Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-06-23
THE COUNTRY HOME
BY MRS. w. Fl. FELTON,

cip1ine and with all the penalties of a mill
tary organization, if they disobey orders,
you are confronted with existing conditions
which are unsatisfactory, to say the least. :
There may be some geniuses, some eager
to learn, but the majority are to be pulled
along or keep in the background. Thee
not only fail to acquire knowledge, but they
get distaste to the whole school business.
You familiar with what am here re-
beating to you in this article. You see 1t ev-
erv day. There seems to be only one thing
that is hopeful, and it is dawning on them1nds
of our school authorities. Specialization is
the name for it. If progress lar enough
to specialize on these herein mentioned diff
culties we will get somewhere at some time.
We will never get anywhere att any time
until we comprehend the outstanding fact thaE
children who are babies in mind should re-
main at home with their mothers until they
have advanced beyond the baby stage. 1t is
expecting too much of the little teacher to
adopt the role of mother as we'll as instructor.
am reliably informed there are on the CEN
sus roll at least one hundred thousand six
lyear-o1d children in Georgia who would be
better off at home until they have sufficient
age to appreciate what school stands for.
The medical faculty in a northern state
writes there too many exciting things.
like moving pictures or exciting stories, for
young children. They are Hnduly stimulated
and they exhaust themselves 'nervously. Some
times children of this type indulge in al
sorts of romances or fabrications.l There is a
good deal of this overplus of brain activity
which is common to young children that reacts.
in dreams, sleep-waIking and crying out in
sleep Sometimes they incline to gestures,
nodding of the head blinking of the eye,
twitching the mouth, or the hands and the
feet Sometimes they are initiating the antics
of another child. Whether these children will
be subject to similar actions later on in life is
a problem. And too often children learn
habits of invalidism from overanxious moth-
ers. Emotional scenes and shocks make pro-
found impressions, and these worthy doctors
reported that family discord Conduced to nerv-
Gus trouble in small children.
These doctors remarked, also, there was
more OF the question than used to be, and
some of the deficiency in mind culture was
traceabe to curiosity, and that children rumi-
nate about the sex subject far more than is
generally known. 49,.
1t is not difficult, therefore, to see how
these nervous symptoms, both physical and
mental make for poor work in school.
1t can be readily seen that children of all
classes in society are unduly stimulated in
large households where much entertaining is
going on with many corners and goers. The
chiIds nervous system is thus overstrained
and they have little inclination tc study.
Defective vision is often serious trouble;
defective hearing likewise The child knows
too little about its physical lapses to complain
to the teacher. The welfare of the mind is
surely Influenced by the state of physical
health and well being. When examination
days roll around the story will come out that
the child has been too irritable and nervous to
study, and is marked down, of course. The
teacher has had her hands too full to probe
into the causes, etc. She is overcropped!
Should the state expend millions on such
children who will do very little, perhaps, in
education until they are eleven twelve
years old? -
The injustice to the taxpayers is worth
thinking about in this connection, if nothing
more is realized.