Sad, Bad, Mad: Responding to <i>the Health of Canada's Children</i>

THE TEACHER who ruled one-room school I attended in late 1950s had only a meager supply of pedagogical references. The books behind her desk seemed to be limited to teacher's editions of our readers and textbooks - versions that we students were prevented from examining too closely. After all, these hefty volumes contained the answers. At end of her shelf leaned a few small books designed to guide and advise isolated teacher, and I wondered what they contained. One that seemed darkly mysterious to my 8-year-old mind was called Mental Hygiene for Children. In those unenlightened times, was epithet of choice hurled thoughtlessly at anyone and everyone who behaved in even slightly peculiar ways. I knew that had to do with washing hands and cleaning fingernails, which were inspected every morning by our teacher. In name of hygiene, those of us who failed fingernail inspection were sent to cloakroom and required to brush our nails until our fingertips were scarlet. This could explain why I found concept of puzzling and somewhat frightening. I could only imagine that mental hygiene entailed a kind of vigorous brain- scrubbing, which, even though it had not yet been undertaken by stern Mrs. Baker, might be initiated in response to any behavior of which she did not approve. Such were simple fears of simpler times. It is unlikely that many of today's students fear being ambushed by teachers wielding brain-scrubbers, but according to a new report published by Canadian Institute of Child Health, of children and youths needs our urgent attention.1 The Health of Canada's Children is institute's third and most comprehensive report. Its ambitious scope is even more remarkable because data that appear in each of 11 thematically arranged chapters were assembled by experts, volunteers, activists, and young people themselves. Predictably, scrutiny of available data reveals how much information remains to be captured and raises questions about whether conventional indicators of such complex phenomena as mental health are adequate in changing times. The analytical problems multiply when changes to Canada's health-care system are factored in. For example, if fewer youths are being admitted to hospitals for psychiatric reasons, is need for acute care decreasing, or is any decline in hospital admissions merely inevitable result of reduction of available psychiatric beds? Such interpretive dilemmas aside, using results of several national longitudinal surveys and a few provincial studies, report presents more than mere snapshots. Trend lines are developing, as well as policy implications for governments and schools, and even for how parents greet their children at end of day - although such patterns may not fit technical definition of policies. Among report's more notable findings: * Children are acquiring same indifference to others of which adults are accused. Among children aged 4 to 11, parents report that only 40% of boys and 54% of girls often show sympathy; only 39% of boys and 51% of girls often offer help to other children. * Asked whether other students in their classes were often or always kind and helpful, almost 80% of Danish and Swedish 13-year- olds said that they were. Fewer Canadian students saw their peers this way: only 42% of boys and 50% of girls expressed this view, although these numbers are considerably above 34% and 39% of American boys and girls who saw habitual helpfulness in others. * Parents admit that both and aggression increases as their children age: by 11 years of age, 16% of boys are exhibiting direct aggression, such as hitting others, while 14% of girls practice indirect aggression, such as social exclusion. * Bullying behavior seems to have increased between 1994 and 1998, although it is possible that growing attention to this problem has raised awareness and influenced reporting rates. …

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