Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1885-09-30
OVERF'RESSURE.
Two Stories That Illustrate the Defects I'm
Our Educational Systems.

1WU SGeFies In&t ILLUSTRATE the DSfeGe@ hm
Our Educational Systems.
A girl lies bedridden in Brooklyn
and boy has recently been broken
down in New York whose cases are
sadly suggestive. 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 overwork. Her application to
study did not seem excessive. She
worked only little harder than Isl
common, so far as such work can he
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 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.
Examination day came, and she
conquered. Then she threw herself
down upon sofa to sleep, and fell in
to 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 shat
tered, and every hour of life is torture
to her.
The boy was a bright fellow, not
over ambitious on his own account,
but lovingly ambitious to crafty his
fathers 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 pc
culiar want of adaptation to the study
of languages. He failed in an exam
ination, and his father foolishly mani
tested a good deal of modification over
the occurrence. The poor boy was res
olute in his determination to spare his!
father a second humiliat on of the.
kind, and sc he drove himself unmerci-i
fully in his study. Night after night,
he 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-i
cess, and the father would have forbid
den it had he known. But presently
the collapse came. The boys nervous
system gave way under the strain, and
it's now a serious question whether his
restoration even to tolerable 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,
querulons hypochondriacs Or are
trained into incipient consumption or
heart disease, or other insidiOus malady
that spoils as well as shortens their
lives.
1t is not worth while to ask ourselves
seriously whether, in our ''high pres
sure" system of education, the pres
sure is not dangerously high? 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 childhood? And,
above all, do we not mislead
children to their hurt by placing, or
seeming to place. higher value upon
school success than such success actu-
ally hasP Suppose boy stands rather
low in his class, what then? Does it.
follow that he is lacking in capacity or
even that he has any constitutional
and permanent lack of industry? Sure
ly nobody who has been at pains to oh
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 friend said
20 him: ''Well, x, your career is Sc
cure, of course" 81 am not so 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-
quirng with admirable certainty, and
assimilating knowledge 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 noG disgraceful, and
it is false and hurtful for parents and
teachers to treat it as if it were IN some
way shameful. That way disaster lies
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