Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1859-10-01

immortal Section OF Chapter '. OF the School
Regulations, as follows:
In assigning lessons to boys to be studied
out of school-hours the instructors shall not
assign longer lesson than boy of good ca
pacity can acquire by an hours study; but no
out-of-school lessons shall be assigned to girls.
nor shall the lesson to bc studied in school, be
so long as to require scholar of ordinary ca
pacity to study out of school in order to learn
them"
In the report Of the Boston sub committee
to which | have referred it was expressly adj
mittcd that the restrictions recommended "would
not alone remedy the evil" Some few of the
masters had previously admitted the same thing
"The pressure from without, the expectations
of the committee, the wishes of the parents,
the ambition of the pupils, and an eracting pub
tic sentiment, do tend TO stimulate many to ex-
cessive application, both in and out of school"
If these children have half their vitality taken
out Of them for life by premature and excessive
brain-work, it makes no difference whether it is
done in the form OF direct taxation, or of indi-
rect; whether they are compelled to do it by
authority, or allurcd into it by excitement and
emulation. If horse breaks blood vessel
by running too hard it is no matter whether
he was goaded by whip and spur. or ingcniously
coaxed by the llibernian method OF a lock of
hay tied six inches before his nose. This meth
cd is nothing,-itis is the pdce which kills. Prob
ably the fact is, that for every extra hour direct
ly required by the teacher, another is indirectly
eXtorted in addition by the general stimulous
of the school. The best scholars put on the
added hour, because, they are the best,-and
the inferior scholars, because they are not the
best In either case, the excess is destructive
in its tendency, and the only refuge for indiyid-
uals is to be found in combination of fortu-
nate dullncss with happy Indifference to shame.
But is it desirable, my friend, to construct our
school-systcm on such basis that safety and
health shall be monopolzed by the stupid and
the shameless?
Look at it as now arranged committees are
responsible to the public. teachers to commit
tees, pupils to teacbers,-all pledged to exact
maximum crop from childish brains. Each is
responsible to the authority next above him for
a certain amount, and must get it out of the
victim next below him. Constant improvements
in machinery perfect and expedite the work;
improved guages and metres lin the torn of
examinations compute the comparative yield to
a nicely, and allow no evasion. The child can
not spare an hour, for he must keep up with
the other children; the teacher dares not relax,
for he must keep up with the other schools; the
committees must only stimulate not check, for
the eyes of the editors are upon them, and the
SlbIN Is at Stdht; every Out vi lutSe,
from highest to lowest, has his appointed place
in the tread-mill, and must keep step with the
rest; and only once year, at the summer va
cation. the vast machine stops, and the poor
remains of childish brain and body are taken
out and handed TO anxious parents like you,
Dolorosus) -" Here, most worthy TAXPAYER,
is the dilapidated residue of your beloved An
gellna take her to the sea shore for q few weeks,
and make the most of her.
DO not you know that foreigners, coming from
the contemplation of races less precociously in
tellectual, see the danger We are in, if we do
not? was struck by the sudden disappont-
ment of an enthusiastic English teacher, Mr..
Calthrop,) who visited the New York schools
the other day. and got little behind the scenes.
"lf wanted a stranger to believe that the
Millennium was not far off, he said, 81 would
take him to some of these grand ward-sc
in New York, where able heads are trained by
the thousand. | spent four or five days in do
ing little else than going through these truly
wonderful schools. | stad more than thee
hours in one of them, wondering at all saw,
admiring the stately order, the unbroken disci-
pllne OF the whole arrangements, and the Won
derful 9uickness and intelligence of the scholars.
That same evening went to see a friend, whose
daughter, child of thirteen, was at one Of
these schools. l examined her, and found that
the little girl could hold her own with many of
larger growth. Did she go to school to-day? p
| asked. NO. was the answer, she has not
been for some time, as she was beginning to
get quite serious curvature of the spine; so
now she goes regularly to a gymnastic doctor 20
am sure that we have Il had the same ex-
perience. How exciting it was, last year, to be
sure, to see Angelina at the grammar-school
examination, multiplying mentally, 35l ,426 by
236, l45, and announcing the result in two min
utes and thirteen seconds as 50 1851 ,492, 40,
remember how YOU stood trembling as she stag
gered under the monstrous load, and how your
check hung out the red flag of parental exulta-
ton when she came out safe. But when look
ed at her colorless yisage, sharp features. and
shiny consumptivc skin, l groaned inwardy
Can there be no Peace Society to check this
terrific carnage? Doorosus, rather than have
a child of mine die, as have recently heard of
n child's dying, insane from sheer oyerwork, and
raving Of algebra, | would have her come 10
nearer to the splendors of science than the man
in the French play, who brings away from school
only the general impression that two and two
make five for a creditor and three for debtor.
Boys hold out better than girls, partly be-
cause they are not so docile in school, partly
because they are allowed to be more active out
of it, and so have more recuperatiye power.
But who has not seen some delicate girl, after
five consecutive hours spent over French and
Latin and Algebra, come home to swallow an
indigestible dinner, and straightway settle down
again to spend literally every walking hour out
of the twenty-four in study, save those scanty
meal times, -protracting the labor it may be,
far into the night, till the weary eyes close un-
willingly over the slate or lexicon-then to bed,
to be yexed by troubled dreams, instead of be-
ing wrapt in the sunny slumbers of childhood,
waking unrefreshed, to De reproached by par
ents and friends with the nervous irritability
which this detestable routine has createdp For
l aver that parents are more eXacting than even
teachers. 1t is outrageous to heap it all upon
the pedagogues, as if they were the only apost-
ole successors of him whom Charles Lamb lau-
ded "the much illuminated good King Herod.''
What mother in decent society, ask you, who
is not delighted to have her little girl devote
even Wednesday and Saturday afternoons to
additional tasks in drawing and music, rather
than run the risk of having her make noise
somewhere, or possibly even soil her dressP
Papa himself will far more readily appropriate
ten dollars to this additional confinement than
five to the gymnasium or the riding school. And
SO, beset with snares on every hand, the poor
little well-educated thing can only pray the
prayer recorded of despairing child brought
up in the best society,-that she might "die