Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1910-09-23
OVERLOADED SCHOOL CHILDREN

The following just received from
Prof. w. Fl. Hand for publication in
The Enquirer is interesting and timely:
"The writer is a devoted friend to
the public schools, feelingly sympa-
thiZes with the teachers in their prob
lens, and has unbounded faith in the
merits of modern education. However,
he is not blind to the faults Of the
schools or to the shortcomings Of the
teachers. Perhaps the greatest fault
of the present day public school Is its
overloaded course Of study. The school
is overlooking the pupils with subjects
and with books. New subjects are
constantly being introduced into the
schools: almost every such subject Is
being from year to year subdivided,
and each subdivision calls for a book
and is given a place in the schedule OF
school studies. Not only the tendency,
but the actual practice Is to give to the
pupils a mere smattering of many
things and a mastery of very few.
"The child Of today touches life at
many more points than did the child
of even forty years ago. Even his ele-
mentary education must be broader
than that demanded in the recent past.
To meet this need the modern school
child has been given more books and
yet more books. There Is better way
to supply this need, and thoughtful
educators have already pointed out
that way.
ITO see school children from to IA
years Of age struggling through each
year with six seven, and even eight
school studies, exclusive OF writing.
drawing and music, ought to cause
teachers, school boards and parents to
consider the end Of 1t all. The men
tally strong and physically robust, the
mentally strong and physically weak,
the mentally weak and physically ro-
bust, and the mentally weak and ply
sically weak, are all given practically
the same tasks within the same time.
"The law protects the child from
overwork in the mill and the mine; the
overloaded horse and the underfed
mule have some protection at the
hands of the Society for the Preven-
tion Of Cruelty to Animals. Who Is
protecting the overloaded and under
fed child in the schools? Recently
much attention has very properly been
directed to the sanitation Of school
houses and the general health of school
children. Is it not time to turn some
attention to another phase Of tho chill
dren's welfare?
"The conditions under discussion are
To see them one has but to look about
him. The schools throughout the state
have just opened or are about to open.
Look at the book lists Of your chill
dren: look at the load Of books the
children lug to and from school each
day. Can the normal child master and
assimilate what he is given each year?
Is it any wonder that examinations in
all these books give children night
mares. Would it not be far better,
more sane, to give four or five subjects
at time, and to master these, than to
browse over seven or eight, or to over
work children in the vain endeavor to
| do the unreasonable?
"As a rule, school teachers are peo-
pie of training and Of excellent good
sense and judgment, but in our mad
| endeavor to surpass each other in
school work some of us have lost our
bearings. We need to stop to consid-
er. Will not the teachers, the parents
school boards, and the press take up
| this subject and discuss it dispassion-
ately and solely on it's merits? A dis
cussion made up of wild charges and
weak defenses will be of no benefit to
anybody"