The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-08-28

| uIILlh, ana dllefnaleS IN order or Tn
| day which is made up principally o
| loafing with the excitement of dueIine
| The practice Of non-attendance at uni
versity lectures is so common in Ger
| many in fact as to have become a sub
| ject for national joking in all humorou
| papers, And university which rattle
| Iashly made regulation to expel sucl
students who never once came to a lee
ture ended few years ago by losing
number of men.
! ! cannot lay before the reader tn
1 statistics of the German committees o
| investigation which Influenced the EN-
peror few years ago to cut down tn
number of study hours in the militar.
schools under his command in order t,
diminish hort-sightedness and marrow
chest development among cadets, bu
the results of Investigations similar t.
the German ones are published by Axe
Key, who examined 11,210 children il
Swedish schools carried on after Ger
man continental methods "Of thes,
11,2lO scholars" he writes, "61S5, that il
to say, 55.2 per cent, were normal II
health; 5,025, or AS per cent, We're at
flicted with some ailment, the wors
cases and the most numerous ones be
ing found among those of Latir
schools" A large percentage of disease
is one form or another of nervous eX
haustion, chiefly headache and anemia
Out of every thirteen boys one becomes
chorotic in the first years attendance
at school. AT the close of two years at
tendance every sixth or seventh lad suf-
fers of this disease at the end of the
third year every fifth child does.
In Germany the complaints of parents
and the warnings of thoughtful, observ-
ant pedagogs are directed mainly
against grammar schools But the evil
begins in the outset, with primary
schools, as we mothers more than sur
mise, for how has school attendance
been further arranged by the lords of
creation?
Why, it has been arranged theoreti-
cally, with a systematic evenness, an
hour for each lesson, the same for chill
dren six years of age as-for men of
twenty-siX. The German word for les
son is hour" there is no other term in
use. To have a lesson Is to have IAN
hour" plan of recitations is called
here IAN hour plan" A child six years
of age is given twenty lessons a week,
each lesson, as must always be kept in
mind, an hour in length. At home the
tutor who aids children in preparing the
Rotations for the next day, during the
afternoon or evening. proceeds after a
similar fashion, working with the
young, tired brain with disregard of ev-
erything save the threatening examina-
tions ahead. Where these fall out bad
ly all prospect Of advancement to the
teacher, farewell further employment to
the tutor, farewell to the peace of the
household! For the age of every lad is
published on every school list and to
fall behind the average is to be derided
publicly as blockhead, to lose chances
in life and the right of exemption from
full military service by becoming a vol
unteer Qn place of a common soldier).
No American can possibly form con-
ception of what a bugbear school ex-
are in a large proportion of
German families of the proud and am
bilious classes; what heartburnings
torment mothers; what tempests of rage
sweep over fathers on account of sons
behind their school class. The more
delicate lad is, the greater the pres
sure--for is not his frailness an especial
why he should escape the COM
pulsory, hard army service? And he
can only do this by passing his abitu-
rienten examination at the age fixed by
state law
You see one thing seems to entail an
other The state at the uppermost end
establishes a standard of intellectual
requirements that must be reached by
A certain age; the minister of education
professors, teachers and tutors repre-
sent really so many subordinates of this
high arbiter, their duty is to see to it
that this requirement be fulfilled by the
youth subjected to them. The system
Is military in conception, and its ideal is
In sustaining uniform length of time
For lessons, no matter what the age of
he children may be, this system mean
while is doing pretty much the worst
hat system can. The Americans hit
Upon a more natural and scientifically
plan in limiting recitations to
FsdI all iiDul, bDlll III VI llIltil anu
grammar schools. For plenty Of scien-
life experiments have been made, both
With the Instruments known as the err
and without it, to prove that
he nervous tension known as attention
AN be supported by the young brain
,nly two quarters of an hour; between
he second and third quarters the brain
capacity is as good as exhausted, and
he keeping it in action is pernicious,
md may result in permanently arrest
ng the normal growth of that organ, as
veil as of the lungs.
The drill" therefore, of German
chools is hardly to be recommended as
IN unmitigated good, save perhaps, for
forward, robust boys.
these it tames for 1t lowers vitality.
\ typical German lad of fourteen ap-
,ears no further developed than a
yankee boy of eleven or twelve years of
Won Krockow in the In
dependent.
HE POPE'S HEALTH AND HABITS |
Describing the habits of Leo XIII, the |