Smyrna times., 1889-02-06
RIGHTS OF CHILDREN.
ENTITLED TO A SOUND MIND IN A
SOUND BODY.

Our overwOrlKed and Underfed Boys and
GirIs-HOurs Of study-IrreguIar Eating
Habits-Disastrous Results of Ignorance.
Real Education.
Children have not only a right to the
wisest education, but they have a right
to be such by birth and hereditv that they
can be educated to some purpose. It is
astounding, as one walks through a low
nelghborhood, to see what a vast number
OF heads of truly inferior sort are be
gotten. Or If you will ride with me up a
back country road you shall find an i'm
mense preponderance of badly shaped
faces and peaked or pinched brain caps
There are neighborhoods where this is
not so. Large heads, well shapen and
handsome features are the rule. What
makes the difference? Biology will tell
you that the thoughts of parents and
their emotions-in other words, their
habits and habitual feelings-shape the
child. Not only do sudden frights 90 to
mark the unborn, but the eyerv dav
thoughts and ways of living do the same.
| Responsibility runs far back, and some
day the matter will get full and popular
discussion. Physicians of intelligence
understand it. Every Oneshould be made
to understand it. Every child has a
moral right to enter life under at least IA
vOrable circumstances.
ovERwORKED AND UNDERFED.
Overworked and underfed children are
Tar more common than is supposed. And
this occurs in families above the AVERAGE
IN this cOuntry-mOre often than in those
under the average. do not believe one.
half the damage is now being done bv
overworking bodies that is done bv over
working brains. The factory for children
under II is not so dangerous as the school
house. am now speaking of the school
house for young children with good brains
ana hne nerves that are capable of very
large attainments. No child should ever
be compelled to undertake book learning
before it is 6 or years of age. and unti1
II one hour at a time is all it should be
allowed to study. Set your boy down to
an interesting book, a story, or whatever
he enjoys. Let him read it for three
hours, and then call him off. You NAV
now diagnose him.
lie IS dazed as he walks He is very
likely irritable with other children. Fx.
anime his tongue, and you will find his
digestion is impaired. Put your hand on
his head; it is hot. His eyes are full. and
touched with inflammation. Sitting for
long time, he has grown weak in his
back, and is leaning in his shoulders.
The boy every day is tired and unstrung.
II this is a habit, or if he is accustomed
to five hours in school, with possibly
study and reading out of school he is
already an invalid-he is on the road to a
breakdown. Mark you, do not say he
VIII become diseased; he is diseased. In
stead OF being built up to his best estate |
physically, he is being pulled down. And
TINS Is true Of the majority of our schol- !
arly boys and girls. Almost at the be- !
ginning of life they are started on inva- |
lidism.
IRREGULAR HABITS OF EATING.
But said they are underfed. So thew |
are, the children of our best families: they |
are overstuffed and underfed. They he |
gin life almost at once on cookies and |
meat and other foods that do not nourish |
them at all, and serve only to DESTROY tbe |
digestive organs. They eat at all times /
and whatever they choose, and are thereby |
underfed even when gOrged. It is we'll /
known that only that food which is assim-
Hated and used by the blood becomes
nutrient or nourishing matter The child |
may have far too little of this when con-
stantly eating. This is peculiarly true If
allowed to overtax the brain. The child /
has none too much blood to do the build-
ing work, but this is taken awav tog the
brain to do vast deal too much Thinking
and imagining That is what | mean by
underfeeding and overworking. | sin.
cerely believe that at present we are more
IN need of laws fOrbidding the overbrain
tasking of children than of laws forbid.
Ding their employment under 10 in facto-
rles and for undue hours. We shall
shortly come to see that our educating
process needs safeguards for the children
instructed to it.
1t will be well when we come to Her
bert Spencer's idea that real education
shows ''in what way to treat the BODY: in
what way to treat the mind in what wav
10 manage our affairs; in what wav to
utilize all the sources of happiness which
nature supplies; how to use all our facul-
ties to the greatest advantage to our
selves and to others; how to live COM
pletely. In all these respects the rights
OF chldren extend. and if the state is
right IN interfering at all to secure COM
mon education it is obligated to interfere
70 the extent that will secure for the
ch1d all that true education involves.
Does our present system cover the case.
VI vi even pretend or purpose to cover it?
! axe LOT instance, the one item, How
20 20 treat the body" Is it not fact that
oy OUT OF lOO children are left to find out
WhaIeVer they do find out about the body
! anu il-l now 10 use 1t by stumbling upon facts
IniOugn Dltter experience of disease and
pain? And when, after a wretcbed o,,J
/ miserable career, they die, what is done
to make another generation wiser fbon
the last?-M. Maurice. M d. in Globa.
Democrat - NAOD0