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Insight on the News

Building a Love for Reading

● Would you like your child to grow up with an appreciation of the value of reading? A report compiled by twenty prominent British educators gives a helpful suggestion. After a three-year investigation, they say: “The best way to prepare the very young child for reading is to hold him on your lap and read aloud to him stories he likes​—over and over.”

What makes this method effective? The feeling of physical comfort and security along with the sound of the parent’s voice, they say, plus the fascination of the story coming from the printed page, all “combine in the child’s mind to identify books as something which hold great pleasure.”

Parents who want to aid their children to appreciate the Book of books, the Bible, have a wealth of interesting things they can read to their children, perhaps paraphrasing more difficult parts, while reading other portions, such as conversations, right from the printed page. Many find a great help in the book “Listening to the Great Teacher” (published by the Watch Tower Society), which contains 46 different Bible topics and has already passed the 23-million mark in copies printed. But it may be good to remember what the experience in Britain indicated: parental warmth and closeness can be as important a factor as the material that is read.

Transplant Problems

● It has long been known that heart-transplant patients have a higher-than-average amount of postoperative psychiatric problems. But it seems that the same is true with regard to some other vital organ transplants, such as kidney transplants. U.C.L.A. psychiatry professor Dr. Pietro Castelnuovo-Tedesco is quoted as saying: “An outstanding finding following transplantation is the not infrequent occurrence of serious emotional disturbance.” One study of 292 kidney-transplant patients showed that nearly 20 percent experienced severe depression after the operation, a few even attempting suicide. By contrast, only about one out of every 1,500 general-surgery patients develops a severe emotional disturbance.

A peculiar factor sometimes noted is a so-called ‘personality transplant.’ That is, the recipient in some cases has seemed to adopt certain personality factors of the person from whom the organ came. One young promiscuous woman who received a kidney from her older, conservative, well-behaved sister, at first seemed very upset. Then she began imitating her sister in much of her conduct. Another patient claimed to receive a changed outlook on life after his kidney transplant. Following a transplant, one mild-tempered man became aggressive like the donor. The problem may be largely or wholly mental. But it is of interest, at least, that the Bible links the kidneys closely with human emotions.​—Compare Jeremiah 17:10 and Revelation 2:23.

Sweet Charity—?

● People in the United States donated about $25.1 billion to charity last year, according to one source. How much of all this money actually serves a charitable purpose?

Not as much as many think or most would like, according to an article in “The National Observer.” Not infrequently as much as 40 to 50 percent, or even more, of the money raised goes​—not to the ones in need—​but to the ones promoting the charity. Administration salaries may take a sizable bite, as in the case of the vice-president of a prominent ‘charitable’ organization who draws a salary of $52,000 a year. Charitable organizations, including religious ones, often hire professional fund raisers, and their fees may run quite steep. One police organization hired such an agency, but, of some $220,000 raised, the police group received only about $25,000. The rest went for expenses and fees of the fund raisers. Besides all of this, there are many fraudulent organizations operating under the guise of charity and the most conservative of estimates places their “take” at $250 million a year in the United States alone.

Giving as an expression of love of neighbor is a Christian quality. But prudence calls for the exercise of care if our giving is really to benefit those who need it.