Friday, March 18, 2005

my have we come far

The May 1955 issue of marie-Claire contained a how-to guide for "winning the hygiene battle": an article that details how to give the next generation of French children the "cleanliness reflex."

The key to making childhood cleanliness an internalized, automatic response is to force the child to repeat a number of ritualized gestures everyday; to make children understand the link between dirty hands and illness, for example, make them wear white gloves for an afternoon and at the end of the day, show them all the "microbes" on the gloves.

Haha, what a great parenting tool.

2 comments:

faithtivity said...

is that to teach cleanliness or give them ocd?

anyway smancy blog :p

Emily said...

hah you know.. it could be diverse and be for BOTH..

HI FAITH i miss you.. when are you coming home