"Joey" Chooses a Profession for Herself!

The modern sciences lead the rising generation every day to some new discovery in all the practical fields. Here is an American girl from the University of California who has chosen a strange and engaging profession — the profession of practical medicine. She believes that healing comes through work: that is, that the patient should work so as to move his muscles and strengthen the members weakened by illness. The doctor's part is to prescribe the kind of work, and "Joey" carries it out and helps the patient.

This looks simple at first, but she spent five years in hard study before she was able to master sufficient knowledge of the various arts — such as modern dance,

woodworking, sculpture, pottery-making, tooling on leather, weaving, and other such crafts that rest on skill and dexterity of hand, which can be learned only by trial.

This nurse will attend all manner of patients, with their varied problems and temperaments; she must therefore first learn herself what she is later to teach them. And what joy can equal hers if it should happen that a patient turns out work more perfect than her own! For she builds up his confidence in himself — of course he is able to surpass her; she is there to teach them how to earn their living by the work of their hands. She is resolved to open a shop for these well-loved handmade wares

as soon as she finishes at the university. But this counts as only half the road, for those she deals with are out of work, so she must watch their capability at the outset and as the work goes forward; and here she needs to study the structure of the human body, to understand to what class these bones and muscles and the other working members belong.

Modern science has created a new branch called "kinesiology" to furnish the answers to these particular questions. Joey began this study on a skeleton, examining every section of the body so that theoretical study might be confirmed by practical trial. After that she will enter a sanatorium to receive the afflicted whom the doctor refers to her, together with instructions as to the work they should undertake; she will send them back cured of ailments of the heart or the nerves, or of war injuries. She must be mindful of the patient's psychological needs during his treatment, planting confidence in himself and dispelling his despair and despondency until he feels at ease with her; for if she does not succeed here, her efforts go scattered on the wind. She has already succeeded with a child, beginning with him by working with wooden figures.