Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1888-09-14
HOME EDUCATION.
PLAY SHOULD BE A PART OF THE
HOUSEHOLD SYSTEM.


ure of the Whole Body-Damage Some
times Done in the Schoolroom-Meral
Atmosphere of the Home.
Children should not be compelled to
take to the streets for sport It should
be part Of the household system to
afford play, and to do it as surely and sys-
tenatically as books and food. We have
q good deal yet to learn about play. We
should have our hours for sport and re-
taxation when the whole household
join in games AS home education in
creases, and it must increase, these hours
will be doubly necessary. l would not
consecutively. Then let him play and
exercise his body one hour. At what age
should We cease to plays If fools, we may
stop early in life. Only wise people never
cease to love and enjoy games.
But the play room is not all. This is
the age of manual culture. The grandest
Of innovations has occurred. Hereafter
education viii mean the culture of the
whole body-handcraft as well as head
craft. II follows that each house that is
intended for home should have its pro-
vision for the education of the hand-a
workshop, tool room for every member
OF the family to find his chosen occupa-
ton. If necessary, separate building
should adioin the house. Where there
are five children there may be five separate
occupations chosen. One of mine prefers
carpenters tools and engineering, another
printers, and third cares mainly for
horticulture.
OUR SCHOOL SYSTEM FAULTY.
I am now advocating such household
appurtenances purely on the score Of
health. Our school system is blunder.
No child should study from, 8 till IL; and
especially IN rooms where they must sit.
q child at study should, much Of his time,
be Gu his feet, or reclining if he chooses,
and changing about. When you add the
books taken home for evening study, you
have shown up orr common method,
whereby, to perfection, We destroy the
health, vigor, beauty and character of our
children. Every one is damaged, and the
ma ority are spoiled. l insist upon play
SIS duty, as part of life, as in fact it
self a part of study. A teacher of play
would be far more sensible than the piano
at So to 81 lesson.
How about dancinge AS a matter Of
health it is generally of no advantage
whatever. 1t is no sooner acquired than
night is turned into day and then the
play is carried to such extremes as to be
disastrous. l have watched this matter
from o physicians standpoint, and object
totally to three or four hours and especially
to six or eight, devoted to hilarious dane
ing, and those hours the ones that nature
devotes to sleep. There is another point
l cannot overlook. It Is the close contact
of bodies in round dances-a contact IN
wholesome, purely from a physical point
of view. The moral effect others may
discuss, but l object to any delicate per-
son being borne SO closely into the atmos-
phere of grosser, coarser ones. The phys
ical effect is not likely to be understood,
but it is seriously evil. / do not, there
fore, care for dancing, unless conducted
as part of home sport, as it is not likely
to be.
GOOD MORAL ATMOSPHERE.
1t is, however, folly to talk Of
healthy home that is not charged with
good moral atmosphere. | assure you tho
moral atmosphere is as real and tangible
and efficient as the physical; and those
who refuse or neglect to consider it will
suffer accordingly. 1t is impossible for
us to have about US, in close intimacy,
those of gross temperament and physical
sensuality. and not feel the effect on our
bodies as well Us on our minds. This holds
good, of course, of our own relation to
ourselves. If we do not sustain spirit
of self control and manly aspiration In
our souls, our bodies are diseased as a
consequence. One-half of all disease is
the result of unsanitary mental condi-
tions. Uniform honor, good faith, man
hood, temperate desire. kindness, will
have powerful effect in sustaining Wig
orous physical health.
| have a brother physician who insists
that if all people would keep in the best
of humor for one hour before eating,
during meals and for one hour after, they
would never be troubled with any dis
orders of digestion, or with headaches.
He is a trife crochety, but he is not far
from right in his valuation of good tenn
per as q foe to dyspepsia. At meal time
it is peculiarly important that all should
be decorous and kindly. The fashion Of
haste and fret at our meals is an indica-
ton Of nervous irritation, and affects
digestion directly. But in all other ways
& house should be delivered from the de-
structive influence of immoral or immoral
habits. An habitual scold is not only a
disagreeable termagant, but destroyer
OF the physical health of her children.
The effect ON moral character is Tailed
by the effect on the features of'the young.
| have supposed some to be more
sensitive to moral atmosphere than
others, but on larger experience
am satisfied that all are influenced IN this
way, and to their serious detriment. The
art of building healthy home is depend
ent upon the art Of being ourselves pure
hearted and honorable. generous, Just and
M. Maurice, NJ. D., In Globe
Democrat.