The Irish standard., 1898-01-15
OF TEACHING nriE CHILDREN IN
THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS,
ARE NOT CONDUCIVE TO LONGEVITY.
THE CAUSE OF NEVROTIC AILMENTS
IN YOUNG PUPILS.
INVESTIGATION BY The GOVERNMENT.
BRAINS OF YOUTHFUL STUDENTS
MAY BE OVERTURNED.


ducing neurotic race? Are the brains
of the youthful student of today taxed
beyond the limit Of endurance:
The interior departments bureau Of
education at Washington is touching up-
on this question in the course of an in
vestigation of mental fatigue of school
children, being made for the benefit Of
educators throughout the country In
teresting data have been collected from
many experiments upon boys and girls,
as we'll as adults, made for the purpose
of ascertaining exactly how much actu-
al labor the brain, at different ages, and
OF each sex, can perform, and how long
1t can work without fatigue, says the
New York World.
For several years the bureau of edu-
cation has been interested in the now
sclnece of paridolegy, or child study.
Some experimental raidologists arc, of
the opinion that many nervous diseases
are being developed In our schools.
Since nervous disease Is the vestibulc
of insanity, some revolutions must be
made If these conditions are really SO.
The school child's brain may require
moro frequent periods of rest between
the. hours Of recitation or study demand
eG in school.
Many interesting experimental meth
dds of firing the brain and of estimating,
the extent OF It's fatigue have been en-
ploycd. Children were given yario1s
small mental tasks Of equal difficulty,
such as counting the numbers of letters
on page, memorizing rows of num-
bers, syllables and words; continuous
adding OF simple numbers, solving
simple problems and similar work. all
To be done In Il certain time and drop-
ped at Il given signal
In other tests four rows of simple
problems In arithmetic were
placed before Il number OF school child
rcn. All of them had solved the same
problems before They were required to
work certain number of minutes and
rest certain number, then work and
rest again, and so on, the work for each
interval being compared with that Of
the others.
Another simple test was to require the
subjects to draw straight lines two or
three inches long and aftcrward to e.
vide them Into Il certain number of canal
parts free hand. This was done because
the tired brain is unable to dscrimin-
ate distances nearly SO accurately as that
which is rested.
Devices, such as color wheels and t,Iu-
ing forks, were used to produce colors Of
varying tints or shades and tones Of
varying pitches 1t was noted whether
the subjects became less acute in their
discrimination between these colory and
tones as their brains continued to wor!,
Deafness appears to result from men
tal fatigue. 1t Is now thought to be
due to this fact that the children often
appear careless or inuttentivc as 10
what Is said to them after they have nor
formed mental labor for several hours.
Color blindness appears also to be in
creased by mental fatigue.
Soma
that brain fatigue attacks students after
a given period, depending upon age
when all other conditions are canal
| Averages show that the fatigue begins
to be felt at the end of an hour of
steady brain work by older students
and after much shorter interval of ST.
milar application by younger ones.
The minds of children between II and
IL appear to become tired after about
thirty-five minutes work. Among still
| younger children the limit is consider
ably less. The brains Of boys under
| IL tire of school work more readily
than those Of girls of the same age.
| This Is thought to be due to the greater
| impnlsivcncss OF boys. They are more
| passionatcly eager and impatient than
| girls
1t Is interesting to know what studies
| fatigue the brain more than others. One
series of experiments indicated that
mathematics was the first to fail, in the
majority Of cases II so, mathcmatici-
ans are harder worked than any other
brain workers who cxpcnd the same
amount Of concentration. The fatiguod
brain also finds great difficulty in trans
1ating foreign languages. This is due
i to lapse of memory, to Il great extent.
Failing memory IS found to be an early
symptom Of brain fatigue.
Experiments made by modern psyche
losists and psychologists indicate that
fatigue CT the mind is the result of a
chemical process. The cells Of the hu.