NOVA profiles Dr. Benjamin Spock, whose best-selling baby and child care guide revolutionized the way Americans raise their children. At ninety-something, Dr. Spock continues to mix a lively interest in babies with his long-standing activism for world peace, on the theory that war is potentially more dangerous to children than accidents or illness.
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00:01Tonight on NOVA.
00:02Ben Spock, the presidential candidate of the People's Party.
00:08My mother raised us all on Dr. Spock, almost exclusively, I think.
00:12He revolutionized childcare.
00:14But some said he took it too far.
00:17I did not come here to be arrested.
00:19I came here to show my abhorrence of the war.
00:22Activist, candidate, athlete, family man.
00:26The many faces of Dr. Spock, the baby doc.
00:39Funding for NOVA is provided by Raytheon.
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00:51Raytheon. Expect great things.
00:55And by Merck.
00:57Pharmaceutical research. Improving health. Extending life.
01:02Merck. Committed to bringing out the best in medicine.
01:06Major funding for NOVA is provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting
01:11and by annual financial support from viewers like you.
01:15The Victorian age was ending. It was the beginning of an era of major changes in science and society.
01:22changes in transportation and communication.
01:29changes in how we live and how children are raised.
01:35In a well-to-do New Haven neighborhood, Mildred Spock gave birth to her first living child, Benjamin.
01:42It was May 3rd, 1903.
01:44This is the house that I was born in and my five sisters and brother were all born in.
01:51I lived here until I was 16 years of age.
01:54And I have a photograph of me on my first birthday in a mission chair sitting back beaming.
01:58It was very clear that life was very clear that life was my oyster.
02:05My mother loved babies because babies don't argue with their parents.
02:08I'm sure that I identified with her and her love of babies and becoming a pediatrician.
02:17I have a photograph of me on my first birthday in a mission chair sitting back beaming.
02:22It was very clear that life was my oyster.
02:24My mother loved babies because babies don't argue with their parents.
02:29I'm sure that I identified with her and her love of babies and becoming a pediatrician,
02:34pediatrician. When Ben was growing up, pediatrics included a popular theory
02:39about raising healthy children out of doors. The kids slept out on a sleeping
02:46porch winter and summer. There'd be one or two nights in winter when the
02:51temperature got so cold that the urine in our chamber pots would freeze and we
02:58would be terribly excited look look see what happened to our number one. My
03:08father was a lawyer and he worked for the New York, New Haven and Hartford
03:12Railroad known as the New Haven Road and it's interesting that I think of him in
03:17two words grave but just and when I say he was just I mean he wasn't unjust like
03:24my mother my mother was unique I thought of her and still do in a way as a tyrant
03:32she had exact ideas about how she wanted each of us to behave at every moment and
03:38she didn't hesitate to let us know nobody would ever think of the word permissive
03:43with my mother
03:54in World War one we were meant to conserve wool to make uniforms for the
04:00soldiers and my father and mother concocted the idea that my father would
04:07give me one of his cast-off suits. Well my father's suit was all loose and
04:12floppy and it was dark gray and it had a fine line in it that boys never wore and
04:18and there were only two buttons on the jacket and the trousers not only were
04:24loose and floppy but they didn't even have any cuffs and I said no everybody
04:31will laugh at me nobody wears a suit like this and my mother said you ought to be
04:38ashamed of yourself worrying about what people will think of you don't you know
04:42that it doesn't make any difference what people think of you all you have to
04:46know is that you're right
04:53the high wide and handsome 1920s brought undreamed of prosperity
05:05I went to a Yale because my father went to Yale in those days all proper youths went
05:10to their father's colleges as long as their father's college would accept them
05:17I got on the Yale crew and it was getting on the crew that made me feel that I'd
05:25really come through that I'd really proved myself a Yale man
05:29Yale's crew was chosen to represent the United States in the 1924 Olympics
05:35the team went by ocean liner to the games in Paris one of the excitements of
05:42the trip was that Gloria Swanson was on the boat she was the reigning Hollywood queen
05:50queen at that time Archie quaria was dancing with
05:57Gloria when I was introduced and Archie quaria turned around and said grinning Big Ben
06:05and Gloria Swanson instantly said Big Ben but no alarm which wasn't really a
06:13tribute to my manliness that she says no alarm but I was terribly proud that she paid any
06:20attention to me at all
06:24these Olympics were the setting for the film chariots of fire
06:43Spock and his rowing team won the gold
06:50I fell in love with Jane Cheney when I was a sophomore in college
07:10we met at a dance following the Yale Harvard boat race
07:20she was the first young woman that took me seriously so it was love at first sight
07:25we shared musical interests political opinions and we were both interested in psychology and childcare
07:34so it was a very serious relationship and she and her mother and sister went to spend a year in France
07:44so I wrote to her every day for a year and she wrote back a couple of times a week
07:50and we never doubted that we were going to get married after that
07:55all restless people in New Haven wanted to come down to New York
08:02I came down and I wasn't just having to get grades to satisfy my parents or my professors
08:09I was a married man responsible preparing myself
08:13and I amazed my classmates and myself by getting to be first in my class in medical school here
08:20it was an astounding transformation
08:27I didn't go to medical school just to be a doctor
08:30I wanted to be a children's doctor
08:33Alice Boardman Smuts is a specialist on the history of pediatrics
08:37the medical field that focuses on the development care and diseases of children
08:42pediatrics became an established specialty in the 1880s
08:48the American Pediatric Association was established in 1888
08:53Dr. Luther Emmett Holt was an early president
08:57he also published the first text on the care and feeding of infants
09:02Luther Emmett Holt in his book said that babies should rarely be picked up
09:09that even when a baby was breastfed it should not go to sleep on its mother's breast
09:16the less contact between baby and mother the better
09:23this was a time of rapid change in America
09:26immigration, organization, technology
09:30and this was the age of quote educated motherhood, scientific motherhood
09:43in the 1880s
09:51The scientific motherhood of the early 1900s
10:15led to new ways of raising children in the 1920s.
10:18Parents felt that traditional ways of rearing children in a modern world
10:24were no longer appropriate,
10:27that you needed scientific advice to help children
10:33to cope with a new modern industrial civilization.
10:39Millions of dollars were poured into establishing
10:43the scientific study of children during the 1920s.
10:46John Watson, the behaviorist psychologist,
10:50was the first psychologist to apply laboratory techniques to babies.
10:56He published in 1920 what has become a classic study.
11:01It was the study of a baby, little Albert,
11:06and his reaction to a white rat.
11:11And Watson showed that the fear to the rat
11:16was conditioned by making a loud sound.
11:19He concluded that you could, through his method of conditioning,
11:24make a child into anything you wanted to.
11:28You could make him fearful or make him unfearful,
11:32or make him a genius or a thug, as he put it.
11:37You had the raw material.
11:39A child was completely plastic,
11:41something to be molded as the parent saw fit
11:45into whatever kind of adult he wanted to be.
11:54And since a child could be conditioned
11:57to become anything you wanted it to be,
12:00he advocated a brave new world
12:02through making brand new human beings.
12:05He told parents,
12:14don't kiss your children,
12:17don't pet them.
12:18He talked a lot about the dangers of mother love,
12:21excessive mother love.
12:26John Watson's study was based on a single experiment,
12:30and people were very taken by it
12:31because it was the first application of science to babies.
12:36But his results have been rejected,
12:39and the evidence that Watson was wrong
12:43and that Holt was wrong is just overwhelming.
12:48But before Dr. Spock came along,
12:51many new parents were instructed
12:53to follow Watson's and Holt's rigid pediatric advice.
12:58Promptly at 6 o'clock in the morning,
13:00the baby calls for food.
13:048 o'clock, orange juice and cod liver oil,
13:07or whatever the doctor ordered.
13:09Cereal at 10.
13:13And in those days,
13:14it was believed that loose schedules
13:18led to loose bowels.
13:20And that was one of the reasons
13:21why they insisted upon babies being fed every four hours.
13:27Mother hears you.
13:28At 2 o'clock, a vegetable,
13:30and some days, an egg yolk.
13:32Carrots are good.
13:34So are peas or beef.
13:36Young Dr. Spock thought a different approach was necessary.
13:40Somehow or other,
13:41I'd gotten the idea,
13:44while I was still a resident in pediatrics,
13:47that a pediatrician should have some psychological training.
13:53So when I started pediatric practice
13:57at the end of that year of psychiatric residency,
14:01I also started part-time psychoanalytic training.
14:05The first son was born while I was a psychiatric resident,
14:13and I hadn't learned any connections
14:16between Freudian concepts
14:19and how you take care of a child.
14:21So I was still under the influence of old pediatric doctrines
14:25about you've got to be careful not to spoil them.
14:29And that's why, for one thing,
14:31you should only feed them on the dot of every four hours.
14:34In the mid-1930s,
14:38nursery school educator Carolyn Zachary
14:40helped young Dr. Spock change his pediatric ideas.
14:44Zachary advocated using psychoanalysis
14:47to better understand young children.
14:50Spock knew Freudians traced the roots
14:52of many adult problems
14:53back to early childhood experiences.
14:55He took that idea one step further.
14:59After learning what certain kinds
15:00of early childhood behavior meant,
15:02he tried to help parents deal with that behavior
15:05before it became a problem
15:06for their children in later life.
15:09Thus, we can help him to grow
15:11and to meet his problems more effectively.
15:14Within the year,
15:16three million Americans are ex-wage earners.
15:19I remember the depression of the 1930s with horror,
15:23but I remember it very clearly.
15:26I was a struggling, beginning pediatric practitioner
15:30in New York City.
15:31making so little money
15:34that I was only able to pay my office rent
15:37three years after I started practice.
15:40Mothers and fathers were worried about physical diseases,
15:45scarlet fever, ear infections,
15:48polio that struck terror into parents.
15:51And the big problem for me during those first five to ten years was
15:59there didn't seem to be any correspondence
16:01between psychoanalytic concepts
16:05and what mothers were telling me about their babies.
16:08One of the important things to note about Spock
16:12before he even wrote his book, I think,
16:14was that he listened to mothers.
16:16The mothers were just telling me factually
16:19what the babies were like.
16:22Gradually, bit by bit, the things fitted together.
16:28That sounds good quality, no murmurs.
16:30Ten years after I started pediatric practice,
16:35an editor of pocketbooks came to me.
16:39I was utterly unknown, but being sensible publishers,
16:43they wanted a pediatrician
16:45who had some kind of psychological, psychoanalytic background,
16:49and I was the only one in New York,
16:51I was the only one in America,
16:52I was the only one in the world.
16:54He said, it doesn't have to be a very good book
16:56because at 25 cents a copy,
16:59and that's what it cost back in 1946,
17:02we can sell 10,000 a year.
17:04So I said, well, why not?
17:07If he says it doesn't have to be very good,
17:09this made me feel, well, no harm trying.
17:12He said, how long do you think it'll take?
17:17I said, oh, six months.
17:20It actually took three years of steady, hard work.
17:25I was still in pediatric practice the first year.
17:31Second year, I was in the Navy,
17:33and the third year,
17:37the Navy was getting ready to send me to the Pacific.
17:40Spock wrote some of the book
17:43while on a troop train heading for California.
17:48Every night, he phoned his wife,
17:50who typed and assembled his manuscript.
17:53It was a rather scary time.
17:57The Japanese were good fighters.
18:01It wasn't going to be an easy job.
18:03By the time my second son was born,
18:11which was 11 years after the first,
18:14I'd had a lot of pediatric experience
18:17and was a much more reasonable person
18:23who believed in flexibility and feeding schedules
18:26and go to a baby, of course, if he cries.
18:29California stages a baby show that's strictly military.
18:36Every youngster entered has a father in the armed forces.
18:40These fathers are lucky,
18:41for many soldiers now at the front
18:43have never seen their lusty offspring.
18:46Part of the success of baby and child care
18:48was due to the baby boom.
18:53Babies were being born at a fantastically rapid rate.
18:57The soldiers who were coming back
19:01and starting families.
19:12Pocket books said that they could sell 10,000 a year,
19:17but when it actually came out,
19:19they found that they were selling
19:21three quarters of a million copies per year.
19:24Well, this scared the bejeebers out of me for a while.
19:26I thought, if that number of people are reading the book,
19:29certainly hundreds, maybe thousands,
19:33will be getting the wrong message,
19:35will misunderstand something,
19:36and then they'll maybe do something
19:39that's dangerous to their children.
19:42So I cringed for several years
19:45as I was waiting to hear
19:46that I'd killed children with my advice.
19:49My mother raised us all on Dr. Spock,
19:51almost exclusively, I think.
19:52She told me when I was very young,
19:54she didn't like the pediatrician that she was using.
19:58And instead of finding another one,
19:59she just bought the Dr. Spock book.
20:02Certainly the Dr. Spock book
20:04was on the shelf throughout my childhood.
20:07And I remember this very, very dog-eared copy,
20:09which my mother says she still has.
20:12And I think she certainly consulted it.
20:14And I think she remembers it as the only kind of book
20:19or the major kind of book that she had to consult
20:22in addition to the doctors.
20:24It's the only book on child rearing
20:26I remember seeing my mother having used.
20:28I do remember having seen the book.
20:30There had been books,
20:31but they were just old pediatric traditions.
20:37They'd say, for instance,
20:38thumb-sucking is a bad habit.
20:40So you paint nasty-tasting stuff on the baby's thumb,
20:45or you put aluminum mitts over his hands,
20:49or the cruelest of all,
20:50you spread eagle him in his crib,
20:53tie his wrists to the slats of the side of the crib.
20:56I knew that this wasn't right,
20:59so I tried to, first of all,
21:01to find out what different people think
21:04is the meaning of thumb-sucking.
21:07And then I tried to explain to parents what it meant.
21:12And then next tried to decide with parents
21:16what's the best way of dealing with it.
21:22One of the messages that I try to bring to parents
21:26is you know more than you think you do.
21:31You decide what you want the child to do.
21:35If you want the child to go to bed at any old time,
21:38or leave it to him,
21:39then stick with that system.
21:42But if you have an idea
21:43of what's a good bedtime for a child,
21:46don't let the child argue you out of it
21:48every other night.
21:51You don't have to be disagreeable,
21:54but be definite.
21:57Parents may agree with this advice,
21:59but not all of them can make it work.
22:01You have to look to the past
22:03and to see what Spock was reacting against,
22:06this authoritarian,
22:09controlling advice to parents
22:14that children were manipulative,
22:16that children could be spoiled
22:19even in the first weeks of infancy.
22:22And he was challenging that.
22:27In fact, on the first page of his book,
22:30he says,
22:31don't be overawed by the experts.
22:33He begins the book saying,
22:37trust yourself.
22:38Again and again,
22:40he says,
22:40what you feel like doing is right.
22:42Don't worry about what the experts say.
22:44Don't worry about what you're being told.
22:46He himself is a con man
22:49with the mothers that he's writing for,
22:51because in fact,
22:53the book is full of endlessly detailed advice.
22:57He tells you,
22:58trust yourself,
22:59and then he goes on for five pages
23:02about how to wash the diapers.
23:06And along the way,
23:06he will say,
23:07don't drop them down the toilet.
23:09I mean,
23:10this mother who's supposed to be so competent
23:12and trustworthy
23:13can't even be trusted
23:14to hold on to the diaper.
23:16This is a guy
23:17who I think can say almost anything
23:21and has such a folksy way of saying it
23:24that people think that
23:26it's ordinary common sense.
23:29Civilian goods like ironers
23:30are already trickling from factories.
23:33And the power of Spock
23:35and the importance of Spock
23:36is that he is at
23:37the very center
23:39of the very most momentous change
23:41in American character
23:42in the 20th century,
23:44the change from thoughts
23:46essentially conditioned by scarcity
23:48to a character
23:49that's essentially conditioned by abundance.
23:52Radios, vacuum cleaners,
23:53nylons, juicy steaks.
23:55It sounds almost like a dream.
23:58And he managed the revolution
24:00in the guise of acceptable,
24:03ordinary common sense.
24:04For several hours of each working day,
24:08Dr. Spock talks with anxious mothers.
24:11He encourages them to believe
24:13that theirs is the most important job
24:15in the world
24:16and assures them of their ability
24:18to succeed at it.
24:20Throughout the country,
24:21a new generation is being raised
24:23on the common sense methods
24:24of child care he advocates.
24:26Well, I was editing Red Book,
24:29but more important,
24:29I was the father of young children,
24:31so of course we used the book
24:33when the kid would wake up
24:35with a hacking cough
24:36in the middle of the night.
24:37We'd look up croup
24:38and Spock would tell us what to do.
24:41And so in editing the magazine,
24:43I thought it would be wonderful
24:45to have him writing a column
24:46for young mothers
24:47who were having their first children
24:49and were preoccupied with babies.
24:51And so a few years later,
24:52you know, he began to write for Red Book.
24:56And of all the people
24:58I've known in my life,
24:59I would say he's one of the handful
25:02that sort of fits the definition
25:04of a decent person.
25:11The public persona,
25:14the image of Ben,
25:15looked very friendly,
25:17looked very reassuring,
25:18and looked very warm and sympathetic.
25:22And the experience of growing up with him
25:24was much more mixed than that.
25:27And again, it doesn't mean
25:28that I wouldn't have liked
25:29to have been more like his public persona,
25:32but I'm not surprised by that,
25:33and I find that's true
25:34of almost everybody I run into.
25:37Dr. Spock's younger son, John,
25:39is a Los Angeles building contractor.
25:41His older son, Michael,
25:43is an administrator
25:44at Chicago's Field Museum.
25:45He was very much involved with raising us.
25:50However, in my experience,
25:53he was not there
25:55in nearly as much time.
25:58And I always respond to the question
26:01of what was it like growing up
26:03as the son of Dr. Spock
26:04to say that, you know,
26:05my mother was also in there
26:07pitching all the time
26:08and having a lot to do
26:09with the way I turned out,
26:11which I think people forget.
26:18My memory was,
26:20is of there always being
26:23a level of judgment
26:25and disapproval
26:26whenever I strayed off course,
26:29but that it would become
26:31really severe
26:32when there were other people around.
26:35You'd get into that kind of hissing,
26:36John.
26:40It's interesting.
26:42If I were to pick
26:44what kind of upbringing I would have,
26:46there's many benefits to this
26:48in that sense of,
26:49I think we've both gotten
26:50to be pretty sensible grown-ups
26:53and productive
26:54and doing lots of things.
26:56At the same time,
26:57I would love to have been
26:58in an environment,
27:00at least in relationships with men,
27:02that was more permissive
27:05of the expression of feelings
27:07and including the complete range
27:09from goofy and sad
27:11and all that other kind of thing
27:12that were so hard to deal with.
27:26It may interest you to know
27:28that one of the world's
27:29leading authorities on baby care
27:31does not think he should
27:32go to nursery school.
27:33Who's that?
27:34Dr. Spock.
27:35I really knew
27:36I was getting somewhere
27:38when my book began appearing
27:40in I Love Lucy.
27:41A good nursery school
27:43does not take the place of home.
27:45This man is supposed to be
27:47one of the authorities
27:48on baby care
27:49and he says that
27:49little Ricky should go
27:50to nursery school.
27:51I don't care.
27:52Well, I do.
27:54I say that he should go
27:55to nursery school
27:56and so does Dr. Spook.
27:59Dr. Spock,
28:00and he doesn't know everything.
28:02Well, was he ever a mother?
28:05A tired out mother
28:06called getting into everything.
28:09Dr. Spock had seen
28:11that children
28:11can be psychologically harmed
28:13if parents constantly
28:14try to dominate them
28:15and interfere with their wishes.
28:19Children either surrender
28:20their spirit or rebel.
28:22So Spock encouraged parents
28:24to let their babies
28:25take responsibility
28:26for deciding
28:27how much food to eat
28:29and on when they were ready
28:30for toilet training.
28:34He left private practice
28:36in 1946
28:37and began teaching
28:38and researching
28:39pediatric medicine.
28:40Good to see you.
28:41Right, likewise.
28:44In 1957,
28:46Spock joined
28:46the Case Western University
28:48Medical School faculty
28:49in Cleveland
28:50and began
28:51a long-term study
28:52of how parents
28:53raise their children.
28:54...dressing herself.
28:56One of the 24 families
28:58he and his colleagues
28:59still study
28:59are the Deaners.
29:01I say that Linda
29:03looks exactly the same
29:05at one year of age
29:06as she does now
29:08at 28,
29:10somewhere near 28,
29:11and that's exactly
29:12the same, too.
29:13It's still
29:14very instructive
29:17to us
29:17to see
29:18how these
29:18children
29:19are turning out.
29:20What we were
29:21trying to do
29:22is look into
29:23some of the
29:24controversial areas
29:25like breastfeeding.
29:28It's hard
29:29to realize now
29:30that when we
29:31started this study
29:32about 1957
29:34that breastfeeding
29:37was very uncommon
29:38and it was said
29:39American women
29:40lived too high-strung
29:42lives
29:42to be able
29:43to breastfeed.
29:44We had
29:45half a dozen
29:46to a dozen
29:47topics like this
29:48that we wanted
29:49to clarify.
29:52I thought
29:52our study
29:53was almost
29:55totally successful
29:56in that I
29:57got answers
29:58to all the
29:59controversies
30:00that I was
30:00particularly
30:01interested in.
30:03Today,
30:04the Deaner
30:04children are
30:05in professions
30:05ranging from
30:06architecture
30:07to dance therapy.
30:09The child-rearing
30:10study was very
30:11important.
30:12You were
30:13a tremendous
30:14influence
30:15in our
30:16children's lives.
30:17The study
30:19as far as
30:19how it
30:20influenced the
30:20family
30:21was an
30:22obtrusive.
30:23You were
30:23interested in
30:23our solutions
30:24to the problems
30:25rather than
30:25imposing any
30:26of your
30:27solutions.
30:27I like that
30:28answer.
30:30Well, I love
30:30you.
30:31I really do.
30:34I mean,
30:35you've just
30:35been wonderful.
30:42By the
30:43end of the
30:441950s,
30:45baby and
30:45child care
30:46had been
30:47translated
30:47into 16
30:48languages
30:49and had
30:49sold close
30:50to 15
30:51million copies,
30:52more than
30:53any other book
30:53in history
30:54except the
30:55Bible.
30:55medical
30:59specialists
31:00and parents
31:01throughout the
31:01world relied
31:02and acted
31:03on his
31:03pediatric
31:04guidance.
31:09In the
31:09early 1960s,
31:11Spock's
31:11guidance seemed
31:12to take a
31:12new direction.
31:14Your
31:15candidates for
31:15the most
31:16important office
31:17in the free
31:17world seek
31:18your concern,
31:19your thoughtful
31:20judgment,
31:20and your votes
31:21in this vital
31:22campaign of
31:221960.
31:23I'm Dr.
31:25Benjamin Spock.
31:26I flew down
31:27to Washington
31:27this morning
31:28to do a
31:29small job
31:30for Senator
31:31Kennedy's
31:31campaign
31:32and have
31:33made a call
31:34at the
31:35Kennedys.
31:36It's fun
31:37to be here.
31:39Oh, I'm
31:39delighted,
31:40Dr. Spock,
31:41and very
31:41grateful that
31:42you would
31:43take the
31:43time from
31:43the busy
31:44schedule
31:44to come
31:45here.
31:46Help
31:46elect
31:46John F.
31:47Kennedy.
31:48I'm only ashamed
31:49that it wasn't
31:49until I was
31:50in my 60s
31:51that I realized
31:52politics is
31:54part of
31:54pediatrics.
31:56I'd grown up
31:57a Republican.
31:59In fact,
31:59my father
32:00advised me
32:01very solemnly
32:02that Calvin
32:03Coolidge was
32:04the greatest
32:04president the
32:05United States
32:06had ever had.
32:07It took me
32:07five years
32:09of discussion
32:10with fellow
32:11medical students
32:12at Columbia
32:13before I dared
32:15call myself
32:15a Democrat.
32:16I'd still
32:18be a New
32:21Deal
32:22Democrat
32:24if it
32:24hadn't been
32:25for joining
32:26the National
32:27Committee
32:27for Sane
32:28Nuclear
32:28Policy
32:29in 1962.
32:37But after
32:38a nuclear
32:40weapon had
32:41been tested
32:42and there
32:44was obvious
32:44fallout,
32:46there would
32:46be
32:46Strontium
32:4790
32:49that would
32:49appear
32:50in milk.
32:52If you
32:53are nursing
32:54your baby,
32:55drink five
32:56glasses of
32:57milk a day.
32:58The fallout
32:59was creating
33:00the basis
33:01for future
33:02cancer
33:02and leukemia
33:05and mental
33:07and physical
33:08birth defects.
33:09In 1962,
33:12SANE,
33:12the National
33:13Committee
33:13for a SANE
33:14Nuclear
33:14Policy,
33:15bought a
33:16full-page ad
33:16in the New
33:17York Times.
33:18Reprinted
33:19in hundreds
33:19of papers
33:20throughout the
33:20world,
33:21it launched
33:22Spock as
33:22a spokesman
33:23for the
33:23disarmament
33:24movement.
33:29I think
33:30a lot of
33:30people think
33:31that when
33:32I became
33:33more politicized
33:34and was
33:35for disarmament
33:37that I turned
33:38away from
33:39children.
33:39I don't see
33:40it that way
33:40at all.
33:41The world
33:42that children
33:42are growing
33:43up to live
33:44in is very
33:46important and
33:47that if the
33:48whole human race
33:49is going to be
33:49wiped out by
33:51nuclear annihilation,
33:53there's no more
33:55important advice to
33:56give to parents
33:57than if you love
33:58your children,
33:59if you love your
34:00grandchildren,
34:01you ought to be
34:02working to get
34:03rid of nuclear
34:04arms.
34:06The government
34:07will get rid
34:08of them if
34:09enough people
34:10say we don't
34:11want trillions
34:12of dollars to be
34:13spent that way.
34:14The Kremlin
34:15fortress of
34:15communist doctrine
34:16is the setting
34:17of an historic
34:18event, the
34:19signing of an
34:19atom test ban.
34:21It's a jovial
34:21Khrushchev who
34:22is on hand,
34:23along with
34:23UN Secretary
34:24General Yuthant.
34:31When the Vietnam
34:32War began to
34:33heat up, Dr.
34:34Spock moved into
34:34full-time political
34:36activism.
34:40Dr. Spock, where
34:42in your opinion is
34:43this war in Vietnam
34:44leading us, sir?
34:45I think all of us
34:46in the Committee
34:47for a Sane Nuclear
34:48Policy feel that
34:49it's leading us into
34:50more and more
34:51dangerous regions.
34:57And in 1964,
35:00Lyndon Johnson's
35:01campaign committee
35:02asked me to go on
35:03radio and television
35:04in support of his
35:05candidacy because
35:06he said, I will
35:08not send American
35:09boys to fight in
35:10an Asian war.
35:13And I said, I
35:14certainly will
35:15support him as a
35:16citizen, as a
35:17pediatrician, and as
35:18a spokesman for the
35:20disarmament movement.
35:23President Lyndon
35:23Baines Johnson
35:24leaves the White
35:25House to take the
35:26oath for his first
35:27full term as 36th
35:28President of the
35:29United States.
35:30I did enough so
35:31that Lyndon Johnson
35:32himself called me
35:33up a couple of
35:34days after the
35:35election to thank
35:37me, and he said
35:38in this humble
35:38sounding voice,
35:40Dr. Spock, I hope
35:42I prove worthy of
35:43your trust.
35:44And I said, oh,
35:46President Johnson,
35:47of course you'll be
35:48worthy of my trust.
35:50It never occurred to
35:51me that three months
35:52later he would do
35:53the very opposite of
35:54what he promised.
36:03Well, I quadrupled
36:06my disarmament
36:07activities.
36:11We have witnessed
36:12the mass conscription
36:13of our youth for war
36:15and the transformation
36:16of our factories
36:17into arsenals.
36:19By 1967, Reverend
36:21Martin Luther King
36:22and Dr. Spock had
36:23become two of the
36:23most visible anti-war
36:25figures in America.
36:27Statements that
36:28Dr. Spock and
36:29Martin Luther King
36:31have made
36:32would be at this
36:36present time, if this
36:38was an officially
36:38declared war, this
36:40would be treason.
36:41He never changed.
36:46He was always
36:46completely consistent.
36:48He was a baby
36:49doctor who wanted
36:50to be concerned
36:51with babies when
36:51they were two years
36:52old, then he wanted
36:53to make sure that
36:54they had a life
36:55when they became
36:5518, 19, and 20.
36:56There was a youth
37:04rebellion going on
37:05which not everybody
37:06understood at the
37:07time, certainly I
37:08didn't, but accounted
37:10for a huge amount
37:11of emotion and a
37:14kind of an anarchic
37:16spirit out in the
37:18movement, but none
37:20of this seemed to
37:21phase Ben Spock.
37:23No harm to the
37:24United States.
37:26They have only
37:27defended their
37:28country.
37:28Actually, I admired
37:30those young people
37:31who used their own
37:33judgment about whether
37:35this was a decent
37:36war or an indecent
37:38war and decided it
37:39was an indecent war.
37:40I thought they were
37:41good kids.
37:42And here in the
37:43middle of all this
37:44kind of crowd would
37:45be six foot four,
37:47Dr. Spock, in his
37:49three-piece suit, and
37:51he was sure there
37:51were three-piece
37:52underwear underneath
37:53it, you know.
37:54And you were sure
37:55his socks held, his
37:57garters held up a lot
37:58more than his socks,
37:59probably his entire
38:00self-respect, you
38:01know.
38:05As the anti-war
38:06movement grew, Spock
38:07left sane because it
38:09would not cooperate
38:09with more activist
38:10groups.
38:12He began to join some
38:13of these groups in
38:14non-violent protests.
38:16It took me a long
38:17time to dare commit
38:18to simple
38:19disobedience.
38:19force, but when I
38:22saw that this was
38:23turning people against
38:25the war, I realized
38:27this is one of the
38:28things that I should
38:30be doing.
38:31I did not come here
38:32to be arrested.
38:33I came here to
38:34practice civil
38:35disobedience to show my
38:37abhorrence of the war.
38:38I think Ben Spock
38:40helped form the
38:42image that turned
38:45off the silent
38:46majority.
38:47He was one of those
38:48people, I would say,
38:50in sadness, helped
38:51create the image of a
38:55radicalized peace
38:56movement with which most
38:57Americans could not
38:58identify.
38:59Don't take a bath, you
39:01filthy dog, you
39:02nuttree.
39:03Burn yourself like a
39:04drop car.
39:06That was very harmful,
39:07I think.
39:08I think it prolonged
39:08the war.
39:09If you want to talk
39:10about who to blame for
39:11the prolonging of the
39:12war, it's people like
39:13Lyndon Johnson, it's
39:14people like Richard
39:15Nixon, it's people like
39:16Henry Kissinger who
39:17prolonged the war.
39:19Lyndon Johnson's
39:20administration, he must
39:22have been in on it,
39:24had me and four others,
39:27including the chaplain of
39:28Yale, indicted for our
39:29opposition to the war in
39:31Vietnam.
39:32In one of the most
39:33notorious cases of the
39:34war, they were charged
39:35with conspiring to aid
39:37and abet draft
39:38resistance and faced
39:39long prison terms.
39:42What was the theory
39:43behind, or your thinking
39:45behind pleading not
39:46guilty?
39:46Oh, we aren't guilty.
39:48There's no question in
39:49our minds that we are
39:50not guilty because we
39:52consider this war
39:53illegal from every
39:54point of view.
39:55I'd be perfectly willing
39:58if that's necessary to go
40:00to jail.
40:01This is, I'd have a chance
40:03to get some work done
40:04that's, I've had a lot of
40:05difficulty getting done in
40:06the last couple of years.
40:09Although Spock was
40:10eventually acquitted, the
40:11indictment led to a new
40:13problem.
40:14Within two weeks after I was
40:16indicted, Reverend Norman
40:18Vincent Peale preached a
40:20sermon saying that all the
40:23irresponsibility, the lack of
40:25patriotism, the lack of
40:27discipline in young people
40:28by which he meant that so
40:30many of them were opposing
40:32the war in Vietnam in one
40:33way or another was because
40:35when they were babies, I
40:36told their parents to give
40:38them instant gratification.
40:40Well, this was Peale's
40:41idea.
40:42If you ask, was Spock an
40:44advocate of permissiveness in
40:47terms of the advice that
40:48went before from Luther M.
40:51Met Holt and John Watson
40:53and others, yes.
41:02But in terms of not
41:05advocating any firmness with
41:08children, any control over
41:10children or any discipline,
41:11absolutely no.
41:12I was never permissive.
41:15I don't like pesky children.
41:17My book has said, in every
41:20edition, give children firm,
41:23clear leadership.
41:24You might be interested to
41:25know that the person who
41:26spread the accusation most
41:28widely was Spiro Agnew.
41:31He had three boxes of
41:33Pampers under his arm and a
41:35gallon of baby oil.
41:38I think he was getting ready
41:41to make a house call at the
41:43university.
41:45I only have one.
41:47You remember what happened
41:48to him?
41:49He had to resign the vice
41:51presidency because he was
41:53caught trying to collect
41:55graft from road contractors
41:58in Maryland where he'd been
42:00governor.
42:01Ben Spock, the presidential
42:04candidate of the People's
42:06Party.
42:14We searched and searched for
42:16an appropriate candidate and
42:17we finally realized that Ben
42:18was probably the most
42:19articulate person we were
42:20going to find, that it was a
42:23natural extension of what he'd
42:24done his entire life.
42:25He was concerned about
42:27children.
42:27The children have grown up
42:31and now America's in trouble
42:34and the same kinds of things
42:35that led him to care about
42:36children led him to care about
42:37the country.
42:48Free, good quality medical
42:50care for all the American
42:51people as a right.
42:54Petition to get the new party
42:56on the ballot.
42:58I did think Ben looked a little
43:00silly running for president.
43:02He asked me if I would be in
43:04his cabinet and I had to,
43:05over the phone, you know,
43:06I had to laugh and I said,
43:07come on, Ben.
43:08He says, no, no, I want to
43:10announce my cabinet.
43:11I said, well, I'll take
43:13the fence.
43:16Well, it was silly.
43:17He never had a chance, you
43:18know, and I think he was
43:21showing weakness at that
43:23point rather than strength.
43:24Then the question comes, why are we
43:29involved in a national campaign
43:30at all, especially a presidential
43:32campaign?
43:33It is in order to call attention
43:36to the movement.
43:36We did not do as well in the final
43:40counting as we had hoped, but we were
43:42on the ballot in only 10 states.
43:45We spent about $40,000 on the
43:48presidential campaign.
43:50Nixon spent more than that for balloons
43:52at his nominating convention.
43:54For that $40,000, I think probably
43:58if you looked at it in dollars per vote,
44:01we did better than anyone else.
44:05Spock lost more than the election.
44:08After 49 years of marriage,
44:10he and his wife separated.
44:13And with the growth of the feminist
44:15movement, a man who thought he was
44:16every woman's friend found he had
44:18a growing number of enemies.
44:20I was asked to address the Women's
44:24National Political Caucus, which
44:25was a feminist group.
44:29Gloria Steinem, the feminist leader
44:32and the founder of Ms. Magazine,
44:34rose up in the middle of the audience
44:36and like a Jehovah in the Old
44:38Testament, she thundered at me,
44:41Dr. Spock, I hope you realize you
44:44have been a major oppressor of women
44:46in the same category as Sigmund Freud.
44:50And this was, I think, a blow between
44:53the eyes.
44:53He had no idea that the women's
44:56movement was looking at him as an
44:58enemy.
44:59Dr. Spock, like everyone else in
45:01the 40s, 50s, 60s, made assumptions
45:05about sex role socialization, that it
45:08was normal for the woman to stay home,
45:11abnormal for her to go out and earn a
45:14living, that it was normal for a man to
45:16be absent from his child's life.
45:18There was no question about it.
45:19I was a sexist.
45:21Everybody was a sexist.
45:22Not only all the men, but most women
45:25were sexist, too.
45:26In the 1976 revision of his book, he
45:29made seismic changes.
45:32That is, in every reference where there
45:35were particular assignments according to
45:37sex roles, he altered them.
45:40He said that a father, even if he works
45:42a full-time job, should come home and
45:45should participate equally in the child
45:48rearing and the housekeeping.
45:50When you think about the number of
45:52millions of copies of this book sold
45:54and the fact that virtually every child
45:57of every vaguely literate household is
46:00raised with that book on the shelf, you
46:02realize the power of that revision to
46:05change lives.
46:06But I've never had to revise my basic ideas.
46:10My basic idea is children are striving all
46:14through childhood to grow up, to become more
46:17responsible.
46:20Children love to be kind and love to be
46:23cooperative.
46:24This is why a two-year-old begins trying to set the
46:27table.
46:28He wants to contribute to the family's welfare.
46:31And I think rather than the parents saying,
46:34no, no, I'll do that, the parents should be
46:37very appreciative of the offering of a two-year-old
46:41and should compliment the child and say, oh, you
46:45did a beautiful job.
46:47If you keep on putting the silver on so well,
46:50pretty soon you'll be able to put the plates on the
46:53table.
46:54And this is exciting to a child to think there's
46:57more and more responsibilities and more and more
46:59skillful things to do.
47:01This is what we need in our society rather than this
47:04fierce competitiveness and the emphasis on getting
47:09hold of as much money as you can.
47:12Well, it's going to take a long time to change this
47:16because America is obviously built on this idea of
47:20ambition.
47:21Get ahead, kid.
47:23But I think that before we destroy our society with
47:27competitiveness and with greed, that we've got to learn a
47:32different spirit.
47:33In 1976, Dr. Spock married Mary Morgan, a public health
47:38administrator 40 years his junior.
47:41Today, they spend their summers on the coast of Maine
47:44enjoying a relatively calm and simple life.
47:47Everything turned to...
47:50I fell in love with his politics first before I fell in love
47:56with him as a person.
47:58I'm very interested to hear that it was my politics that
48:01interested you.
48:02I thought, of course, that it was my soul or my shape or my
48:08something else, but not my politics.
48:11That seems very impersonal.
48:12Your politics is your soul.
48:15In the winter, they live on a 35-foot sailboat in the Virgin Islands.
48:24You know, if I stumble, Mary says, oh, she startles and clutches me
48:30and asks me if I'm all right.
48:32Well, I'd rather assume that I'm all right and not have her worrying.
48:38One way of putting it is that she constantly reminds me that I'm
48:44mortal and that I might die at any moment.
48:47I know that I might die at any moment, but I don't want to be
48:50reminded of it.
48:51I just want to have a good time while I am alive.
48:57I didn't set out to change the nature of children.
49:02I didn't set out to politicize children.
49:06I wanted to help parents so that parents could feel easier with their
49:12children, and I think that I succeeded.
49:15There's something like 80 million mothers and fathers around the world
49:19who think that I made the job easier for them.
49:24He is writing a new book called A Better World for Our Children.
49:29He's now writing articles for parenting magazines.
49:35He's also doing an audio version of Baby and Child Care.
49:39The first tape of that's in production.
49:42He's probably more productive than I've ever seen him.
49:47Here, Ben.
49:48Here's your tea.
49:49Oh, thank you, honey.
49:51What would I do if you just bring me my tea?
49:53I know.
49:54You'd drink beer, that's what.
49:55And he has a tremendous amount of energy now, more than he's had the last few years.
50:09So let me now present with great delight, Dr. Benjamin Spock.
50:15I want to talk about the multiple tensions that afflict families in the United States
50:31at the present time.
50:33He sees the need for good quality daycare as one of those tensions.
50:38Dr. Spock still believes people can make a difference with political issues.
50:46Parents who want better daycare, they ought to be constantly writing letters, lobbying,
50:53demonstrating whatever is necessary to hammer the point home.
50:58Benjamin Spock challenged the stern tenets of child-rearing that preceded him.
51:08He helped change the way parents everywhere raise their children.
51:12By the early 1990s, 40 million copies of his book had been sold in over 30 languages.
51:18Building on his pioneering work, thousands of experts throughout the world collect data
51:23on the development and care of children.
51:25All of this material has been integrated, and it points to the validity of the basic points
51:38Dr. Spock made, that parental bonding is important, that physical contact with children, a loving
51:48approach to children, a relaxed, comfortable, loving parent is the best way to achieve happy children,
52:00well-adjusted children.
52:10As he approached his 90th birthday, Dr. Spock continued to be an activist.
52:17I would remember Ben Spock as a man of peace and a man of children, and there's not much difference
52:33between them.
52:33If you care for children, you're going to be concerned for peace.
52:36I think we should remember him as somebody who left his establishment moorings and went off
52:48and became, at least temporarily, a nationally and maybe internationally known peace leader.
52:55And then we should know, we should remember him also as somebody who, from my perspective,
53:01had essentially threw it away by going off the deep end.
53:06Okay, four o'clock, we'll be over the fence.
53:08Others scaled the front gate, throwing carpet over barbed wire.
53:12But who, throughout all of it, maintained that vigor and maintained that commitment and certainly
53:19maintained his passion.
53:20I'm prepared to climb over more fences.
53:24If it's a barbed wire fence, throwing a bath towel over the top so that as I climb over it
53:32in a good suit, I'm much less likely to tear it.
53:37I'm built so, or I was fashioned so by my mother, that the worse things go, and the more anxious
53:46I become, the more I feel I've got to work harder.
53:50So, it doesn't work out that I can afford to get discouraged or so-called burned out.
53:59I just keep going.
54:01And it isn't because I'm wonderful.
54:02It's because I'm not allowed by my conscience to stop.
54:06Then, of course, I'd like to go on to 100.
54:16It doesn't seem too far distant from 90.
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55:03A time for love, a time for love, a time for hate, a time for peace, I swear it's not too late.
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56:34Next time on NOVA, the Yanomami.
56:40Witness the private rituals and the human drama of this isolated rainforest tribe, Warriors of the Amazon.
56:46This is PBS.
56:46Next time on NOVA, the Yanomami.
56:51Witness the private rituals and the human drama of this isolated rainforest tribe, Warriors of the Amazon.