Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1899-09-21
TIE CH|LD'S TRAINING
Interesting and Valuable Paper
Read by DR.. Powell Before
Board Of Control.
Environment and Education Of the
Child and Arrest Of Mental
Development
Facts Learned From Observation Of
Insane Patients at the
Asylum.


q paper iestu DeIOTe the state DOarQ OF
4 control and superintendent of institu-
tons yesterday the average person
doesn't ever get a new idea after he is
80 years old. This, of course, refers
only to the average person. DR.. Powell
admits that one may acquire new in
formation; he may apply his intellec-
tual processes to its consideration and
digest it along with the store OF pre-
viously acquired information. But he
doesn't acquire any new or added rea-
soning faculties after that age. The
| physical growth is complete at % in the
average person, and the intellectual
/ growth at 30.
/ DR.. Powell's address was on Growth
and Arrested Development" He gave
interesting statistics on the number of
detectives in the United States, drawn
from the census of 1890. The figures:
/ In
Iowa
| Feeble minded. :. ........ $1,000 1919
Prisoners 80. -. -. 81, 800 LOIS
| Paupers in almshouses.. 73,145 1,6A
OL sDeUeNOleUC IN
stitutions.. J. ). .111,910 SIS
IJuvenile delinquents in re-
formatories. 1886 52I
/ Blind.... ...... ;. so, 56S 1859
There are enough others. if enumer-
ated, to make the total 10000 COM
mon mistake is made in regarding chill
dren as small, but responsible adults,
1 IN Judging their action and expressions
/ by adult standards. AT the birth the
organism is over "A per cent water,
| While in adults it is only IS per cent
| water. The weight at birth is doubled
at five months, trebled at fifteen
months, the weight at one year is
doubled al Z and this again is doubled
at IA years. In the seventh year the
brain displays great activity. at this
time practically attaining full growth.
| Up 70 this time education comes by
spontaneity. Childhood is uneven, I'M
stable. and purely provisional. AT
birth the cerebral matter is uniform in
color and quality, and the first appear
ance of gray matter takes place at the
age of about one month Evidently
therefore. the child at birth has no
mind. though 1t is. of course an inner
ent potentiality. A normal cell, under
normal conditions, produces normal
cell: an abnormal one produces an alb
normal one The Importance of proper
and normal stimulation is obvious But
education cannot make everything.
Hereditary marks Will refuse to be
cancelled or even greatly modified Ed
ucational growth will fail to produce
fundamental changes in organisms. but
lit can greatly strengthen organisms
land cab into use the unorganized rem
! nant of dormant cells.
But il is not true. as the fatalists
hold. that, the nervous system is ma
/ chine bound to develop on certain lines
laid down in advance. But environ-
! ment ana training mean much Indeed
DIR. Powell declared that in his opinion
Ienyironment is a far more potent factor
I'm the development of character than
I Incredibly. We cannot choose our par
+ ents. ne says, but we can develop the
talent that nature gives US. There ar
1 between one and two hundred million
\ sensory cells in the brain and there
4 was probably never a person who did
I not have several million undeveloped
/ ones. At least one may devote a good
deal of energy in filling up these 200
100000 cells With IDEAS and by The time
they are full he will have reasonable
amount of information on hand
Oliver Wendell Holmes said he would
take a hundred children of certain
j stock and in ten or twelve years would
agree to return seventy-five of them as
L respectable, law abiding citizens; and
he would take another hundred and by
placing them under different and de-
grading Influences, would turn at least
seventyfiye into thugs, criminals anG!
rascals. Recently new study has
! been developed the study of the
growth and developments and changes
in the child-and it is a study which
should be encouraged and promoted.
for it VIII contribute much to the
A proper education of the child. 1t is a
curious fact that the infant has so long
been member of the family without
being intelligently observed School
loads for children are often too heavy.
fPrecociousness, overstrain and lack OF
action are often factors in arresting
i development. The imbecile is the most
4 marked arrest of congenital develop
4 ment Occasionally there is born into
the world a moral imbecile, without
the sense of right or wrong and vet in
4 PosSSsslDH u idli reasoning powers.
But both the lower and higher classes
lof feeble mindedness are stable and
cannot be corrected. The deficiency viii
always remain. The hopeful channel
for changing the young criminal classes
is to change their environment Chill
Idren should be withdrawn from bad in
fiuences and subjected to the good
4 Heredity invites an environment and
4 conduces to its continuance. 1t is neces-
sary that strong measures be taken 10
remove the child from the unfortunate
surroundings thus provided. Environ
i ment is really the controlling factor in
developing a career
The program committee presented
4 the following list of papers to be read
at the December conferences:
State Institutions of Iowa. Past
Present and Future" by Ex-Governor
Larrabee.
institution Stock and Its Care" by
Superintendent Gill
Relations Between Authority and
Service in Institutions by Superin-
tendent Rothert.
do We Need a Young Mans Re-
lformatory?" by Superintendent Milesj
of the Eldora reform school.
"Office Work and Office System" by
L. A. Wilkinson. superintendent of the
board of control.