New-York tribune., 1873-03-06
DRUJERONONY xxx. %

less. must be counted among the ancestors O,
the race. This inherited bias puts on some
times the form of moral Induction, and
sometimes that Of intellectual retrOgressiOn
With notable examples of the spiritual iDyer.
sion. our columns have of late been Oycr-fuI
To striking instance of the mental retr0duc-
ton, an official report calls pubic attention.
City Inspector James, being Instructed 10
examine the air of the public school-rOoms
informs the Board Of Health that, exactly
speakine. he found no such fluid therein
That subtle sum of oxygen and nitrogen, Of
which the human lungs require at least two
hundred and fifty cubic feet each minute
never passes the schoOl-room door. Instead
exists reeking atmosphere therein; carbonie
acid usurps the place of DEMONSTRATING oxygen
DR.. Parkes reckOns the extreme permissible
rate of impurty at six parts OF carbonic acid
TO ten thousand of air. Analysis of the at
mosphere of the several schools showed the
best of them to contain over fourteen parts
of the deadly gas, ard the most of them over
twenty-eight parts Children breathe this cor.
ruptlon six hours a day for months together
And the world pretends an occasional aston
ishment at the rate of mortality among them.
1t is a popular legend that the American
common school is our national ark of safety
on which no profane hand may be laid. We
do not propose to assail the venerable nonsense
of its system Of instruction. Our accusation
goes farther back, and touches the guilty
parents who demand of their children that they
shall learn. and, with criminal carelessneS.
make that action impossible. For learning de-
mands quick, communicative mind IN tho
A
the teacher, and a quick, apprehensiye mind
i'm the pupil. But it is familiar TACT that
bad air. poisoning the blood, lays an invisible
finger upon the pulpy cushions of the BRAN
to paralyze them. Thought ceases. A dull
mechanical capacity to memOrize words alone
remains And this requirement Is The whole
result of the students months and months OF
patient and honest plodding. But the real
value of instruction is the teaching the child
to think, which wisdom, if he first seek, all
other knowledge shall be added unto him.
Since, however, he cannot think if his
physical conditions are wrong, it is plain that
any race not descended from the crabs would
have secured wholesome schOol-houses and
sound bodies, before it attempted TO teach
even the multiplication table. An odd In
stance of the necessity of man to go backward
is the fact that COpernicus announced the true
planetary system a hundred years before
Harvey declared the circulation of the blood.
And doubtless half of our grammar-schooi
teachers would come ont triumphant from
bout with comic sections, who would be hope
lessly foOred by twelve questions from an
elementary physiology.
Armies of stupid, sickly, and lazy schOlars
and years of time worse than wasted, ought
to be a sum total sufficiently startling
to frghten parents and social philosophers
into an immediate reformation of the school
houses. But there is a more appalling Sc
quence. The public schools of a great city
are, to- day, hot-beds of vice. Babies 90 To
them, and boys and girls who are almost men
and women. In ten thousand of these there
shall not be found ten who have been purely
taught the marvellous mysteries of their bodies
Alas there shall hardly be found ten whs
have not arrived at coarse and evil
surmises, or partial and harmful dis
covery thereof. With the anterior brain
stupefied by bad air, with the pOsteror
brain tingling with its undue pressure frem
bad blood, with no healthful relief of hard
study and free exercise in pure atmOspher,
stealing from one another guilty knOwledgs
which ought to have been the free and limo
cent gift of mother love, whittier must The
thoughts of these boys and girls tend Their
poisoned blood will some day have its bad
satisfaction of drink and sensuality. Their
poisoned minds will find and take the only
answer to their demands. The wonder is n@
that the poorer classes affiIct society wn
drunkards and debauchees. 1t is rather ths
so many of them overcome the tendencies
their blood and the traditions of their schoc'
days, and live clean and honest lives.
The remedy lies with mothers. When tbd
permit themselves to bear children they give
bonds to Heaven for the children's souls.
is their solemn duty, as it should be then
fine privilege, to teach their little ones 'm
religion Of the body, even before they attemF
to expound the subtler obligations Of N
spirit. That ignorance which is called th
protector of innocence is its deadliest foe.
only the mothers who read this appeal wOun
demand wholesome SchoOl-rooms, We shoN
have them within month. II they woudE
sure their children's purity by loving confdenS
and warning. there need be no risk TO th~
in their inevitable daily contact with the bssS
The healthy brain will not delight in gross
ness. The pure soul in the pure body WI
grow TO full stature in pure air. And then ow
common schools will bc, indeed, the bulwsn
of liberty and not the cradle Of license.
--
There will be pleasure felt in ouarterS not gTesW