Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1871-04-01
IiOt-HouSe Education.

lii:
Massachusetts, i, Tie pride Of New Eng
land. Eo,.on is the pride o! Massachusetts,.
the public school system is the pride Of
Boston. and the Latin school Is the pride
Of the common school system. Nor is this
latter object of pride unworthy the good
opinion of those who maintain and enjoy
it, privileges. Dating back considerably
more than century the public Latin
school has been fo>tcrcl with julicious and
liberal care. and brought forth substantial
fruits. 1t has always kept pace with the
march Of intellectual progress, its teachers
have been the best tie country could fur
nish, its discipline has been regulated in
accordance with the dictates of long cxpe-
ricnce, and its pupils have seldom failed to
do credit to their alma mater. SO thor
ough is the course of instruction that the
young man who carries the certificate of
this institution is rarely troubled with Sc
we're examination when applying for adj
mission to Harvard, Yale, or any of our
leading American colleges. In short, the
public Latin school is as perfect an educa-
tional machine as the ingenuity of the
nineteenth century can devise, and can
shove as much hard, well diccsted learn.
ing into boys skull in given length of
time as any similar apparatus in the world
But it has long been suspected, and is now
confessed, that while the mental faculties
are trained and developed to their utmost
capacity by the machine aforesaid, the
,,hy 70 al -
ton, and suffers altogether more wear and
tear than the object to be gained will just-
fly. In other words, while the intellect is
being cultivated to the highest pitch, the
body is allowed to run to waste and to sink
into premature decay. Now in Boston it
requires almost rs much moral courage to
question the absolute infallibility of the
public Latin school, as to turn up an irrcv-
erent nose at Old South Church, or to
speak desp'efully of Fanueil Hall or Bun
ker Hill Monument, consequently the tor
turo of the innocents went on unchecked
and unrebukca for long period. At last,
however, Bostonian has been found who
is not afraid to call attention to the evil,
and take measures for its suppression. Mr..
Stilman B. Allen, a lawyer of that city.
and prominently identified with various
religious and educational movements, has
had son at the school, and becoming sat
isfcd that the work assigned the lad was
sapping his energies and destroying his
constitution, the father prepared circular
and forwarded to the parents Of two hun
drcd and fifty pupils. The paper set forth
that the boys were required to study FIVE
hours a day in the school and three hours
out for six days in the week, and request
ed all those ready to unite with him in
asking the School Board to abandon exer-
cises on Saturday, to affix their signatures.
Two hundred parents did so. Mr.. Allen
also sent his circular to the medical profcs-
sion Of the city, and one hundred and fifty
physicians signed it-among them Drs.
Bodwitch, Nichols, Walker, Read and 9th
ers of equal distinction. Some of the re-
sponses are Of great interest and deserve
to be carefully weighed by teachers as well
as parents. DR.. G. A. Walker, Superin
tendcnt of the Boston Hospital for the In
sane, says:
II cannot doubt that the modern sys.
tenn of forcing the tender brain of youth
lays the foundation for the brain and nerv-
Gus disorders of after years-the cases of
melancholia, paralysis, softening of the
brain, and kindred diseases, becoming so
fearfully prevalent. Lessons that require
more than two hours out Of school are too
long.
Another physician writes:
IL have had two sons complete the Latin
school course of instruction, and both have
ruined constitutions in consequence. One
sleeps in Mt. Auburn, and the other was
obliged to leave college without finishing
the course, and has never been able to re-
sumo his studies"
Very many of the clergy have likewise
added their testimony, and there is a fat.
tering prospect that the Latin school boys
will hereafter at least get whole day each
week for outdoor exercise, if not other
important privileges. 1t is time this fore.
ing business was stopped in every we'll
regulated community. Children are no
plants to be placed in a dollhouse and
driven to unnatural precocity at whatever
cost Of brain or muscle They must grow
as the trees and the flowers grow, naturally
and unartifcially; then alone is the growth
substantial and permanent, and thus alone
can they secure the greatest of earthly
blessings-a sound mind in sound BODY.
nay The new King, Amadeus, of Spain,
is said to be very much attached to dogs.
He took ninety Of the quadrupeds with
him to the Spanish capital. Grant is also
passionately fond of dorgs.
~ The New York Tribune sets New
HAMPSHIRE down among the reliable Dem
ocratic States in the future. 1t blames
Sumner and San Domingo with the STAN.
pede in the Granite State. I+.
u A terrible cold reigus in Switzer-
land this winter. The Lake of Constance