and continues to have him throughout school experience. It is in the home, very largely, that the stage is first set for learning patterns of human behavior. Practically unanimous agreement exists among psychiatrists and mental hygienists as to the significance of early family life for mental health.

Possibilities for the school, therefore, are definitely limited at the start. The "education" of the child has been under way for a number of years before he comes to school. What education can do for mental health will depend to a considerable extent on what the family and home have already done; also on what the family continues to do while the youngster is in school. Where the public educational provision includes the nursery school, as it should, the school is able to exert its influence at an earlier stage, of course, but the part of the home remains highly significant even then.

Most authorities believe that the influence of the home and family in making or breaking wholesome personality begins very early and persists very late. Babies in the first year, who showed all the marked differences that characterize later personalities--some slow in their reactions, phlegmatic, dull; others quick, amiable, responding with distinct pleasure to the different stimuli, or with clear evidence of discomfort. At the other end of the scale, there have been some noteworthy cases of adjustment of very difficult boys and girls in foster home surroundings long after older adolescence and beyond.

Clinical case records indicate that the home is still the major force in forming the personality of children. On the ground that home life, quite apart from its physical aspects, may react upon the health of the child by its confusion and discord, or by its harmony and peace, and "this in turn is largely the result of the parents' own emotional adjustment.

It is in the home that the child's needs for affection, security, and opportunities for growth or development, which play so important a part in shaping his personality, are met or thwarted. Even the most affectionate and intelligent parents may not always fully understand the child's needs for security and growth. Security is founded upon the emotional maturity of parents, upon justice, truthfulness, regularity, order and serenity in the home. Opportunities for development can be given the child only by parents who want to see him grow and give him every chance to utilize and enlarge his own powers.