The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1860-07-13
school us,t,s and Exrreise.

Mr.. Llwiu Chadwick, who was appoin ted
by the British Government to inquire in to
the excessive labor OF young persons In cot
ton factories, HAS gone further, and the res ults
he obtained lea him TO propose measures
which were in part executed, for reducing the
working time of children under thirteen wears
OF age to siA hours day, and for ensuring
their attendance at school the residue of the
time, say three hours. The children under
this provision are called "half-timers :" and
IL turns out, according to Mr. Ihadwick's iu-
yesttgations, that in well-conducted schools
thelr attalnments are quite equal TO those of
the "toii-timers," who attend school six hours
daily, while in aptitude for the application of
heir knowledge they are said to be superior.
As they gain in bodily condition by the re-
duction of their physical labor, they do in
mental condition by the reduction of the Time.
devoted to mental labor.
Mr.. Chadwick made close examination of
the best OF the lsrg- time schools for young
chiidreb, aud found upon the tes timony of the
most intelligent teachers that they could not
keep up voluntary attention to study beyond
two hours in the morning and one in the af-
ternoon. by force, even, they cannot get more
than an additional haif-hour of real attention,
ana THAT half-hour proves in the end men tai
mischief as well as bodily injury. From these
facts 1t would seem TO follow, as he ntends,
that our school systems are violation, in this
.espect, of the laws of physiology.
Boys are enabled to repair the injury of un-
due mental work. to a certain extent. by their
athletic games. Not so with girls. In board
ing. schools they are fastened to their seden-
tary occupations often eight hours day with
but Slight inter. ening relaxation or exercise.
Mr.. Chadwick finds that the daughters of
mothers who have worked, but whose fathers
have got on in the world and have sent these
daughters 10 day or neutrality-suspicious., and
kept them from work, are shorter and gener-
ally of inferior strength to the working mo-
theirs that the proportion OF mothers OF the
we'll to-do classes who can suckle their own
children is diminishing.
The remedies recommended by this gentle
man are the reduction of the ordinary school
hours by one half, and the devotion of them
either to manual labor or gymnastics; but no
form of exercise, he thinks, is equal to the
naval and military drill. This he considers
both in reference to the future personal well
fare of the pupil and TO the interests of the
community. Looking to the welfare of the
pupil he contends that the drill is good for
the correction. of congenial bodily defects
that it gives an early initiation TO all that is
i'm mplied in he term discipline, namely: duty,
self-reStraint, order, punctualIty, obedience 10
command, and patience; that il renders action
| prompt and easy, and adds 10 the efficiency
and productive value of pupils in after life
Looking to the welfare of the nation, he main
tains that the military and naval drill is more
effectively and permanently taught in the Ju-
yenile than in the adolescent or adult stages
of life and that if made generally pre- salent l.
| IL would accomplish eventually, i'll wider
| and better manner, the object sought to be OBJ
| tanned by volunteer military companies
| which, by the interruption OF productive oc.
| cupatious, are highly expensive, and that the
| juvenile drill would produce an immensely
| stronger and cheaper defensive force than Is
| now produced by any means in use i'll any ma
| tion.