E

CHARLOTTE A. POWELL, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS

VERY one who is interested in the all-important subject of education, must be forcibly impressed with the fact that the information offered in this field is quite as varied as it is vast. These are both good signs, although, while the wideness of the discussion proves a great deal of wholesome agitation, the fact that the material thus produced is exceedingly varied and contradictory proves that the art of education is still in its infancy. We have firstclass authorities on psychology, school economy, ethics, physical culture and many other subjects. But none of these are synonymous with education; they are only the separate parts that some great master has yet to fit into one complete whole which will then be the guide and stand-by of every school in the land.

We believe that this in a general way will be a simplifying process; that the framework of the great structure of education must always consist of three parts; and that if any one part is missing, the other two must of necessity fall to the ground. These three parts are the old but oft-forgotten "moral, mental, physical"; and no one who does not recognize and understand the importance and practical working of all three should be called an educator in any sense of the word. So far, each one has explained and urged his own particular line, until we feel like exclaiming with the chameleon, “You all are right and all are wrong"; for while much of the thought along each line has been clever and progressive, no one has evolved a system which shows the complete combination of all three, without which it is impossible to show as a resultant, pupils with sound. minds and sound bodies, which is the only proof that our educational system is adequate.

It would seem that it should be too late in the day to have to try to prove the necessity for moral or spiritual education. And yet this is the most tattered and torn of all subjects, and in fact it is dangerous even to broach it in some communities.

Yet it must be faced and conquered, for it is the "sine qua non," not only of education, but on it depends the very existence of the human race itself.

History is replete with examples of the disastrous consequences of development in which this side is overlooked. The ancient Greeks with their beautiful and highly developed bodies, and their great intellectual attainments which produced, in art and literature and philosophy, results which have never been excelled, could not become our models to-day, for their souls were darkened and brutalized by paganism and gross superstition. If we had no other argument for the necessity of fostering spiritual growth, we must needs remember that it is religion alone which teaches us to love and cherish one another, and that with this principle forgotten and disused, it would be only a matter of time before human beings would deteriorate to such an extent that might would be the only right, and under this condition great destruction if not actual annihilation is the inevitable result.

Now comes the question as to how this is to be made a permanent part of our school curriculum. Suppose that we have a school session or sessions of five hours per day for five days in the week. A practical division of the time might be, one hour moral instruction, one hour physical instruction, three hours mental instruction. We do not mean to imply that this is according to their proportional importance, but one hour per day for moral instruction might be a fair amount when we consider that Sunday, too, is not only a day of rest but of worship. As to what this hour's instruction must be, we can express it in no more fitting words than those of one of our leading college presidents who said, "There can be no education without religion, and no religion without dogma." What the "dogma" shall be, it is the parents' prerogative to decide. The pupils could be divided readily into Classes A, B, C, etc.,each to meet their respective religious instructors in the appointed hour. This is the general idea of the system which is now being used in Germany with most satisfactory results. As to the "physical" hour this would better be divided into three or four short periods interspersed through the session so as to divide it into parts as nearly equal as possible. It should

consist of some complete system of calisthenics, including games and recesses, and should be given out of doors as much. as possible. In crowded cities, the school yards should be kept open for the use of the children in the neighborhood when the schools are not in session, and all games not involving brutality or treachery should be encouraged by the teachers. Hygiene and physiology, with practical instruction in the care of the teeth, bathing and clothing, also come under this head. We are aware that these latter are properly the province of home habits and instruction, and that the busy teacher of fifty pupils cannot hope to accomplish extensive results along these lines; but a spirit of emulation and observation in these respects, mingled with judicious praise on the part of the teacher, will do much toward awakening in even the youngest pupils, a desire for the approval of their teacher and fellow-pupils as to their personal appearance and cleanliness. In some schools the bath tub and the matron or trained nurse have already arrived, and this is an important step toward putting this subject on a practical and working basis in the schools. Medical inspection, if only for the prevention of the spread of contagious diseases, is a duty which the state owes to every school within its borders. As to the work for the remaining three hours of the day,— the "mental" part,—many fine outlines are shown in the courses of study now in use. The time is less to be sure, but this ought to be an advantage, for it will necessitate expert, concentrated teaching, and it is far better to have this for three hours, than desultory work for five. This is proved by the fact that under the vastly improved methods of modern times, the children who go through the primary schools to-day are years ahead of those in the same schools fifteen or twenty years ago. This is true, also of the higher elementary schools, but in a lesser degree. One idea should dominate all teaching, and that is that quality is desired rather than quantity, and this can only be accomplished by requiring from each pupil, at all times, the best that is in him. Whatever may be the "facts" acquired in the schoolroom, that pupil is still poorly educated unless he has learned to love books and to use them intelligently; to love nature and to be familiar with many of its forms and phenomena; and above all to realize that only the foundation of education is laid in youth; and that the inspiration then received should be an impetus to more and better work as long as life shall last.

Hygiene

GEORGE V. N. DEARBORN, PH.D., M.D., PROFESSOR OF PHYSIOLOGY, TUFTS MEDICAL AND DENTAL SCHOOLS, BOSTON, AND OF THE RELATIONS OF BODY AND MIND, SARGENT NORMAL SCHOOL FOR PHYSICAL EDUCATION, CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS

I

N the present general awakening of public interest in the prophylaxis of actual disease and of lesser imperfections in human efficiency, certain considerations occur to the physiologist in regard to public school hygiene that seem to have importance sufficient to warrant a continuance of their discussion with the medical profession, and through them with the people-for the physicians are the nature-appointed teachers of mankind, in these respects particularly.

Child physiology has not kept pace with child psychology, and still less with adult physiology. Too little account is generally taken of the basal differences, hygienically speaking, between the primary and grammar school pupil and his parents, however often and vigorously scientific pedagogy has insisted on some of these differences.

In the first place one thinks of the discrepancy in respect to the endurance of mental and physical effort and strain. ("Mental" and "physical" in reality of course are only seldom separable, especially in school work, and we shall here consider them therefore together as only phases of the common psycho-physical and actually single life.) Despite all the long efforts to reduce the fatigue arising in our children from the hereditary school method, the present writer, among the many, believes that the conditions in the average public school of the lower grades still occasion a much too great and wholly needless chance of abnormal neuromuscular fatigue. In the first place, public school children begin their work when too young; the entrance age should be seven instead of five. But more particularly, strained voluntary attention scarcely belongs in the education of a child before puberty, for the nerves espe

cially still lack that power of endurance that the normal adult central nervous system can properly put forth. According to Bischoff the brain at birth is proportionally more than five times as heavy as it is in the adult, and the functional preponderance of irritability certainly corresponds, for endurance is a matter of slowly acquired strength and stability in neurones that only gradually, during years, interknit and develop. Similarly the spinal cord in the infant is proportionally three times as conspicuous as it is in the adult. In females both of these proportions are still greater. The difference between the brain-ratio and the cord-ratio as given suggests another important factor in this contrast of child and adult, namely, as is shown by the preponderance of the cord-ratio, that the power of voluntary control is normally and of necessity less in the child than in the adult. He is more nearly a "spinal animal” as the physiologists say; that is, more reflex and mechanical in his motor and "mental" control over himself. This is the basis for the absence of long-continued voluntary attention in the child. But even in trained adults the power of concentrated attention for long unbroken periods has much less sense and value than is often supposed.

The elements of school fatigue we may for the most part class under the following several heads:

First, the physiologic fatigue of the extremely delicate neurones and nerve cells of the complex brain, cord and other neural centers. The chromatin masses seem to become more or less impaired and the other constituents of the nucleoplasm and cytoplasm, although to a less extent, wasted, katabolism after a time, apparently outrunning the anabolism.

Second, the under-oxygenation of the entire body protoplasm, perhaps along the lines described as a chronic condition of disease by Homer Wakefield of New York. This depends in its acute form, with which alone we are here concerned, on inadequate ventilation which, without any doubt is, by modern standards, very general in public gathering rooms and schoolrooms everywhere. The hygienic spirit of the times demands a very much more lavish supply of air, and of moving air, than the mere physiologic requirements as figured out by Bert and Voit and the rest, have made up to now the text-book