The Washington critic., 1888-01-14
MOMENTS BAD HEALTH
TIE Results Of an Unnatural Edn-
CatiODal System.
SOME PRACTICAL REMEDIES.
Mary j. Holmes on the Failure of
Beauty aud Elasticity.
ICopyrigbtcdl

have over the young people of tine
past. And unquestionably this is
true, for there are moro schools, more
textbooks more hours devoted TO
study, clearer methods of instruction,
it may be, with possibly better teach
ers than formerly, when, except in a
few of the States, none of the schools
were free and people paid for
what they had. As a natural
sequence, then, we should have
far better scholars under the
new regime than under the old. But
/ do not think this is so, and i believe
there were more really thorough
scholars turned out from the schools
years ago than are produced to-day
with all the modern improvements in
teaching and learning And
THE FAULT LIES
in the system which crowds into four
or five years what ought to occupy
double that length of time, and puts
upon the girl so much that her mind
becomes enfeebled and she forgets to-
morrow what she has learned to-day.
"Better know one thing well than
many indilferently," was the rule by
which the children of the last genera
ton were trained, while good educa-
ton was thought to be growth of
years and careful, patient study, and
not to be forced by the hot-bed pro-
cess now too much in vogue. 1t was
thought. too, that no education
could be complete unless there
was first solid foundation on
which to build, the bottom layer of
said foundation being Il thorough
knowledge of reading, writing and
spelling, geography, arithmetic his
tory and grammar, These are
homely accomplishments but far
more necessary to ones sue
cess in life as a scholar than a
mere smattering of the higher
branches and an ambitious attempt
at an essay, which may have in it
fine figures of speech, borrowed from
some textbook, and classical illusions
taken from the encyclopedia, but is
still lamentably at fault so far as
writing and spelling and grammar are
concerned.
/ know perfectly well that ! shall
probably be called an old fogy, if not
crank, for presuming to think that
anything in the past can be better
than the present. But insist that
THE FORCING SYSTEM
as practiced in many of our schools, is
conducive neither to good education,
good health, nor to beauty of face or
form. To learn many things indiffer-
emily and none we'll is now the prac-
tice in most of our public schools,
where so many of our girls spend six
hours of the day trying in vain to trans
late some obscure passage in Virgil, or
to solve some difficult problem in al
zebra. Nor does the hard study end
with six hours close confinement, va
ried only by a change from one
class room to another, or the climbing
Of stairs, which sooner or later is sure
to tell upon the physical frame.
Where there are so many lessons
to be learned, and so long, there is
scarcely any leisure for exercise in
the open air or recreation of any
kind, no time for home intercourse or
duties and those talks with mother
or grandmother which in after years
will be so precious to the woman and
remembered long after Cicero and
Euclid are laid upon the shelf.
OUR GIRLS PHYSICALLY INJURED.
With the lighting of the gas the
study hour begins, and from to 10
and even later the girl bends over
her books, until the words run to-
gether and her eyes grow dim and
her mind DINNER, so that she has no
clear conception of what she has
learned, or rather committed, for
oftentimes it is nothing more than a
committal, to be repeated, parrot-like,
next day and then lost entirely as
water runs through sieve The
stomach cannot be overcrowded with
out rebelling, nor can the brain be
overtaXed without q protest. and
q tired brain is harder to
manage than an overloaded stomach.
Look at some of the girls who are
struggling with too many and too long
lessons, trying to keep up and pass
from grade to grade, so as to be grad
uated at last and declared educated.
Hollow-eyed, haggard and pale, and
often high-shouldered from STOPPING
so constantly over their books, they
seem TO have lost all the beauty and
elasticity of youth, and to be growing
prematurely old. Mark, too, how
many wear spectacles as proof of
impaired eyesight. And why not? The
eye is delicate organ, which will cry
out when abused, and once seriously
injured, do not believe it can ever
be fully restored. OF this have proof
in my own experience. In my eager
ness to read Corinne in French
l studied night after night, when l
should have been in bed, using
Meadows fine print dictionary until
the words became like blood before
my eyes, which have never since been
strong. / do not know that | am will
ing to say the same of my mind,
which was once so weakened by being
too long in school that just to glance
at book produced a sensation like
looking cross-eyed, and actually for
got my name. This is an extreme
case, of course, and one which for
tunately was remedied by few weeks
in the fields and meadows among the
new-mown hay, the perfume Of which
comes back to me now as write with
the same sweetness as when it brought
sense of healing to my tired brain.
A YOUNG MARRIED WOMAN,
who was for years student in O
graded school, told me that her room
mate was in the habit of taking very
strong tea at night in order 10 keeT
herself awake, her lessons were SC
long and difficult, What kind OF
nerves or health would a girl have
who continued this practice for any
length of timer No wonder that Sc
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