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Your Baby's Amazing Brain
The exhibition, Your Baby’s Amazing Brain is a 48-foot, traveling, walk-thru, interactive mobile exhibition designed to showcase the importance of developing minds in babies, infants and toddlers from birth up to age 5.

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Don't Judge an Old Textbook
by Its Dusty Cover

Many readers have had a chance to visit MOTAL’s gallery and event space. If you would like to visit, just reply to this email! Many artifacts are on display and their interesting stories, often provided by the donors, are available to read via QR codes and notebooks. The following article comes to you from our current intern, Isabelle Madrid. Her specialty is archival research, preservation, and display. Please enjoy!

Despite the wide belief that mental health is a modern concept, mental hygiene was first coined in 1843 by American psychiatrist, William Sweetser. In his book, Sweetser discussed the importance of managing stress, regulating emotions, and building healthy relationships. Mental Hygiene was something not largely discussed by those in society until after 1908, when Clifford Whittingham Beers published his popular book A Mind That Found Itself. Beers discussed his intentions to humanize caring for those with mental disorders, leading to the creation of the Mental Hygiene Society, and eventually a National Committee (Bertolote). The National Committee of Mental Hygiene focused on assisting all cases regardless of severity, and therefore the mental hygiene movement directed its efforts towards improving all psychiatric knowledge and care. Eventually, specialists realized the importance of everyone maintaining their mental hygiene, and the ways it would improve education, extracurriculars, and general health.

Around this same time, others were studying school systems and working to better utilize schools as places for children to grow, to learn, and to prepare for future adulthood. In 1920, Ellwood P. Cubberley published The History of Education, where he describes how there was “A new estimate as to the value of child life” (A History of Education pg.812). When discussing schools of the past, he mentions the “…extreme brutality of the school…neglect, abuse, mutilation, excessive labor, heavy punishments, and often virtual slavery awaited children everywhere up to recent times,” (A History of Education pg.812). Traditionally, schools were not sustainable, educational places due to the burdens being placed on children at school, at home, and at work. By voicing the new value of childhood he connects to the research being done on promoting the mental hygiene of students. If it was possible to make youth enjoyable and educational, and help the school system evolve, it was believed that the number of mental disabilities in those affected by their childhood would decrease. The importance of mental hygiene had to be popularized, and schools had to be made accessible, enjoyable, and educational.

In 1947 Ellwood P. Cubberley published an updated book, titled Public Education in the United States. This edition contained updates and revisions regarding mental hygiene, reforming educational materials, and the inclusion of teachers within the evolution of schools. Cubberley claims, “We now know that there should be joy and pleasure in the school work, and the ambitions of young people should be encouraged, that destructive criticism is not good…and that proper cooperation between home and school should be maintained in the best results from the point of view of mental hygiene are to be attained,” (Public Education in the United States pgs.621-22.) The discovery that encouraging children and allowing them to learn while having fun were vital. Since this revelation, children’s learning materials have remained positive spaces to encourage growth, development, and mental health as well as being both educational and entertaining. Cubberley discusses the significance for educational systems to, “make efforts to give their teachers training in understanding [child mental hygiene], shall we be able to build up in our schools that healthful atmosphere that results in the best of mental health and development,” (Public Education in the United States pg.622). The gravity placed upon teachers to play a key role in supporting the mental hygiene of themselves and the students was something necessary in the development of the school system. Teachers were and continue to be integral as mentors for students in the evolution of the education system.

After Cubberley’s revised edition, mental hygiene became a more commonplace point of emphasis for students. Textbooks such as the 1958 All Aboard for Health by Buckard, Chambers, and Maroney discuss aspects of personal hygiene as well as mental hygiene. The main points on mental health are to keep close to family and friends, to maintain friendly, healthy habits, and to try to maintain a cheerful disposition. Despite being quite basic aspects of mental health, they are the building blocks much of our later research was built upon. For example, they state that “Good mental habits are formed in the same ways as other health habits, by following these rules: Get a clear idea of what you are to do. Practice, or do it the same way, over and over again. Do it regularly,” (All Aboard For Health pg.156). Practicing healthy habits turns them into a routine, and repeating bad habits encourages bad mental hygiene. Furthermore, they say to “Do tasks cheerfully…Cheerfulness makes work seem easier,” (All Aboard For Health pg.157) This advice is beneficial--we do know how much mindset affects one’s mental health now, but it leaves a lot behind that will not be fixed by the facade of a positive mindset. As we understand much more now, mental illness may not be fully solved by only a positive attitude, good habits, and a solid support system of family and friends, but without these aspects it would be nearly impossible to move on.

The Museum of Teaching and Learning educates visitors on education as a whole--including educational equality and accessibility, how people learn, and the history of the education system. Our collection has both of Cubberley’s books on education and All Aboard for Health, which we invite curious guests to investigate. Furthermore, we have a large number of both entertaining and educational interactive learning materials such as our Wonder Number Board Game and our Rosie’s Walk Sign Language CD-ROM. It is important to recognize the evolution of the school system and of learning tools, as well as why this evolution occurred. Mental Health is so deeply integrated into all aspects of being a student in modern days, but it has been a long road getting to this point. To this day, health classes in both junior high and high schools have units regarding protecting one’s mental health. School systems, being a student, and being a teacher have transformed greatly since the initial coining of mental hygiene, and it is important to remember this transition and its benefits. As we move forward, it is important to continue to practice beneficial mental health habits and to continue advancing these systems over time.

Works Cited

Bertolote, José. “The Roots of the Concept of Mental Health, World Psychiatry.” Online Library, 2008, doi.org/10.1002/j.2051-5545.2008.tb00172.x.
Burkard, William E., et al. All Aboard for Health. Lyons and Carnahan, 1958.
Cubberley, Ellwood P. Public Education in the United States - Revised and Enlarged. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1947.
Cubberley, Ellwood P. The History Of Education. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1920.

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