Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1878-06-22

article of high-hown panegyric
blazing with superlatives, but this
paper is written for those who are
nearly interested in the matter, and
such, we think, viii be better salts
fed with the plain business state
ment we have preferred to compile.
/ We have a.few words now to say
| in reference to two studies in regard
to which, we are informed, public
opinion is divided in GAINESVILLE,
those of vocal music and calisthen-
les. Some of our friends, we are
aware, consider the former of these
mere monkey tricks, and the latter,
at the best, fit for girls alone. They
think the hours devoted to these a
mere waste of time which ought to
be devoted to more solid and practi-
cal studies. That these directors
are III a minority we firmly believe,
but there are enough of them to
constitute respectable minority, and
as we have always respected the
claims of minorities we will discuss
this question temperately with
them. The main points we expect
to establish are that time is not lost
but gained, and that health and
some other good things are gained
at the same time.
Let anyone go into school room
when the children have been for a
long time drudging over some hard,
dry work, arithmetic or grammar,
for instance; a dazed, stupefed look
will creep over one youthful face
after another, and soon it will be
Visibly manifest that mind has be- |
come inert throughout that little
world of boys and girls. The slate
pencil may still mechanically toll |
along its rows of figures, the lips |
may still mechanically articulate |
their catalogue of moods and lenses,
but the mind is torpid, its capacity
1OI CtCIlOIl lltlo OOCAl 1OA VIC lllAIO CA
hausted, and you may keep those
children for hours to their desk, but
the longer you keep them the worse
the evil becomes, and, unless some
change be effected, efficient work is
over for the day. Here, when we
were young, the rod came in, and,
though a brutal remedy where no
moral delinquency calls for it, it was
not altogether inefficient; it broke
up the weary train of thought, it
excited a new class of motions and
it thereby called into ac-
ton different department of the
nervous system, and in such cases
change of activity is rest, and after
its passionate parOXySm was over
the mind 3cdS enabled to return to
its sum or its declensiOns with some
thing of renewed vigOr; but it was
brutal and demOralizing, if for no
other reason than because it made
no difference between nervous eX-
haustiOn and moral obliquity. An
other remedy-turn them out to
play for a while. This is better
than the other, but it takes a long
time to get the mental faculties I'M
der control afterwards. They have
been running riot under no definite
except that of the vague era 1
wing for mental rest and bodily mo- ,
ton, and there is the same difference
between that and regulated exercise ,
as there is between a horse which ,
has been running away and one !
which has been taking brisk trOt, |
by an experienced driver. ,
But take the third resort, regulated {
motion in the form of calisthenic or
gymnastic exercise, and all the in
lications are fulfilled. The mind r
rests from its exhausting routine, ,
the sensor and motor nerves regain :
their required activity, yet so as to :
be under the complete control Of the ,
will, and in renewed activity, yet :
in perfect tranquility, the mind is :
good for another hours exertion !;
without WEAKNESS or exhaustion.
And that completes our available -,
space for the present; our other sub 9
ect, that of music as part of edu-
,atiOn, must have a paper to itself.
One word of postscript, however;
we urge those who are in any way
dissatisfied with the working of our
public schools to do as we have =
ione-go there and go frequently, :,
md see how the thing works prac- :
.ically before they condemn, and
above all things let it be remem- :
Oered that, in an institution which !,
aims at satisfying all men, no single :
has right to expect all
MS peculiar notions to be consulted.