On 31 Oct 2002, Kenneth M. Steele wrote: > I have never heard of the infamous case of Blatz and the Dionne > quintuplets. Would you recite that history?
Perhaps I should just keep my mouth shut. It might spoil the reputation of Canadians for niceness. The Dionne quints were forcibly removed from the care of their dirt- poor parents by the Ontario government, made wards of the state, and reared in a multi-million dollar "hospital" built for them across the road from the little farmhouse shack where they were born. There they remained from age 2 months to 8 years. They were put on display there for hundreds of thousands of visitors who trekked up to North Bay to gawk at them as a major tourist attraction, which earned millions of depression-era bucks for the Ontario government and many others. Except not for the quints themselves who got almost nothing from their exploitation until just recently, in their old age, when the Ontario government was shamed into finally giving them some compensation. Blatz was the big cheese psychologist from the University of Toronto who was in charge of their upbringing and carried out research on them. He, of course, knew everything there was to know about what was good for them. This included bringing them up in a cold and efficient manner that would have shocked even John Watson. For example, "Adults...were...required to be rational and non-interfering. They wore smocks in muted colors in order to blend into the background...playing with the children was considered to be interfering in their development" (Raymond, 1991 as quoted in Prochner & Doyon, 1997). Still think we're nice? Prochner, L., & Doyon, P. (1997). Researchers and their subjects in the history of child study: William Blatz and the Dionne Quintuplets. Canadian Psychology, 38, 103-- Stephen ______________________________________________________________ Stephen L. Black, Ph.D. tel: (819) 822-9600 ext 2470 Department of Psychology fax: (819) 822-9661 Bishop's University e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Lennoxville, QC J1M 1Z7 Canada Dept web page at http://www.ubishops.ca/ccc/div/soc/psy TIPS discussion list for psychology teachers at http://www.frostburg.edu/dept/psyc/southerly/tips _________________________________________________________ --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
