The weekly Floridian. [volume] (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1867-19??, 1889-01-01

Editor Messenger In the pro- erbial
devotion of the Messenger to the pub
lie good, it has shown most com
mendable disposition and enterprise to
propose and sustsin measures protec-
tive and promotive of the health aud
lives of the people.
The health authorities Of the State
and of Wilmington have recently united
with the municipal authorities of the
city in preventing, by quarantine and
sanitary measures, the introduction OF
yellow fever into Wilmington. We also
have a society, and a good law, TO pre-
vent cruelty to animals, and vast and in
creasing good results from the much
needed operations Of these benehcent
plans for protecting horses, mules, and
other useful animals.
But there is a crying and humane de-
mand for still more important Society
to prevent cruelty to children both within
and without the limits of the city of Will
mington. There exists an imperative ne
cessty for inaugurating, at once, a
movement that will arouse parents and
teachers to the high duty of protecting
the strength, health, and lives of the
children who attend the various public
and private schools ofthe city. The atten-
ton of the able and efficient Supernten-
dent of Public Instruction, of New Han
over, is respectfully called to this vital
but much neglected subject Probably
we have some schools in Wilmington
and in New Hanover that are as good as
any in the State. But there are school
methods in vogue which are detrimental
to the welfare, health and lives of the pu-
pills. We are making nation Of invalids
and dyspeptics of our children, and causing
by our home and school management of
them, a cruel and irreparable amount of
injury to their minds, their emotions, and
their bodies. A few mornings since a
resident Of the city was found by friend
to be in distress. Upon enquiring the
cause, he stated that on coming home
the night before, at | l o'clock, he found
his children up at their books They had
so many hard lessons to get that they
were thus compelled to deprive them
selves of needed sleep, or be punished at
school the next day. 1t is unnatural,
incurable, cruel, to treat children in this
way. Confinement of children, late at
night, to hard study renders them liable
20 congestion Of the brain, and often pro-
duccs that disease. 1t units them for
breakfast next morning, and for the les
sons and duties OF the day. But they are
hurried off to school upon full stomach
of undigested food. If they fail in their
lessons they are kept in at noon or other
wise punished. Again: Tney often
carry lunches Of SWEET things that have
no nutritive value, and when they get
home they have no appetites for substAn-
tial food. The stomach and the brain
work together. Wien one is out Of order
the other fails in duty, and no one can
study TO ad> antage.
Growing the mind with several les.
sons at the same time, or the practice OF
the fashionable examining system pcrvrrt.
the ends of true education and iniures
the health Of children There i, much
cruelty shown to children in thi, wav,
as we'll As in putting them in studies un-
suited to their years, or rushing them
through books in force-pumr, stvle or
with railroad speed
No one Is TIT to cross the threshold Of
a school room as teachers, who is unable
70 understand and practice these cardinal
principles Of teaching. Equally is
teacher incompetent who fails to recog-
nze or duly practice that law Of educa-
ton which teaches that children have
different dispositions aud different intel
lects. This demands that the treatment
OF one child will not answer for another.
The rod which is needed for one pupil is
never needed for another, perhaps, and
SO on.
To come closer still to the truths of
science, and the facts of humanity. a
new system Of education-morsl. indus
trial, hygiene and in,ellectual-is demand
ed We need, in education and in teach
ing, to aroue from the torpor of ages.
and from the slavery Of obsolete ideas
and old foygy customs and worn out
methods. The wonderful advances in
science are striking the scales of igno-
rance, and Of blind tradition, from the
eyes OF our people, and making the living
present an eminentlv proper time for fun
damental changes in education. The
modern university is too little in advance
Of the Athenian Lyceum. There is pro-
gre~s IN almosteverything but that which
specially concerns education. Nature is
too little consulted in our educational
cruelty disregarded.
Educational reiormers are called for TO
take the onward march along the thornv
path, OF REFORM MEpIcirs