The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-04-17 00:00:00

OVERWORK IN YOUTH.

THE cramming system has from time to time
had many advocates and many assailants.
Lord Palmerston was amongst the former,

:or he was accustomed to declare that if a

child were well crammed with learning, it
was inevitable that he must retain some of

_
it. The discussion has extended over a long
series of years; and it has lately been revived
by a paper from the pen of Dr. Treichler, an
eminent German physician, on the subject
of brain exhaustion. This has directed the
attention of pareutad guardians to the
danger they have inn in allowing children
and young people to attempt to develope
their intellects by over study. Many of our
gfeat men have been considered dull and
stupid as school boys. Sir Walter Scott,
for example, gave no indication, as a lad, of
the genius which afterwards rendered him
so famous. There is every probability that
this was due to the brain developing by
severe study quicker than the skull, and thus
becoming compressed. It is a fact often
observed that very precocious child' enseldom
develope into clever adults, and there is
little doubt that this is due Ma large measure
to overtaxation of the brain before it is suffi-
ciently formed to bear the strain. Parents
and masters naturally desire to see their
children advance early and rapidly in all the
branches of their education, and the result
is a cramming system which not only injures
the health of even the most robust children,
but deadens the intellectual capacity, and
often results in giving them a superficial
knowledge of a number of subjects, and no
thorough acquaintance with any. It cannot
be too strongly impressed upon all persons
who have the charge of children that the
development of the brain and body should
go on at an equal rate, and that it is far
better to keep a child a little backward in
learning than to overtax the brain by study.
There can be no doubt that for some time
past we have been receiving frequent warn-
ings against overworking our young people;
and looking at the facts few will be disposed
to contend that these were unnecessary.
Unquestionably the schoolmaster reigns su-
preme in his own sphere; and in the praise-
worthy endeavour to let oar children do the
very best they can for themselves, we are
apt to forget what a very delicate instru-
ment is that youthful brain with which they
have to work, and how easily an injudicious
treatment of it may not only frustrate the
very end we have in view, but do untold
mischief in another direction. Mach of this
is attributable to tbe keenly-increased com-
petition which has become characteristic of
modern life. It is held that the more a boy
can learn, the more he is likely to be able to
earn. The knowledge of an additional
language may to him be of incalculable ad-
vantage in obtaining a start in life; and, as
there are many claimants for every post that
falls vacant, tile more numerous the qualifi-
cations possessed by the applicant, the more
lisely is he to be successiul. Hence the
foundation of the cramming system in our
over-populated island —a system for which
there is no necessity in countries where there
is more room, such, for instance, as the
United States or any of our great colonial
possessions. The publication of Dr. Treich-
leris paper on School Hygiene has revived
the subject in this country, for it is mani-
festly one in which all classes are interested.
There are evidences that the danger is appre-
ciated by medical men as well as by school-
masters themselves; but the point arises
how, in such a densely-peopled kingdom,
cram is to be done without. The competi-
tive examination system is doubtless respon-
sible for a grcat deal of the development to
which cram has arrived. A clerkship, with
a very moderate remuneration, cannot be
obtained without a preliminary ordeal which
represents an enormous amount of intellectual
I wear and tear.
It is becoming a very serious question
whether in the fierce competition which we
are iltroducing into every walk of life, we
are not running a risk of exhausting both
our physical and our intellectual resources.
So far as forcing the education of children is
concerned dullness has often been noticed in
them who, up to a certain age, had been shard
and intelligent. Efforts are then made to
keep them up to their former standard,
sometimes with permanent and disastrous
In such cases it is assumed that the brain
had increased in size more radidly than the
increased capacity of the skull, thereby
causing compression. Great benefit is then
calculated to arise from allowing a suitable
time t(, elapse until the balance between the
size of the brain and that of the skull
llcis
'•ed. Injury o. I.lsting char
establisi. -. is pressed to perform
arises when the --I;sh with nioder-
work it is unable to accomp.— - stupid
ation. Thus it is possible thab
children suffer from to much, rather than
from too little, brain; and obviously in such
cases the only course cpen is to have patience
until the head has developed sufficiently to
accommodate the intellect which it contains.