Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1900-05-09

DR.. forter Enters the Arena of Discussion Again
Great Men ard Women Not
Highly Educated.

DO American men and women realize
| that in five cities of our country alone
! thele were. during the last school term,
| over 10, 600 children between the ages OF
4 s and IA taken out o. the public schools
| because their nervous systems We're
/ wrecked and their minds were incapable
of going on any further in the Internal
examining system which exists today in
our schoolsy" So writes +. w. Box. in
Ladies Home Journal. January, 1900,
Get and read the article. Here is part
of the gist of it: Health shattered by
over study in $4,000 cases; no attack
made on teachers; teacher is expected to
cram specified amount of book learning
into heads of an immense class in a
given time. Most rapid growth of brain
| takes place in the first seven years of
life. Nourish body properly but do not
| send to school until seven years of age =,
The kindergarten all right until this
| age. Next seven years Child should
have rest, but he gets close confinement
! school.
| Here is a hint regarding building
more rooms: In Greater New York
there were so many pupils that one half
were obliged to come from nine until
one; the other half from one until FIVE
The press and people cried against this
But the children were so much fresher
for the shorter hours, they actually ac-
complished almost twice as much as
they did with the former longer hours. .
AT the age Of fifteen, Mr.. Box says.
shis Is all that should be expected of the
boy or girl: To read aloud pleasantly
and intelligently; TO write legibly; TO
spell correctly TO express himself clearly
in letter: to count accurately; to use
his mind himself; to use his fingers so
that his hands will be help to him in
earning living. That is enough for
seven years learning in the great forma-
tive period of life.
Light and Ventilation" thinks
would need daily paper in case my
child were schoole6 in houses like was
and had my advantages. Notat all 1t
is not the costly school house with all
its elegant furnishings. nor long terms
of school that make strong men and
women. In the region where | lived
the schools and school houses were of
the poorest kind. Thirty years ago the
school year averaged, the stste over
only is weeks. Of my native county
in 1895. Senator Frye said; standing
Il
the old Oxford county, hilly, rocky
sterile, bleak. | can say to you that
there six governors of this state have
/ teen born, six governors of other and
| d lfferent states, four United States SEN
alors. twenty members of the national
house of representatives, JUDGES, super.
! intendents of schools, major generals,
\ cabinet officers, vice president of the
/ al A salH
/ Maine recently stood before John d.
Longs birthplace. Secretary Long, as
! everybody knows, is grand man; the
/ only teetotaler in the cabinet. He had
/ the courage to abolish alcohol from the
navy, and our gunners in action wert
sober as the Spanish gunners were not
Draw a circle around Longs birthplace
fifty miles from it on every side and tbs
area you include in that circle has sen
out into the world more eminent mer
and women than any similar area u
the face of Gods green earth. The lis
is too long for me to even name. As fal
as early school education mad to do witt
the success of these great men and wo
men il must have been simply sufficient
to act as an incentive to future work
simply stimulus. In those wretcheC
BCHDbis bue CD1llIEH SluiRAg Eob n ttce'
of knowledge and We're never cloyed by
too much schooling. as many of our
are here. Supt. Wilkins, who is one o
the best educators in the state, inform
me that his twelve-year-old daughte
attends nhool in the forenoon and spend
her after Moons in the fields instead O
the school room Are there not score
Of other girls, from ten to fifteen year
of age, in our schools who would be the
better off, mentally, physically, anC
morally for such shortening of thei
school hours? believe there are; and
believe our best teachers and growinI
number of olr medical men sye of tina
opinion.
If you will give space / would like +
throw light ON the condition of the ston
schoolhouse and tell in plain languag
what science demands and what W
furnish in the way of light, air, space
etc, TO the children C. V. II.
Viroqua, May 7, 1900.