The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1884-12-04
Two Stories and a Moral.

boy has recently broken down IN
New York whose cases are sadly sug-
gestive. The girl was the pride of her
parents, and their glory in her class
success in the great school for girls
which she attended prompted her to ov-
erwoTk. Her application to study did
not seem excessive. She worked only
little harder than is common. so far
as such work can be measured by the
time devoted to it, and she took time
enough for sleep. Yet she was eager
and anxious and somewhat fearful of
being eacelled in her class; and so,
without knowing that she did SO, she
made heavier demands upon her
siren gth than she was able to meet with
safety.
Examination dav came, and she con-
quered. Then she threw herself down
upon sofa to sleep, and fell into state
of coma from which it was impossible
to arouse her for nearly week. From
that day-now about three years gone
to this, she has been unable to rise
from her couch. The girl is a wreck;
her intellect is shattered, and every
hour of life is torture to her.
The boy was bright fellow not over
ambitious on his own account, but low
ingly ambitious to crafty his father S
pride in him. In all his studies but one
he had plain sailing enough, but in that
one-Latin-he encountered unusual
difficulty because of some peculiar want
Of adaptation to the study of languages
He failed in an examination, and his
father foolishly manifested good deal
Of hn
The poor boy was resolute in his deter
mination to spare his father a second
humiliation of the kind, and so he drove
himself numerically in his study.
Night after night he arose from his bed
as soon as the house was still, and Sc
cretly worked at his Latin until near
the gray of the morning. Nobody knew
of this excess, and the father would
have forbidden it had he known. But
presently the collapse came. The boy 5
nervous system gave way under the
strain, and it is now serious question
whether his restoration even to tolera-
BILE health will ever be effected by the
rest and outdoor life ordered for him as
the last small hope of saving him.
These are but sample cases. There
are hundreds of others like them, and
there are thousands of instances in
which no such collapse comes, but in
which grave injury is nevertheless done
to mind or body, or both. Bright boys
and girls are educated into dull men
and women; healthy boys and girls are
converted by educational processes into
nervous, querulous hypochondriacs, or
are trained into incipient consumption
or heart disease, or other insidious NAL
ady that spoils as well as shortens their
lives.
Is it not worth while to ask ourselves
seriously whether, in our ''high pres
sure system of education, the pressure
is not dangerously high? Do not the
emulations of the school-room, the in
fluence of teachers, and the senseless
rivalries created by the marking and
examination systems afford quite all the
stimulus that can be safely put upon
childhood? And, above all, do we not
mislead children to their hurt by plac-
inc, or seeming to place, a higher val
ue upon school success than such sue
cess actually has? Suppose boy stands
rather low in his class, what then?
Does it follow that he is lacking in ca
pacity, or even that he has any consti-
tutional and permanent lack Of indus
try? Surely nobody who has been at
pains to observe the facts of life can
hold such an opinion. AT the end of
our late war, a young man was gradu-
ated at the top of his class, at West
Point, and friend said to him: ''Well,
y, your career is secure, of course" :"
Il am not so sure of that" was the re-
ply; Il have graduated at the top of
my class, it is true, but there is Grant,
you know, who graduated at the bot
tom of his, and he isn't quite a failure
in life"
EMoreover, and apart from all this, the
fact remains that some minds mature
more slowly than others, and some ac-
quire much more slowly, while acquir-
ing with admirable certainty, and as
similating knowledge most profitably.
These miss examinations frequently,
and are not the worse but the better for
missing them, because there is profit
for such minds in going twice over Civ
en- ground. In any case failure in
examination is not disgraceful, and it is
false and hurtful for parents and teach
ers to treat it as if it were in some way
shameful. That way disaster lies
NcW York Commercial AdUertiSer.