The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1881-10-11
A Growing Mania.
The EVIL OF Devoting Vacations to Intel
lectual Work.

The New York Times sounds note OF alarm
against the growing mania for Summer
schools" of one kind or another, as entailing
serious consequences on those who frequent
them. Ie says:
The present temper of the American public,
or at least a notably large part OF 1t, is to
pounce upon these vacations, which are quite
TOO short for those who need them most, as If
people who are lying round under the trees or
by the sesshore in a loose sort of a way we're
ndulging in unnecessary ideness and ought
to use their leisure for self-improvement
The idea is very fine to study philosophy or
to enter into theological discussions, or to ac-
quire thousand and one facts with which you
are unacQuainted, where the sunbeams are
glancing through the trees and the water
sparkles under the sunbeams; but who are to
be found there, and what does the whole thing
amount to? You will find essentially two
classes, those who teach and those who think
they are to be taught. The teachers are over
worked men and women who ought to engage
in nothing more serious than singing or pray.
ing all through the short resting space OF
eight or ten weeks, bright but half-used.up
ministers, holloW-eyed college professors, spec
ialists full OF enthusiasm for their several
studies, all of whom need nothing so much as
rest, and are easily tempted by the desire 20 be
useful or TO become more famous to 60 out To
teach in the woods
And the pupils, IL more numerous are over
women whose nerves are unstrung with men-
tai and moral anxieties to the extent that they
are perilouSly near the madhouse, merchants
or clerks who have escaped from one kind OF
strain only to voluntarily put themselves under
another, or weak younglings Of both sexes whose
chief present recreation ought to be confined
to athletic exercises. The great purpose Of va
cations is to rest peoples brains, and these in
tellectual campmeetngs chiefly intended
TO whirl them into new sort of activity.
Tne result is precisely what might be expect
ed under the circumstances The summer
teachers go home unrested the summer pupils
go home imagining that they have accomplish
ed much in the way of education, and yet the
sum total of what has been effectively acquired
by the pupils or accomplished by the profess
sOrs could, in most cases. be tucked into the
corner of one eye without obscuring the sight.
In the first place it is mistake T. use the
mind -igoronsly when one is off duty. The
one vice of our bright and earnest people
whom we need the most Is overwork, and this
oyerwork should be offset by annual seasons OF
rest; bat what rest can there be in the stmos-
phere OF Chautauqna orConcord or other schools
where the intellectual or religious stir is at
white heat? The only result is the excitement
which ends in exhaustion and causes many ex-
cellent men and women TO quit work altogeth-
er- when they are in the height OF their useful
ness
These schools aim we'll, but in their effect
they are suicidal to those who carry them on.
Then, it may be doubted whether they do the
pupils any permanent good. There Is novelty
about the whole scheme which is attractive,
but even the pupils do not approach the subject
treated with the serious purpose which they
would bring to the same subjects at another
season of the year. The idea is that it is vsca-
tion time and that 1t is a good thing If possible
to kill two birds with one stone. It IS an at
tempt at intellectual or religious thriftinsss,
whose chief result is the undertone OF those ner-
vons and spiritual faculties which most need
quiet and rest. Probably many who enjoy those
will say pshaw at adverse critlcisms
but it is based on physiological and psyche
logical laws which are well ascettained, and
are sure to have their revenge upon those who
violate them.