The Northwestern standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1885-1886, 1885-11-28
OV ER / z RE- | \ SuR nd z.

oVERPREs SURE sSaS
I've Stsries Tfat illustrate the Dsfssts T.
$stBS Cur Eelucat ipnal Systems. ssS
Z IA girl lies bedridden lii Brookly
and y hoy has recently been broken
down iii 4 New \ ork whose cases are
sadly suggestive. The 3 girl was the he
pride Of her parents, and their glory in
her class success in the great school
for girls which she attended prompted
her to overwork. Her application to
study did not seem excessive. She
| worked only a little harder chan is
common. SO far as such work can be
measured by the time devoted to it,
and she took time enough Tor sleep.
Yet she was eager and anxious and
somewhat fearful Of beng excelled in
her class; and SO. without knowing
that she did SO, she made heavier de
| mands upon her strength than she was
able to meet with safety. 8
Examination day came, and she
conquered. Then she threw herself
down upon a sofa to sleep, and fell in
| to a state Of coma from which it was
impossibleto arouse her for nearly q
week. From that day--now about
three years gone-to this, she has been
unable to rise from her couch. The
girls q wreck; her intellect is shat
tered, and every hour Of life is a torture
to her.
The boy was a bright fellow, not
over ambitious on his own account,
but lovingly ambitious to CRAFTY his
father pride in him. Ia all his studies
| but one he had plain sailing enough,
but in that one Latin he encountered
unusual difficulty because OF some PEI
culiar want of adaptation to the study
of languages He failed in an exam
nation, aud his father foolishly mani
tested q good deal Of modification oyer
the occurrence. The poor boy was res
oInte in his determination to spare his
father a second humiliation Of the
kind, and SC be drove himself unmerci-
fully in his study. Night after night
/ ne arose from his bed as soon as the
house was still, and secretely worked
at his Latin until near the gray OF the
morning. Nobody knew OF this ex-
cess, and the father would have forbid
den it had he known. But presently
the collapse came. The boys nervous
system gave ay under the strain, and
| it is now a.serions question whether his
restoration even totolerable health will
ever be effected by the rest and out
door 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 in which no such
collapse comes, but in which grave in
Jury is nevertheless done to mind or
body, or both. Bright boys and girls
are educated into dull men or 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 insidions nalady
that spoils as well as shortens their
Lives. II
TT is not worth while to ask ourselves
seriously whether, in our t'high pros
sure'' system Of education, the pres
sure is not dangerously highp Do not
the emulations of the school-room, the
influence OF teachers, and the senseless
rivalries created by the marking and
examination systems afford quite
all the stimulus that can be
safely put upon childhoode And,
above all, do we not roislead
to theis. hsst h1s,,laei'ae< s. ~ ~
ses place, e h;ag;ties 3. q. =
schsoI success than such success actu-
ally hass Suppose a boy stands rather
low in his class. what thenp Does it
follow that he is lacking in capacity or
even that he has any constitutional
and permanent lack of industryp Sure
iy nobody who has been at pains to OBJ
serve the facts of life can hold such an
opinion. At the end Of our late war a
Young man was graduated at the top of
his class at West Point, and a friend said
20 him: ..Well. x, your career is se-@
cure, Of course. ! Il am not 50 sure Of
that" was the reply; II have gradu-
ated at the top OF my class, it is true,
but there is Grant, you know, who
graduated at the bottom OF his, and he
isn't quite failure in life :
Moreover and apart from all this,
the fact remains that some minds ma
ture more slowly than others, and some
acquire much more slowly, while ac-
curing with admirable certainty, and
assimilating knowledgg e most proftably.
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
given ground. In any case, failure
in examination is not disgraceful, and
it is false and hnrtful for parents and
teachers to treat ii as if it were IN some
way shameful. That way disaster lies.
N =. Commercial Adrertisey.