The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1867-07-09

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the very laws of its healthtul growth
and development. It's bones would
becomes twisted and bent-its muscles
hard and stunted-its growth would be
checked, and the boy transformed into
a premature little man. The obtusest
of farmers would never have conceived
of Harvesting a six months colt TO the
plow. though ever so light, for six
hours per day, five or six days in the
week. He would need no treatise on
Physiology and Hygiene to teach him
that such a discipline would end in
ruin, Nor is the law OF mental econo-
my essentially different Study Is
mind work, as labor is body work.
and in like manner aS1he body at such
uedly, but TO every engagement friyo-
lously, SO the mind, which is the very
essence OF volatility, can be applied
with fixedness only by constraint and
in violation of its own laws. Compell-
ed to study, the brain is overburdened,
its growth and expansiveness checked
its nervous susceptibility heightened;
1t 10 ses its natural vivRcity and play
fulness, and becomes irritable, embit-
tered, and rebellious. A boy needs
nothing more to insure his total de-
pravity than being shut up in the house
with hard lesson. But what becomes
rebellion in the boy. becomes despon-
dency in the girl.
There is many a girl who, in the whole
course of her young life, has met no
subject over which she has spent more
sad hours or shed more tears, than hard
lessons. She tugs and tolls with
thoughts and repsonings far i'll advance
of her years, becomes disheartened, dis
couraged, goes to school with conscious
ness OF imperfect lessons, sits all the
day overshadowed by the fear of dis
credit marks, till at last she yields to
the temptation and endeavors to save
herself by subterfuge and falsity. All
this ends in a settled conviction OF in
ability, weight and burden OF spirit
that can look for final relief only as
hated school days come to an end. OF
how many is this the inner history
Add to this mental depression, want OF
exercise from long confinement, the
poisoned air from ill-ventilated rooms,
and the compressed lung excluding the
natural supply of life-giving oxygen,
and our wonder is not SO much that
woman fails ut 30, as that she wages the
unequal contest so long.
Such in general terms is the course oi
our early school life, and such its re-
suits.
Let us now endeavor to ascertain as
we may in a brief survey, the laws OF
early life and education.
The paramount business of u child is
lrOIUtH. All else is subordinate. Food,
play, clothing, work and education, all
have their value only as they contrib
ute to this result.
I'd. But healthful growth implies 1st,
abundant exercise; and play is the
child's exercise. 1t should therefore
have a place to play in, clothes to play
in, and things TO play with. "A child's
play, is not merely play; it is
natures first lesson wherein she gives
simple instructions upon the great ar
fairs of life. A dozen marbles will lay
the foundation of mathematics in boys
headas no arithmetic in christendom can
do;and thelittle girls doll Is the instru-
mentality of awakening in her own
tender heart those principles which give
TO womanhOod its sweetest, tenderest,
and noblest characteristics. 1t is a
Erievous mistake to suppose that a child
Is learning nothing unless il has a book.
The second requisite for healthlul, Wig
orous growth, too often overlooked, is
sleep. The child from the moment 1t
awakens in the morning, till night ia u,
is in a ceaseleSS rOund of activity. By
sunset its vital force is completely ex-
pended, his system exhausted. Sleep is
The time of repairs. Nature begins the
work OF restoration the moment the lit
tie weary lids are closed; and who can
tell when she will have it completed
W hen the work is done-all done, he
will awaken. 1t may require one hour or
two hours longer to morrow than IL did
this. Clocks and watches have no more
to do with the time ola child's Rwaking,
than have the revolutions ofa windmill.
a child should sleep till it awakes of its
own monitiOns. Iflt sleep inconvenient-
Iy late, let IL commence ecorrespondingly
earlier.
Sd. Growth being the essential busi-
ness of childhood, and exercise and
sleep being the two important means
whereby this end is promoted, we con-
clude, that the law of childhood is not
lessons first and play and sleep alter
ward, but lessons whenever, and only
when, they do not interfere with sleep
and play. That is, child should play all
he chooses and sleep all he chooses, and
study the remainder OF the time, IL there
be any. Should it be objected that this
would virtually end study in child
b ood, reply that II the laws which the
Creator has given to childhood are in
compatible with study, it was quite
time il was ended.
The question for US to consider is
not how it will comport with our usages
and notions, but what is the divine or
der. The questionis not what will be
the effect, Dut what is the law. If the
law is study first and play Rfterward,
we are right and may proceed. If the
law is play first and study aIterward,
we are wrong and proceed at our
peril. The result of the great expert
ment tried now for fifty years by us,
as we'll as the very nature of the child
itself, responds uumistakably that we
are wronB-that childhood is united
both physically and mentally for study.
1 shall not enter into any argument
to sustain this conclusion. l shall con-
tent myself with the simple statement
of what seems to be the truth. The
considerate parent who holds his re-
sponsibility direct from his Creator,
must in the council chamber OF his own
Judgment with his child before him,
with its health and life in his hands,
pass upon its truthfulness.
One consideration may however serve
to show that our present system has
not all the advantages we are wont TO
accord to It.. 1t is probable that one
month of study in the eighteenth year
accomplishes more for the mind than
ali thai is gained from books in the fouI
years from three TO seven. Another
falIacy is, that early study enlarges the
mind. Do we put "a boy TO IA trade &c
make him grow? or, do we not let him
grow? Do we exercise him to make
him grow? or to strengthen him after
he is grown2 Do we not know that il
he be healthful he will grow of himself
il let alone, and that If ne do not grow
of himself, nothing we can do will aid
him2 In like manner the mind grows
of itself, and education is only the pro.
cess of learning the mind its trade, and
can proceed only as The mind natures.
As soon as any power or faculty phys
ical or mental is ready for action, ma.
ture herself will awaken it. The child's
instincts are right and we have been
wrong. Let the child play; it is his
birthright. We may not defraud hir
oft. II is Gods order, and when we
set it aside, whether by an Individual
=. a