The role of heroes

Back in January, I remember four different local television stations covering the memorial service for Stan Musial, a baseball player with the St. Louis Cardinals from 1941 to 1963. A few days earlier, his body was lying in state for public visitation in the great Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis, which is a block north of my home. The police were rerouting traffic to accommodate the crowd. His prowess as a hitter was unquestioned, with first ballot election to the Hall of Fame. He was known for his sportsmanship, having never been ejected from a professional baseball game. He was known for modesty and his service to the community. On Feb. 15, 2011, Stan Musial was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor given to a civilian, by President Barack Obama who called him "an icon untarnished, a beloved pillar of the community, a gentleman you’d want your kids to emulate."

I’m really not that big a baseball fan. But this pomp and circumstance for Stan was in sharp contrast to that of another athlete in the news not too long ago – the admission by Lance Armstrong of a whole career of cheating on Oprah. It came just 2 weeks after the Baseball Writers’ Association of America had failed in 2013 to elect any players to the Baseball Hall of Fame, the first time that had happened in 17 years. The era of steroids was assigned the blame. What, in the age of smartphones, is the role of the sports hero?

Part of being a pediatrician through the past two generations has been a continued expansion of the concept of child health. We’ve moved from seeking cures for disease to preventing disease with vaccines, then to promoting physical fitness, combating child abuse, and promoting injury prevention with anticipatory guidance about car seats, poisons, safer cribs, and safer toys. Fluoride toothpaste has improved dental health. We’ve begun to promote better mental health care for children. In the wake of many tragic events, we are just beginning to address problems such as bullying and social isolation.

When and how will this expansion of the idea of child health begin to address moral development? How does society promote character development, virtuous behavior, and compassion? How do pediatricians detect developmental delays in those areas? Moral development has been studied, although I suspect the works of Lawrence Kohlberg and Carol Gilligan would not be recognized by most pediatric residents. Routine newborn baby care and well-child visits screen for inborn errors of metabolism, hearing loss, iron deficiency, autism, vision, and development of gross and fine motor skills. Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder has been added to the list. Obsessive-compulsive disorder, depression, and anxiety don’t have very good screening tools. Screening for personality disorders and character development is nonexistent.

While reflecting on the role of heroes in the moral development of children, one also has to consider the role of heroes in the aspirations of adults. Most physicians will never invent a vaccine for polio like Jonas Salk did. They will not become medical missionaries like Albert Schweitzer. To what do today’s pediatricians aspire? Who are our heroes? Part of modern medicine has been devoted to expensive rescue medicine. Some people attach great importance to identifying a particular child whose life you can "save." Organ transplantation is a prime example. But if you’re not interested in assigning who gets the credit, public health programs offer the ability to save many more lives. The Back to Sleep program, launched in 1994, has reduced the rate of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) by 50%. More than 2,000 babies a year in the United States survive because of that program, although we cannot identify which ones they are. That is as many children as are saved by heart and lung transplants combined. Just because someone figured out that we should put babies to sleep on their backs.

As I finish this column, I reflect on movies I’ve seen this month. "Olympus Has Fallen" is a classic action movie with the hero killing all the bad guys. As a boy, I was raised on such movies with such heroes. But then there was the movie "42" about Jackie Robinson, who broke the color barrier in baseball by not fighting back. And that was heroic also.

Dr. Powell is associate professor of pediatrics at St. Louis University and a pediatric hospitalist at SSM Cardinal Glennon Children’s Medical Center in St. Louis. He said he had no financial conflicts of interest. 

Back in January, I remember four different local television stations covering the memorial service for Stan Musial, a baseball player with the St. Louis Cardinals from 1941 to 1963. A few days earlier, his body was lying in state for public visitation in the great Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis, which is a block north of my home. The police were rerouting traffic to accommodate the crowd. His prowess as a hitter was unquestioned, with first ballot election to the Hall of Fame. He was known for his sportsmanship, having never been ejected from a professional baseball game. He was known for modesty and his service to the community. On Feb. 15, 2011, Stan Musial was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor given to a civilian, by President Barack Obama who called him "an icon untarnished, a beloved pillar of the community, a gentleman you’d want your kids to emulate."

I’m really not that big a baseball fan. But this pomp and circumstance for Stan was in sharp contrast to that of another athlete in the news not too long ago – the admission by Lance Armstrong of a whole career of cheating on Oprah. It came just 2 weeks after the Baseball Writers’ Association of America had failed in 2013 to elect any players to the Baseball Hall of Fame, the first time that had happened in 17 years. The era of steroids was assigned the blame. What, in the age of smartphones, is the role of the sports hero?

Part of being a pediatrician through the past two generations has been a continued expansion of the concept of child health. We’ve moved from seeking cures for disease to preventing disease with vaccines, then to promoting physical fitness, combating child abuse, and promoting injury prevention with anticipatory guidance about car seats, poisons, safer cribs, and safer toys. Fluoride toothpaste has improved dental health. We’ve begun to promote better mental health care for children. In the wake of many tragic events, we are just beginning to address problems such as bullying and social isolation.

When and how will this expansion of the idea of child health begin to address moral development? How does society promote character development, virtuous behavior, and compassion? How do pediatricians detect developmental delays in those areas? Moral development has been studied, although I suspect the works of Lawrence Kohlberg and Carol Gilligan would not be recognized by most pediatric residents. Routine newborn baby care and well-child visits screen for inborn errors of metabolism, hearing loss, iron deficiency, autism, vision, and development of gross and fine motor skills. Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder has been added to the list. Obsessive-compulsive disorder, depression, and anxiety don’t have very good screening tools. Screening for personality disorders and character development is nonexistent.

While reflecting on the role of heroes in the moral development of children, one also has to consider the role of heroes in the aspirations of adults. Most physicians will never invent a vaccine for polio like Jonas Salk did. They will not become medical missionaries like Albert Schweitzer. To what do today’s pediatricians aspire? Who are our heroes? Part of modern medicine has been devoted to expensive rescue medicine. Some people attach great importance to identifying a particular child whose life you can "save." Organ transplantation is a prime example. But if you’re not interested in assigning who gets the credit, public health programs offer the ability to save many more lives. The Back to Sleep program, launched in 1994, has reduced the rate of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) by 50%. More than 2,000 babies a year in the United States survive because of that program, although we cannot identify which ones they are. That is as many children as are saved by heart and lung transplants combined. Just because someone figured out that we should put babies to sleep on their backs.

As I finish this column, I reflect on movies I’ve seen this month. "Olympus Has Fallen" is a classic action movie with the hero killing all the bad guys. As a boy, I was raised on such movies with such heroes. But then there was the movie "42" about Jackie Robinson, who broke the color barrier in baseball by not fighting back. And that was heroic also.

Dr. Powell is associate professor of pediatrics at St. Louis University and a pediatric hospitalist at SSM Cardinal Glennon Children’s Medical Center in St. Louis. He said he had no financial conflicts of interest. 

Back in January, I remember four different local television stations covering the memorial service for Stan Musial, a baseball player with the St. Louis Cardinals from 1941 to 1963. A few days earlier, his body was lying in state for public visitation in the great Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis, which is a block north of my home. The police were rerouting traffic to accommodate the crowd. His prowess as a hitter was unquestioned, with first ballot election to the Hall of Fame. He was known for his sportsmanship, having never been ejected from a professional baseball game. He was known for modesty and his service to the community. On Feb. 15, 2011, Stan Musial was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor given to a civilian, by President Barack Obama who called him "an icon untarnished, a beloved pillar of the community, a gentleman you’d want your kids to emulate."

I’m really not that big a baseball fan. But this pomp and circumstance for Stan was in sharp contrast to that of another athlete in the news not too long ago – the admission by Lance Armstrong of a whole career of cheating on Oprah. It came just 2 weeks after the Baseball Writers’ Association of America had failed in 2013 to elect any players to the Baseball Hall of Fame, the first time that had happened in 17 years. The era of steroids was assigned the blame. What, in the age of smartphones, is the role of the sports hero?

Part of being a pediatrician through the past two generations has been a continued expansion of the concept of child health. We’ve moved from seeking cures for disease to preventing disease with vaccines, then to promoting physical fitness, combating child abuse, and promoting injury prevention with anticipatory guidance about car seats, poisons, safer cribs, and safer toys. Fluoride toothpaste has improved dental health. We’ve begun to promote better mental health care for children. In the wake of many tragic events, we are just beginning to address problems such as bullying and social isolation.

When and how will this expansion of the idea of child health begin to address moral development? How does society promote character development, virtuous behavior, and compassion? How do pediatricians detect developmental delays in those areas? Moral development has been studied, although I suspect the works of Lawrence Kohlberg and Carol Gilligan would not be recognized by most pediatric residents. Routine newborn baby care and well-child visits screen for inborn errors of metabolism, hearing loss, iron deficiency, autism, vision, and development of gross and fine motor skills. Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder has been added to the list. Obsessive-compulsive disorder, depression, and anxiety don’t have very good screening tools. Screening for personality disorders and character development is nonexistent.

While reflecting on the role of heroes in the moral development of children, one also has to consider the role of heroes in the aspirations of adults. Most physicians will never invent a vaccine for polio like Jonas Salk did. They will not become medical missionaries like Albert Schweitzer. To what do today’s pediatricians aspire? Who are our heroes? Part of modern medicine has been devoted to expensive rescue medicine. Some people attach great importance to identifying a particular child whose life you can "save." Organ transplantation is a prime example. But if you’re not interested in assigning who gets the credit, public health programs offer the ability to save many more lives. The Back to Sleep program, launched in 1994, has reduced the rate of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) by 50%. More than 2,000 babies a year in the United States survive because of that program, although we cannot identify which ones they are. That is as many children as are saved by heart and lung transplants combined. Just because someone figured out that we should put babies to sleep on their backs.

As I finish this column, I reflect on movies I’ve seen this month. "Olympus Has Fallen" is a classic action movie with the hero killing all the bad guys. As a boy, I was raised on such movies with such heroes. But then there was the movie "42" about Jackie Robinson, who broke the color barrier in baseball by not fighting back. And that was heroic also.

Dr. Powell is associate professor of pediatrics at St. Louis University and a pediatric hospitalist at SSM Cardinal Glennon Children’s Medical Center in St. Louis. He said he had no financial conflicts of interest.