{"id":2257,"date":"2012-11-26T13:02:00","date_gmt":"2012-11-26T13:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/?p=2257"},"modified":"2014-12-24T05:16:39","modified_gmt":"2014-12-24T05:16:39","slug":"dr-benjamin-spocks-international-legacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2012\/11\/26\/dr-benjamin-spocks-international-legacy\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr. Benjamin Spock’s international legacy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"1952:\u00a0Dr. <\/a>
1952:\u00a0Dr. Benjamin Spock (left), Mayor David L. Lawrence with Kathleen Cameron on his knee (center) and Homer B. Hall, executive secretary of the Scaife Foundation (right). On the horse is Edwina Katkish. The photo was taken at\u00a0the Arsenal Health Center Nursery School. (Post-Gazette photo) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

Pediatrician and author Dr. Benjamin Spock joined the University of Pittsburgh in 1951, five years after the publication of his definitive child-rearing manual that made\u00a0his name a household word throughout the globe. He spent four years working at Pitt.<\/p>\n

His Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care<\/em>,\u00a0one of the biggest best-sellers of all time,\u00a0influenced parents of several generations, from different countries, and has been translated into 42 languages.<\/p>\n

Like 50 million Americans, I also was raised on Dr. Spock. Except, I was not born in America. My mom got hold of Dr. Spock\u2019s bestseller Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care<\/em> in then Soviet Kazakhstan in 1985 through her friend, whose mother was a journalist at a local newspaper Lenin\u2019s Shift<\/em> and through some mysterious connection received a copy of Spock\u2019s book. \u201cOur pediatricians didn\u2019t tell us to read Benjamin Spock, that\u2019s not how we learned about the book,\u201d my mother said. \u201cIt was more of a hearsay, a grassroots mothers\u2019 campaign to pass on good advice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was not political at all. It didn\u2019t matter that Spock was an American,\u201d she said. \u201cHis practical and straightforward advice and easy-to-understand insights would make perfect sense to any mother. The book was so easy to read.\u201d There was a reason why the style of the book was so attractive. Dr. Spock dictated\u00a0material for the book to his first wife Jane Cheney. Dictating the book helped to give it the conversational tone that appealed to my mother and so many other mothers who read Dr. Spock.<\/p>\n

Advice from Spock\u2019s book, which still lives in an ivory cover on the main bookshelf at my mother\u2019s apartment, \u00a0was a saving strategy to her as a working mom. \u201cSpock was a genius in how simple he made it all sound. And it really wasn\u2019t that bad. I am very grateful to him, it does not matter that I was a mother from the Soviet Union when I first read him. I don\u2019t think I messed it up with you too badly. A hat tip to him!\u201d<\/p>\n

Well, thank you, Dr. Spock.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

He spent four years working at Pitt.<\/p>\n

Look at the picturesDr. Benjamin Spock’s international legacy<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3686,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[946],"tags":[961,962,1250,1035,1036,1050],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/Screen-Shot-2014-12-17-at-12.22.07-AM.png?fit=2286%2C996&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2260,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2012\/11\/26\/signing-up-for-dr-benjamin-spock-and-draft-resistance\/","url_meta":{"origin":2257,"position":0},"title":"‘Signing up’ for Dr. Benjamin Spock and draft resistance","date":"November 26, 2012","format":"gallery","excerpt":"Author and pediatrician Benjamin Spock played a prominent role in a resistance campaign against the Vietnam War.","rel":"","context":"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/tumblr_mdr5wmJltW1rr5swxo1_500.jpg?fit=423%2C750&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":972,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2014\/02\/10\/goofy-signs-seen-in-pittsburgh-area\/","url_meta":{"origin":2257,"position":1},"title":"Goofy signs seen in the Pittsburgh area","date":"February 10, 2014","format":"gallery","excerpt":"No wonder Pittsburghers fail so miserably at following instructions. 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