 A baby cries with an inborn brass bound conviction that he's the hub of the universe That's Johnny as he arrives on this mortal stage. That's how he always arrived down through the ages The only thing that changes is what we do about him What do I do? What does he want? What's wrong? What do I do? Pick him up Let him lie Feed him Bobble him Pick him up Let him lie Feed him Bobble him The CBS Radio Workshop Dedicated to Man's Imagination The Theatre of the Mind Tonight, only Johnny knows An appraisal of the three ages of child raising Written by a mother named Johanna Johnston And narrated by Joseph Julian There's quite a bit of advice being offered these days on how to raise Johnny In fact, the racket is deafening Tonight, we add to the racket with a calm, cool review of the various ways Johnny has been raised in the past And what that led to together with an appraisal of what's being done now But of course, where that may lead, only Johnny knows Actually, the story of Johnny down through the ages could be told in terms of Johnny crying I want And the varying responses of his parents to this cry Sometimes he gets what he wants, sometimes he doesn't And the trouble with children today is that they get too much of what they want I beg your pardon, who are you? I'm a disgusted observer Oh yes, of course, I've read many of your letters to the editor in various newspapers Children of today think all they have to do is want something, and it's theirs by divine right No one of the younger generation is going to the dogs You know, of course, that certain observers from the older generation have been saying that about the upcoming generations since time began I don't care if they have or not, look at the facts today Children are catered to from the moment they're born Was it that way for our forefathers? Were the men who founded our country brought up that way? Very nicely timed We're just going to take a brief look at the situation as it was 200 years or so ago When our forefathers were being raised Let's take Johnny's prime desire down through the ages The desire for food, which he made known in the customary way 200 years ago Mother was right at hand baking, brewing, or making candles Because Johnny's cradle was right in the kitchen, the chief room in the farmhouse Ranny wasn't far away either, just over by the fire, spinning Sound like a baby What a pig he is, not half an hour ago I was feeding him and now he's hungry again Never mind then Johnny, if you're wanting to eat again, you shall have what you want my lamb Here we go There we are That's right There wasn't any hesitation back then about giving Johnny what he wanted When he set up that well-known hunger cry And that's just as it should be exactly Well now, another voice and this one belongs to... A modern mother And it's obvious your disgusted observer doesn't know that the modern way of feeding Johnny is no different at all from the old way We just call it the self-demand system today I see I'm glad there's something about the old ways that appeals to a modern mother The pity it doesn't go farther They may have spoiled Johnny a little back then when he was a baby But it didn't go on and on as it does today It isn't a question of spoiling him Now just a minute, let's see what did happen back then We're looking in on Johnny now as he was 200 years ago During the early era of child-raising in this country Those were the days when life was centered mainly on the farm Or a small shop in the village Our Johnny back in 1750 lives on a farm He's two now, proud of his first steps This morning he's been out by the barn where Grandpa's mending harness and keeping an eye on him Towards noon he begins to be restless Hey, not right yet Johnny Suppose you had me Hey, wait up there You ain't going to the house yet? Stop it, you want a good coffin? Now wait a bit There's a miter rum left in the tanker And here it is on the cross piece Here, have a swig of rum Johnny Rum? You're offering the child rum? I'd like a little explanation myself Everybody drank in colonial America Rum, brandy, some kind of spirits Even the Puritans As far as Johnny was concerned, after he'd had it a few times to quiet him He often set up a real self-demand for it That's outrageous giving a child strong spirits Well, life was hard back in those days and liquor helped Nobody knew any reason Johnny shouldn't have its benefits to But let's get back to Johnny There was a good reason why Johnny couldn't have mama's attention that morning Before too long, Granny came out with the news That the Lord had safely delivered Johnny's mother of a girl child Johnny wasn't much impressed until later When Granny carried him back into the big kitchen Hey, Johnny, it's baby sister's bed now No, my bad She'll wake the baby, Johnny You will be sleeping in the tunnel bed now Big boy that you are Come away from the cradle now No, no, no, my bad Here's the baby Oh, dear, the little one's waking this Stop it, Johnny Oh, mother, do not be harsh He doesn't realize His time he was learning then It may be hard finding out He is cockatoo snow longer But just the way of the world and that's that Leave him to me, doctor And that was how they apprised Johnny Of the fact that he wasn't the hub of the universe Back in those early days of child raising I am he cried I want You're not they said and you can't have And that's that Fine Perfect There was a little more of that today Johnny would be better off Better off? Would you feel better off If you walked into your office one morning And found yourself fired No explanation, no warning, nothing? Well, no The thing is they loved Johnny back then They wanted to do what was best for him Just as we do now Why didn't they cushion the blow for him? The Lord has ordained that this world Be avail of trial and testing Pain and hardship are part of his plan Above all else my soul Learn obedience to God's will A good many terrible things happen in those days Plague, pestilence and famine swept the world Without anyone knowing why or what to do Johnny had to learn to accept the things That happened as a result of God's will They were training him to resignation Oh dear, it's so sad Well, let's see if there weren't compensations For poor little pushed aside Johnny In this early era of child raising So Johnny, a big boy like you Mustn't stand idle While all else are busy Come help Danny grind the corn Come Johnny, fetch the basket to mother And then you can start on panglin The flax for spinning You can work the churn for a while now Johnny While Granny got some of the candle making Those were the days when a dog eared almanac Hung on a nail on a wall Industry makes all things easy Poor Richard said There are no gains without pains And the used key is always bright While there was plenty to keep Johnny bright Soon he was old enough to go out in the fields With his father So Johnny, I like this The corn down in the hole So far, no father And the earth back over it That's right Sure, you'll be taking over the plant And for me in no time So Johnny got back a bit of importance Once he resigned himself He might not be the hub of the universe But every day there was proof That he was a very solid, important little wheel Very good, very good indeed I like that I suppose our modern mother thinks it's awful And poor Johnny's being overworked No, indeed My Johnny has his share of chores, believe me Like what? Oh, I like taking bottles back to the store And well, emptying waste paper baskets Just as I thought Real back-breaking ladies All right, now let's hang on to our perspective The fact is the machine has done away With most of those vital household chores That used to keep Johnny so busy And could be some of that endless drudgery Of life back then kept him too busy Voted, not to have schooling this winter Voted, no money to be appropriated for schools And the count of building the meeting house Schooling was one of the least important aspects Of Johnny's life back then When a schoolmaster was hired in the village Near Johnny's home Johnny would trudge off at dawn Each morning to be at the schoolhouse by six Once there, for three pence a week He could learn to decipher the mysteries Of only America's most famous textbooks The New England Primer In Adam's fall we sin at all Heaven to find the Bible mind Christ crucified for sinners died For a few pence more he could learn ciphering The rule of three, the double rule of three And that was about it You mean that was all the schooling he had? That was it Unless his parents had dreams of his growing up To be a minister No history Geography? That was a diversion for a winter's evening When Grandpa sat by the fire And told tales of his youthful journeyings Or granny remembered old letters And so Dick Fittington went to London A great city in England that he is And he heard the bow bells ringing And clear as anything he heard the bells say Turn again, Fittington Thrice Lord, say, Lord, say, Lord Always before the evening ended There was father All right, not this yarn spinning Or the young ones will forget the Lord Put us here not for vain indulgence But to work for his glory We will kneel now for prayers And that was how Johnny was raised Back in the early age of child raising All geared to one goal You know what we want for you, Johnny That you grow up to be a good God-fearing man Like your father and his father before him It's you, Johnny, who'll be farmin' this land someday You don't want to do as good a job as your father, don't you? The goal was the status quo It was the stay-put era of child raising And it had worked with variations for thousands of years From the dawn of time till the industrial revolution Functuated, of course, by certain outcries What's this I hear about you spending all your time With those wild radicals in the village, Johnny? And this book I found under your mattress Pain's common sense Find common sense he shows inside in folks to violence In my day, there wasn't all this reading But nowadays, why, the younger generation is going to the dark Going to the dogs But that's ridiculous, utterly ridiculous Why, that's the generation that went on to fight the revolution Right the Constitution found the United States Indeed, all very worthwhile projects from our point of view But all Johnny's parents could see was the fact that Johnny wasn't staying put It really upset the status quo It wasn't a bad upbringing, though, in lots of ways Plenty of love and affection when Johnny was little A real place in the household Yes, in lots of ways it looks pleasant from this distance But it ended, and pretty abruptly, too, here in America It just wouldn't work anymore when that other revolution The industrial revolution began to sweep away all the old patterns of life Work left the home for the factory Young men left the farm for the city Suddenly it was a brand new world in which Johnny was being raised Only Johnny himself sounded the same Let's look in on him in the 1870s When the new era of child raising was well underway He's in a room of his own now Upstairs in a brownstone house in the city Yes, Johnny sounds the same But the rules are different Oh dear, oh dear, what is it? What's wrong, Johnny? All right now, Mary, he's been fed, hasn't he? Oh yes, John, just half an hour ago So I really don't know Maybe he didn't get enough Maybe, maybe If he got the usual amount and there's nothing else wrong No pins sticking him Then there's no doubt about what you do now Leave him to cry it out Didn't you study that book I brought home for you at all, Mary? Have you no memory of the passage dealing with Just this sort of struggle for mastery? I remember it, John, but he's so little now At such a juncture with the infant In order to determine the master And firmly establish authority It will be necessary to employ vigorous measures Vigorous measures, Mary It doesn't matter how little he is He's going to assert his will over ours, and it won't do I'll leave him alone now, Mary And let him learn who's master right now Once and for all And that's how they answered Johnny's need For love and attention in this new era Oh, I just can't bear it, that's all What's so wrong with it? What's wrong? He cried They went away and let him cry Let him feel small and helpless and alone In a huge, unfriendly world Oh, how could they be so cruel? Making sure they weren't trying to be cruel The world did become very huge When the tight family unit was scattered from the farm Crying about it, crying for the things he wanted From this new world, never did Johnny's father any good Now he was showing Johnny it wouldn't do him any good either I still say it's awful Well, it wasn't all frustration for Johnny He was the son in air Life might have rules, but he was quite a little kingpin Even so, until, of course, after a couple of years The inevitable happened Such a beautiful little girl, my dear Oh, how proud young John must be Of such a lovely little sister Come, Johnny, tell me Do you not find her utterly delightful? No No? Johnny, think what you're saying All anybody does around here now is gush over her Ain't she pretty? Ain't she sweet? Now, Johnny Somebody has their nose out of joy Oh, no, not really Johnny knows he's our little man He loves to protect his sister I do not, I like to smash her Johnny, why did you ever learn such wickedness? Your father will deal with you when he gets home Now you go to your room at once, you wicked, sinful Wicked, sinful Oh, she shouldn't have said that, she shouldn't There speaks the modern mother, all right And suppose he'd smashed his sister That wouldn't seem wicked to you either, I suppose In the first place, he wouldn't have smashed her He was just talking out his perfectly natural resentment But did his parents accept it as natural? No, they told him it was sinful, filled him with guilt Oh, why? Well, once again, they didn't do it to be cruel Back in the 1870s, they wanted to be sure Johnny had a very active, well-developed conscience A conscience that would steer him away from wrong Wherever he might go And Johnny had a long way to go back then All right, Johnny Do you read today's lesson? There was whose name was Harry His pa... Idle! And I'm afraid it's a word that applies to you A great boy of eight, and he stumbles over a word like Idle Oh, go on Idle, John He loved his book and was first in his class One morning his mother called... And so on, all through lesson 56 In McGuffey's second eclectic reader And all too very grudging approval indeed Not too bad, Johnny But you must work harder yet at your lessons If you're not to be like Idle, John Only that night talking to Johnny's mother It was a different story He's smart as a whip, Mary He's going to make his mark in the world I have plans for that boy, Mary Big plans! This nation is growing, and Johnny's going to grow with it There's just no limit to where he can go What he can be in the future No, not much doubt about what to call this era of child-raising It was the get-ahead era All the brow-beating, all the discipline All the loneliness had their purpose Life was a fight to get to the top Johnny was being framed What's this I hear about champagne suppers? Trips to New York where you've been seen with... Well, dare I call them young ladies? Is this how you throw away the hard-earned money I sent you for an education? What is the world coming to? Are the younger generation going to the dogs? That's all? To the dogs? Going to the dogs, but that's ridiculous The boy was just having his fling We all have our flings Then we settle down and do what's expected Well, it's perfectly plain by now That this is the era of child-raising That our observer really likes Why not? It produced the men who made this country great The men who built the railroads, the skyscrapers The industries that are the marvel of the world Yes, and it also produced a legion of lonely, bitter men Who weren't able to be the big successes That would have justified everything Men who took out the frustration of their failure On their children, children who wound up in their turn In institutions or on the psychiatrist's couch Certainly there are always going to be a percentage You were too lazy or incompetent to succeed No, that isn't the answer Everybody can't be president There isn't room for everybody at the top No, that's true, there isn't And that fact has caught up with us And brought a smack into the modern era And a whole new point of view about raising Johnny You can't spoil your baby by feeding him when he's hungry Comforting him when he's miserable Enjoy and love you, baby He doesn't have to be sternly trained And that, of course, is Spock talking Benjamin Spock M.D. One of the chief voices of the modern era of child-raising His mother will be all right if she is flexible And adjusts to the baby's needs Study your child He knows when he's hungry and needs cuddling Spock again His book on baby and childcare Has sold over nine million copies In regular and pocketbook editions And the same doctrine is being preached By hundreds of other experts So far as Johnny's prime demands For food and attention are concerned There isn't any doubt about the answer today Now let's take the second threat to Johnny's inborn conviction That he's the hub of the universe As a modern mother, I'll be only too glad to tell you Just how my husband and I handled that We started preparing Johnny for Susie's arrival Long before she was born We told him all about how the baby was growing inside me Good heavens, are there no sanctities left? He could hardly wait for me to go to the hospital And come back with his baby His baby But even with all this preparation There was bound to be a period of adjustment When the baby was actually there Yeah, shut up You keep on like that and I'll smack you one Now Johnny, did you ever hear Daddy and me Talk that way to you? You don't really want to smack, Amy Amy Well, what would you like to call her, dear? Did you have a name all picked out? Oh, dear, did Daddy and I We should have asked you Susie All right, we'll call her Susie Now, let's pick up Susie and give her something to eat She's hungry I'm hungry, feed me All right, dear, I'll feed you too Pick me Darling, I'm holding Amy All right, I guess I can hold both There She's starting My name's Susie Yes, yes, dear, please don't kick I'm trying to get Susie's bottle I want a bottle But, Johnny That's exactly how it is today And if there was ever a more disgraceful performance Disgraceful? I was working as hard as I've ever worked in my life To show Johnny that nothing could change my love for him He was and always will be as important as ever Oh, my yes Make sure Johnny keeps his sense of importance Whatever the cost Make sure that when he yells I want, he's never, never frustrated Find preparation for a world that's never been More full of things for him to want Yes, that's true We live in quite a different world today Than did Johnny of the 1870s The industrial boom was just getting started then But now Make sure your child has the latest Johnny will love this miniature steam shovel How about a model crate? A spaceship, streamlined bicycle Jet propelled beanie A pop tent, a swimming pool But wait, has he got a cowboy outfit? Give him the thrill of his life Getting his old Superman costume Ramen hood, up along Spin, cadet, clown How you tasting kids? Crispy, crunchy It's super delicious Ooh, the creamy Bubbling, sparkling, nutty Yum, that's one more case today A loaf, a bag, a box, a colo! And that of course, as every parent knows Is only a brief sampling of the thousands of voices Calling their wares to Johnny today Our country lives by full production And the only way to keep up with the tide Is by constant consumption Johnny is a brand new market A brand new market Already conditioned by his mother here To want every senseless, idiotic thing That's offered him Whether it bankrupts the family or not No, no, it doesn't work like that No, how could it work otherwise? Everywhere he turns, Johnny gets just one idea Life is a carnival Put on for his amusement Be sure to listen to Maro Kidd For another action-packed adventure When two guns humkin Four guns circus Fides again Yes, sir As a disgusted, objective observer I say, Johnny thinks he has to be entertained All the time today Fun, fun, fun That's all children expect out of life these days Is it any wonder we have juvenile delinquents? Now stop, stop right there Here's where you observers get everything twisted Children get into trouble and become delinquents When they're not given the love and affection my Johnny gets It's only when they feel deprived of love That they steal and grab and try to get even with a cruel world And that, of course, is the crux of the whole modern theory of child raising A theory that's grown out of the economy of abundance A happy, satisfied child doesn't grab at everything in sight He doesn't need it That's it? That's it exactly As Johnny's earliest needs were satisfied Now he can resist some of the pressures I see And does he? Well, of course he's young still and naturally And he doesn't He yells, he wants this, he yells, he wants that I don't tell me I've been observing this modern generation for quite a while now And I know where it's going Do we know where Johnny is going? Let's see if we can sum up this era In the same terms we summed up the others What is our modern mother's goal for Johnny? I can tell you that We want him to be happy Happy? What sort of a goal is that? Happy? How? Just doing nothing? What's he going to do? What's he going to be? We hope he'll be happy Whatever he does or whatever he is And aside from that You haven't an idea in the world of where he's heading, have you? Well, I know Do you really want to say it? After all, it's gone before? I do The younger generation is going After all the times it was said before and other eras There weren't any of them like this one Where Johnny's the unchallenged hub of the universe And nobody has any goal for him at all He's going to the dogs Two points of view And only the future can end the stalemate And who can predict that? Only one thing's sure about Johnny's future One fine day, he'll be a father in his turn And it will be his problem to cope with another little creature With an inborn brass-bound conviction That he's the hub of the universe Figuring out what to do about his child He may assess what was right and what was wrong About his own upbringing He may even have some pet name for our present-day era Certainly I haven't Because when it comes to what to call it Only Johnny knows This is Gaylord Avery inviting you to join us next week When from Hollywood The CBS Radio Workshop presents Dissertation on Love A not too serious analysis On the universal subject of romance By distinguished French, English and American authorities For fuller convention coverage Stay with this station on the CBS Radio Network