Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1869-04-20
A Plea for Intellectual Moderation.

AHouSauus VI 0Ntulles are unques
tionably physically and mentally in.
jured for life by being crowded for
ward too rabidly in their studies 1t
were better that child should know
nothing before eight .years of age,
than to know too much. Parents
commit a great error in supposing
that they are furthering the welfare
Of. their children by putting them to
their books at tender age. Early
intellectual growth must almost in
variable be at the expense of physi-
cal growth. We have no W in mind
one Of the most distinguished gradu
ates of New England university,
who did not learn his letters until he
was nine years of age He was al
lowed to spend his time in youthful
sports and recreations, and thus to
grow into healthy, robust boy
The forcing system now prevail
ing in most of our schools is, if pos
slble, more prenicious than the prac
tice of sending children to school too
early. We find many lads stimula>
ted by teachers and ambitious par
ents, studying harder and more hours
day than should full-grown per-
son. AS they grow older, prizes are
held out to them as incentives, and
in various other ways they are inn
PEELED to push forward in the
path of knowledge. Their faculties
are consequently over-strained ner-
vous exhaustion follows, accompan-
led with irritability OF both mind and
body, sleepless ninhts, poor appetite,
etc This matter is now receiving
serious attention in English schools,
and vigorous effort is being made
to secure the adjustment of the
prize system altogether. Mental
| work, observes an eminent medical
writer, who has been directing con-
siderable attention to the manage
ment OF the English school system,
beyond the strength which the ner-
vOus system is able to bear, will af-
feet the development of the whole
body, and dispose it to wrong acr
tons which would not otherwise
show themselves. The prize system
does no goodwhatever to the mass o.
youth. They leave school repealed
from all knowledge, chiefly because
they have been 'nozled in heather
learning The few who will work
often include those who are quieI
unfit for premature brainwork. The
trainer knows little and thinks lesI
of this; be urges the competition
the race is run, and if breakdown
occurs, he continues to train Others
| for similar competition" These OBJ
servations, which apply equally wei
the world over, are worthy the at
tention and consideration of those
among US interested in educationa
matters.
| The forcing system, as it now pre-
walls in most of our schools, is botf
unnatural and pernicious. The grea'
mass of those who have distinguish
ed themselves in life were, wheI
boys, more fond of athletic sports
than of books. If they were intel
lectually precocious, they were a
tho same time endowed with large
brain and great vitality, else they
would not have survived the drair
on their intellectual system. 1t hal
truly been remarked, that every eff
fort of thought causes small bur
definite consumption of cellular tbs,
sue and nervous force. And yet, a,
general thing, those very preco-
cious children, in whom parents anC
teachers take so much pride and de-
light, and who are stimulated anc
pushed forward, do not make theil
mark 10 the world. The ambition,
talented boy, whose head is cram.
med with knowledge he cannot di'
gest or whose nervous force is ex.
hausted and whose mental power
are overdriven and and over
tasked by severe competition, ii
prematurely old and worn out mar
at two or three and twenty, and ,
life of ill,health and dull mediocrity
is the fate which too often awaits
him. The little girl who reads a
three years old and is prematurelly
clever at thirteen, becomes general
ly a very commonplace woman -
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