The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1885-09-26
SCHOOL GIRLS.


The Effects of Over Pressure-sound Adj
vice to Mothers and Fathers.
A young girl of sixteen. of q healthy
heritage. was brought into the consult
ing room of one of our Boston
physicians for slight lateral curvature
of the spine. She never had been sick;
she did not suffer from headaches or
any of the functional disturbances
sometimes seen in growing children.
Her growth had been rapid, and she
was pale, thin, and lacked the vigor of
health. An inquiry brought out the
fact that at her school she spent five
hours a day, besides FIVE hours study
out of school hours, stimulated to extra
courses by ambition and the prospect OF
promotion.
A growth of three inches in a year,
combined with ten hours daily nervous
strain, are component which will, as
certainly as the formula of 2 plus 2
equals 4, produce an impairment OF
health, diminution of force which.
coming in the growing years. is SO
much taken from the eventual
sum total of vital energy. The
studies which were the most of .
burden to this young girl were
Greek and Algebra, and although the
parents, if forced to choose, would
agree that their daughters should forego
the pride of possessing knowledge OF
Greek. if that must be coupled with a
certain amount of physical misery, yet
nothing short of dire necessity could
| Justify the girl in falling behind her
class or the standard imposed by emu.
| lation.
Such experiences lead us to believe
that the root of the trouble is not so
much in the school system as in the
| community itself, which, after all, Gre
| ates the school system. With a certain
amount of elasticity of requirements and
an improved supervision of scholars.
much of the evil of advanced courses
and increasing stimulation could be
avoided, provided the home influence
were in the right direction. The i'll ef-
fects are seen chiefly among the girls;
for it is tacitly admitted that, books or
no books, "boys will be boys" and the
boy is largely an animal; but the Amer.
lean mother of the day not only wishes
to stamp out what there may be of the
animal in her daughter. to give heI
conventional manners, but, in the view
Of the lottery of American life
to teach her to support herself
and also to shine socially as possible
mistress of the White House; and al
this preparation is 20 be done during
the pre-matrimonial years. Out-of
door sports are discouraged, and must
cal or intellectual pre- eminence con
sidered desirable. Furthermore, among
the girls themselves in a certain mum
Der the desire for distinction, the innate
femininity, repressed by circumstance
from finding vent in coquetry. prompt
to attracting attention and admiration
for proficiency as amateur musicians
for rank at school, for winning prize
in female colleges, for success in pro
LESSONS. Such system of education
may produce. in some instances. goo'
results, and give us future Georg
Eliots, Maria Mitchells, Mary Somer
villes, Putnam-Jacobis, ETC., yet tn
records of the nervous wards and tn
lists of the nervous prostrationists shoy
that the success of few individual
has been bought for the public at tn
price of many shattered lives of unsuc
cessful imitators.
What in our community is especial
needed in regard TO women is the bette
physical education of girls. A mothe
| should be as much ashamed to bring n
a fiat-chested. round-shouldered daugf
, ter, to be a candidate for the Adams @
other Nervine institutions. as if sh
brought her up unable to read or write
The Introduction of any outdoor gam
|, suitable for girls, and enjoyed by then
as base ball is by boys, would be an il
calculable blessing, before which tn
Joys of Greek and the aspirations IL
professional careers would be dust an
ashes to the coming generation I
mothers and the prospective generatio
of children.
A certain. and by no means small
< proportion of our young women seen
! to be going through the same crai
about mental forcing and profession
careers which afflicted our young me
of previous generations, and which wit
I. them was responsible for much
4 health. Fortunately, revival
; athletics and sports, the war, ar
the development of more yari,
: industrial pursuits created rev
!, luton in this. 1t is already
long time since the dyspeptic. narro'
chested. pale-face, weak-eyed male b
e came an object of interest by becomir
$ a bookworm. A knowledge of Gret
no longer condones want of vigor al
vivacity in the male. and we do not b
lieve it Is any more likely to in &
female. Those who run any risk