1 Parent and Child Editor, The New York Times
AS WE OBSERVED the family scene over the year just past, it seemed to us that public talk about the family, about what it is and what it should be, was taking a definite turn for the wiser. By this we mean that discussions of this sort seemed to become more logical and realisticmore "common-sense," if you will. In 1958 we saw a general easing up on parents, a tapering off of the blame-them-beat-them type of criticism that had flourished in recent years.
The expertsand we include under this heading speechmakers from a wide range of fields who make pronouncements on "the right way" to livecontinue to recognize parents as the single greatest influence on children's lives. But they recognize that there are other influences at work, too. Some are totally beyond parental control. They include hereditary or constitutional factors affecting the individual child, neighborhood conditions, the quality of community schools and services and, indeed, the whole state of the world.