The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1883-08-02
HEREDITY AND INSANITY.

HEkEUlTI AND INSANITY.
W. W. Golding, NJ. D., superintendent
Of the government hospital, read the
following address to teachers before the
National Educational association at q
recent session:
GRNTLRNEN:-You take the mind
young and fresh in life's morning and
ssnd it, aspiring to become godlike, on
its upward flight; receive it torn and
bleeding as it comes futtering down; is
studies that should ask you to pause for
fifteen minutes in the important labors
Of your session tU listen to me? I doubt
h, unless you consider it in the light of
ifteen-minutes recess. How shall 1
teach the teachers? The germ
a insanity lies back of the
education, and question if the inexor.
able law in nature which We know as
that of "the survival of the fittest" will
not, in spite of any or all education,
send q considerable per cent. of weak
brains to moulder and become moss
grown within asylum walls. This
seems but reasonable deduction from
the facts within my own observation;
bur then I reflect that the sources of
life and reason are not in our hands, I
know how little more or little less of
that subtle something we call common
sense makes the difference between the
wise man and the fool; remembering,
too, how q sage physician, by sudden
fash of sunlight thrown from a mirror
upou an idiot boy in q darkened room,
awakened CLEAN of intelligence, dis
closing mind where it had hitherto
been supposed to have no existence. l
realize what teaching in the hands of a
master may accomplish, then, standing
among the melancholy ruins where my
studies bring me, I think that perhaps a
different education would have spared a
fathers anguish for his only son, could
have saved this demsnted girl
TO have been some mans delight,
might have still kept eloquent that
dwelling tongue; and so am here.
From my standpoint the first mistake
that We make in the education OF the
young is that We do not pay sufficient
attention to the temperament Of tie
child; We are not all cast in the same
mould, even if We do bear the same i'm.
age. This lethargic youth, whose men
tal integuments are like the wrappngs
Of . rhinoceros, needs all our goading
"A brain fever is hardly possible to
such an organization; but this girl, with
clear skin, spare neck, intellectual fore
head, and speaking eyes, whose lessons
are always perfect, whose answer antici-
pstes almost your very thought, whose
nervous susceptibility quivers through
every fibre il she fancies your reproof Of
the above mentioned blockhead is meant
for her-it is not study out of
school that she requires, but the gym
nasiuna, the rest Of long vacations in the
summer fields, with nights Of repose I'M
broken by any dreams Of school prizes.
I know ofttimes your bright scholar is
such An oasis in Q desert OF sbounding
dullness that there is aIstrong temptation
% the teacher to give him free rein;
hence It often occurs that your valedic-
torlan 10 never heard of Afterwards II
= staying power that You want more
than brillisncy of mind.
Are We not asking too much of our
children? Lay the foundations broad -
the broader the better-in physical
health. and let the mental growth he
natural without forcing. like the open
air summer schools; even in our climate
We should be gamers with more of the
out door life OF the old Greeks; I wish
We had again the forum and the grove of
Academia; in such schools our children
would gain in vigor to more than
counter balance their loss in the exact
methods OF book teaching. Yes; the al :
vance in ell kinds of knowledge is some
thing wonderful. They tell me it is nee
ssnry that my son should begin at
the age Of seven to fit for college, if he
y to enter Harvard; it is true he begins
70 she'd his milk teeth at that time, but
he will only see of Harvard the outside
81 The buildings. for, college or no col.
1eGo, I do not intend TO make him the
last Of ny race. You say, and probably
Galy. that the student now must know
nseS vhsn be sntsn college than did
UAsn I graduatsd, and. / nay add. than