The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-10-10
soHooLBoY SUICIDE.

We have heard much in our day about German educational methods. and those methods are often held up as models for others to follow. Below we give something on this subject from a good authOrity-The Boston Traveller. 10 - fsf sea
 The German educational method but 1t drives the. child toe, hard u looks looks only to the future; It does not s5ndy snSY the ehrs physical mands all work should be unmixed with the play which i5 asedful dur ing the school period. In the United ; states we go too far In exactly the
 On an average, one schoolboy in Germany commits suicide every week Sesps seirg oR Rla%s for more than ss among the parents and the authori- ties, ana 1t should rest equally on
 The German parent. quoted as say ing to his boy on the eve of examina- back a certificate Of promotion r viii never speak to you again." is not the | exception. This particular boy got his work, worry and fear, but if ne did not he would probably have added one more to the score of child self-mur- | ders.
 Even the wonderful forward com mercial march of Germany in the past twenty years cannot be justified when fish this; and what is more. we believe that it is wholly unnecessary; that an ! equally good result can be accomplish pine study and play in proper propor- ! ton. ,s. s.a +4
 Is not that a really pathetic condi- ton to exist in a country which Is so often held up as something of a model for other nations to follow? This weekly suicide-we are almost tempted to call 1t murder-is plainly superinduced by the inability of some of the students to keep pace with the others The result is Encouragement, disheartenment. suicide: not in every instance. of course. but in entirely too many.
 Classical readers all remember the old robber of Attica named Procrus- tes who placed all who fell into his hands on a bed prepared for them If they were too short for the bed they were stretched to the proper length; if too long, they were cut down to fit the bed. It strikes us that the German teachers have construct ed a Procrustean bed for their pupils and all must be made to 1t 1t. The system apparently takes no thought of the mental or physical capacity of the boy, or of his ability to learn. He may be as willing to study and as ambi- tious to succeed as any of the boys His stupidity, if we may so term it, is no fault of his own; he just can't learn, and that is all
 Given a boy of this kind under such an unbending system, and what is he to do? He sees other boys apparent ly no better fitted to learn than him self outstrip him in all his studies he Is probably laughed at and jeered for his dullness or stupidey. and his
 
 and spirited he may brood over his Iaggardness until he may rashly resolve to end 1t all. and his life with 1t.
 It is. not a pleasant picture to con- template. and in some of it's aspects II is not creditable to the German natior and people. But are we in free Am erica entirely free from some blame of the same kind? We do not heal of any suicides among the children unless it may be mental suicide. bu' we do know that there is much suf- fering and humiliation on the part oi backward students because of theil inability to keep pace with the others