Marshall County Republican., 1873-03-06
EDuCATloNAL COLUMN.
Ventilation.

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regard to the physical part of man as well
as the mental and moral while it NAV
not be necessary, in rural towns. to at
tempt physical education by means of
gymnastics and the like, it is no more
than right to expect that our training of
the mind shall not prove an injury to the
body.
1t Is well established fact. though
contrary to the opinion of many parents.
that mental abor is never injurious to
the health of the body, study never de-
ssroys the health of anyone. 1t is not
study that makes headaches, listlessness.
and fatigue of which pupils complain
Study is AsaJthful There is no jealousy
between the body and the mind whereby
the one can grow only at the expense of
the other. 1t is not necessary that per
son should be an ienoramns in order to
be sturdy, nor is pale face and wasted
form sure sign of mental cultivation.
The statement was once made by a dis
tinguished teacher that no person could
study enough to hurt his health provided
he should tlke three hours exercise in the
open air daily. The writer has repeated
the remark to a score ofphysicians and
has never found one to dissent from it.
If it is not the close application to study
In our schools which produces the evils
spoken of, what is the cause?
Evidently apl ysical one.
When people are sick they are told
that they have violated some law of na-
ture. and that the sickness is the penalty
for the violation. Why the same ex-
planation should not apply in the case of
school children, it would certainly puzzle
one to tell. Why upon the first appear.
ance of i'll health in the child, the mother
should pass by the evening party Of the
previous night with, its late hours, un,
wholesome supper, ami unnatural attire
and fix upon the school and its duties as
the cause is a mystery. WHIT makes it
especially aggravating to the teacher, i
that the most of tie complaints of to
much study come from those whose
children are il The least danger of injury
thereby.
1t is not the object of this article 10
assert that the confinement of children in
the schoolroom is not unhealthtnl. but
to call attention to some of the causes
which do lie within the reach of the
teacher or school authorities.
Prominent among these and one which
produces more trouble than all others
combined is the want of ventilation
Pure air is free. and plentiful and is for
ced upon US with pressure of fifteen
pounds to The square inch, yet we strive
ov every meaus to shut ourselves ia from
1t, and by stopping all the cracks and
crevlccs bar out our best material friend
knowing we canrot live without it, We
seelude ourselves from 1t as much as We
may and then wonder we ale sick.
A schoolroom thirty feet square and ten
feet high, will hold enough air for the use
of forty children one hour. After that
time the carbonie acid gas becomes posi-
lively hurtfal.
" hat arrangements have we for its re-
moval and the substitution of pure air?
Ii the room becomes too warm a win
dow is raised and Fortunately q little of
the poisonous gas finds its way out.
Occasionally a door is opened and some
pure air is forced in. Ii it were not for
this accidental relief and that afforded by
ioosenesS of windowsand doors in school
buildings, the results would be much
more apparent though pol; bly rot more
eifectual or certain. 1t is not AN exagger
afed statement TO say that every pupil
should be furnished with seven cubic fee,
OF pure air each minute. Or for a room
OF forty pupils, a current of air one foot
square should flow in at the rate of $50
feet per minute. This estimate doubt
not will be verified by any intelligent
physician. How many school rooms
have any provision at all adequate to this
demand
Were the public correctly informed of
the danger which children undergo and
the injury they receive IN school rooms
in the way indicated above, they would
denaa1d instant relief and in the failure of
Trustees to afford it would raze every
pestilential school building to the
ground.
In a succeeding article, some of the
home made appliances which will do
much to correct this great evil, will be
mentioned.