Los Angeles herald., 1892-06-26

sium, where they can be taught some
thing of the laws of health, and how TO
get strong, have passed beyond
the formative period in their
physical life, and have been
during the best years of their youth
shut up in an intellectual hothouse,
while their physical powers have been
mes. .s.cted, involving, very often, the
wrecd of a pro oYsnisins- ,cayeeg RHd the
disappointment Of their cherished
hopes.
What ] object to most seriously in our
present educational system is the total
disregard Of the grand differences in the
mental and physical capacity and ten
denotes Of different pupils. I object to
rigid state law compelling all school
boards to stretch all their victims, tall
or short, strong or weak, bright or dull,
on the same Procrustean bed of so many
average marks in ten to twenty differ
ent branches Of study.
1t is indeed wise policy for the state
to provide free schools for all, but it is
equally for the public good that the sort
OF education provided shall fit the pupil
to be useful member OF society-a pro-
ducer and not drone-physically
strong as well as intelligent.
There are q multitude of children
who, while mastering the three RS,
would be far better off in an industrial
school learning useful trade than in
making pretense of studying bookq,
and wasting time and strength in the
vain effort to master branches for which
they have neither taste nor capacity.
You can no more give $1,000 educa-
ton to a IS boy than you can make an
auger hole with gimlet."
There is another class of scholars by
no means small-bright, ambitious,
lovers of knowledge, but of feeble consti-
tutitn and low vitality, who are sure to
break down under the confinement and
strain of the present school courses.
Our great need is more elastic school
system, graded and classified in refer
ence to all the needs of all the pupils.
The bright and mentally capable, but
physically weak, as also the weak both
mentally and physically, should have
special gvmnastic course under the
supervision of a skilled physician,
whose first aim should be to develop in
the pupils strong, healthy bodies, and
thus give them as much mental culture
as possible consistent with the main OBJ
jects, manual training of some useful
sort being continued through the entire
course. Many lives would, thus be
saved, which are now sacrificed to the
vain ambition for finished education
for child whose bodily powers are un-
equal to the confinement and mental
strain.
There is another word to be said
about manual training, which would be
likely to occur only to the Psychologist
and psychologist.
According to the later physiology Of
has its definite area, which can be
mapped out with more or less accuracy
on the surface of the brain. That every
part -of the body aad every organ has
its corresponding sensory and motor
going into the subject at any
length, it may be broadly stated
that when we speak OF manual
dexterity, az lingering a piano, type
writing or type-setting, or any action re-
touch, true eye or trained ear, we do
sense, or set of muscles, but certain cul-
tivated brain areas.
It is susceptible of proof also, that, as
all knowledge of material things comes
to us through the senses, imsged on the
brain, and perpetuated by separate
and distinct memory, that these inn
ages are the basis of all thought, OF all
reasoning, as we'll az imagination,
or the power to combine and reproduce
mental images in endless variety. 1t
follows then that all mental processes,
whether simple or complex, really have
q physical basis, and that what we call
an education of the eenses and the &C.
quirement of manual dexterity of any
sort, are in reality mode of intellec-
tual culture.
They call into active exercise brain
areas whose increased vigor and power
give greater efficiency to the higher men
tai faculties, in addition to their infu-
ence in promoting bodily health and
strength, increasing the activity of the
circulation of the blood, and therefore
the general nutrition, improving the di-
gestion and assimilation of food, and
thus also indirectly increasing the &C.
tivity of the cerebral functions. This
view gives an added dignity and impor-
tance to the games and sports of child
hood and youth. especially those reuuir-
ing unusual skill and much practice, as
also to manual training for the useful
arts and trades.
The simple making of a toy, box, or
table, as we'll as the building of house
or construction of a steam engine, be-
long both to physical and intellectual
culture, and should, I think, be so con-
sidered in any system having in view an
all-around education.
Thus far, have not mentioned sex,
and it might be inferred that I have only
in mind the proper education of boys.
The cynical Dean Swift said, in speak
ing of terrible accident, stwo hundred
souls lost and few women and chill
dren."
The sarcasm had it's point in his day,
in the estimation in which woman was
held, in her treatment, and in the man
ner in which girls were brought up.
Old ideas, customs and prejudices,
however irrational and pernicious, die
hard, and notwithstanding the higher
and more independent position women
now occupy, it cannot be said that the
early education Of girls, and the ideas
generally instilled into their minds, are
Of sort to wholly take the sting out of
the deans witticism.
If the training of boys is lamentably
faulty, where shall we find language
strong enough to characterize the course
usually pursued with girls?
Medieval ideas in regard to them are
still far too prevalent. To their fathers
and brothers they are pets and play
things, to have everything made smooth