, 1860-03-21
CHICAGO, WEDNESDAY,, MARCH 2l. 1860.

| Boards Of Es3ucatops aud committees are held
responsible to the public for the amount Of Ia.
| bor accomplished il; the school room; teachers
! nrc held responsible to their employers for the
same thing, and their success is measured by the
amount "e1iracted from childish brans," re.
Gardl.ss Of the almost forgotten fact TINT chill
| dtc1 have physical as well Us IN intellectual
existence. Then comes the stimulus Of marks,
rewards, emulation between pupils of the same
school, ard classes Of different schools, urged
! On By teachers Whoae pay and position depend
rpon the most done in the shortest possible
time, md too often the urging and encoura.-
inc Of fond parents and friends; and all COM
bined keep the mind Of the child up to The high
est pitch Of intellectual a.tainment. What
wonder, then, That upder all these spurs and in
centires to labor, to many break down in early
chl1dhoods What wonder, that We see in our
school rooms 50 maur pale, wan checks, where
wcshould look for rosy health? What wonder,
that we oteUer see IN the school loom ihan else
where, The curved spine, the depressed chest,
the worn and faded and sickiy forms Of those
and af! crowned with vigorous and joyous
health! ..f
St1 hours of hard intellectual labor, in tue
school room, is as much as the most vigorous
can long endure, and this tor the time our
schools are in sessiou-tEa months in the year
would break down ,4naay r7hust and healthy
men. What, then, must become Of that class in
our schools, and the number is not small, who
are feeble and delicate and sicklys As anation,
intellectually, we are making rapid strides. If
We have not found the royal road to learning,
we hare found I'LL tho short ores, aud all the
means OF rapid progress on them. But phyysi-
ca!iy We are, as peeple, degencrating. Ma
chinery is doing much of the labor Of the land:
manly sports III e ont Of date and ignored, and
We are fast becoming nation Of pigmies in
body, but giants in mind, especially in child
hood: This ought noteo to be; education, in
our day, should give veil. balanced, well disci-
plinet, and well-deyeloped miuds-miuds, pre-
pared to think, to reason and to determine, in
strong, healthy and vigorous bodies.
4 sAr1ofAl EVIL
The modern writer who eudeavored to show
that murder was one Of the Fine Arts" must
hare had in mind an American school room,
where the Board Of Education, teuchers and
parents, are all endenyoiiug, in the most refined
and genttel way. to render raluless or extin-
The tyrant who gaye orders for the destruction
Of ali the firstborn Of his dominions has Justly
been regarded as monster of cruelty, and his
name has been anathemattzcd for the last 1s0U
years, and will he 10 the end Of time What
measure Of condemnation should then be meted
out to those who 60 10 work systematically, not
with the intention, to be sure, but no less efec-
tualy, 10 destroy, not only the first born Of the
land, but all, from five years old aud upward?
More than half Of the children born die before
the age Of eighteen; how many Of them die Of
education, it muy be difficult accurately to de-
out Of sri.te"ee. and others snder from this
same fearful malady. none who are visitors to
our school rooms. and arc observers Of what
they :here SEE, will for n!monent deny. Hor-
ace Maun said, years ugo, and the evil has been
constantly on the Increase Since, that, so far as
all the natural tendencies to physical tass and
inacticity, Us carefully as though paleuess and
languor, muscular enervation and debility, were
held to be constituent elements Of national
beauty" And such is the case: q languid aud
sickiy body, bending in childhood under the
weight Of mental labor that would crush most
cstiny," promising" beautiful if from that
same wan, worn body, on examination day,
come torreaks Of French, Latin, Philosophy,
Astronomy, and the higher Mathematics, all.
in the euunciation Of every word, syllable and
letter. in exact accordance NTH Worcester and
Webster.
Ii It be true, as proud:nent and faithfui Ia
borer in the cause Of public education once
asserted, that "a msn without high health, is IS
much ut war with Nature As guilty soul is at
war with the spirit of God1' aud il fover-tasking
tic mind in childhood ten:ls to destroy or i'm
psir the constitution or the health, then surely
no Hoard OF Education eau be gu.lt1ess if they
permit any everlasting 10 the schools under
Their charge, on any prc:enee whatever. ''Strlct
discipline and hard study" are the only certain
grounds Of success; but that discipline md
study should on:y last during the fse, or at
most, six school hours Of hours Of the day, and
then the books should b, cast aside, aud the
balance Of The dar der<<.a== p hs.d physical :
labor, athletic sports. 81 5.nnass.s OF such other
bodily exercise rs shull tend to harden and de-
relop the muscular systsme thould not ho
understood thnt cur own schools are especially
faulty iu this particular, but that reformation
should BE- required, and more attention given to
the physical especially in our classes, is too
apparent to reed sefther remark. cannot but
commend this subject, not only to the Board Of
Education Of this city, but to all having charge
one,