There are complaints that the duties and exactions of the schools
injure the health and impair the constitutions of pupils; that the
progress in intellectual attainments is not always what it should be;
that the training given is sometimes determined by the wishes of
committees against the better judgment of competent teachers; that the
text-books are defective; that the studies in the common schools are too
numerous; that the elements are consequently neglected; and that, in
fine, too much thought is bestowed upon exhibitions and contests for
public prizes, to the injury of good learning, and of individual and
general character. For these complaints there is some foundation; but
care should be exercised lest incidental and necessary evils become, in
the public estimation, great wrongs, and exceptional cases the evidence
of general facts.
It is to some extent true that the duties and exactions of the schools
seriously test the health of pupils; but it is, as I believe, more
generally true that many pupils are physically unable to meet the
ordinary and proper duties of the school-room. School life, as usually
conducted, is physically injurious, and our best efforts thus far have
been limited to the dissemination of elementary knowledge of physiology
as a science, and to an acquaintance with a limited number of important
physiological facts. Yet even here little has been accomplished in
comparison with what may be done.
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