MANAWATU EVENING STANDARD. Circulation, 3,200 Copies Daily. WEDNESDAY, MAY 16, 1906. OVER STUDY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 8190, 16 May 1906, Page 4

MANAWATU EVENING STANDARD. Circulation, 3,200 Copies Daily. WEDNESDAY, MAY 16, 1906. OVER STUDY.

A I'UoNotWtKMKNT which ought to be brought under the notice of every teacher and every educatltnal authority in the colony has just been made by Dr Truby King, of the Seat-lift" Mental Hospital. Dr. King has been enquiring into the effect of over exertion of the xniiul on a child's future. His conclusions are of an alarming nature, and if investigation .should prove them to be well-founded, then the educational system should be carefully scrutinised for such defects us would bring about the effects stated. In the course of a lecture before the Dunediu Froebel Soeiet}-, Dr. King said that people expressed pity for the hardened brute who, after years during which he consistently ill-treated his wife, at last murdered her and was hanged, but it never occurred to them to pity those who were allowed to kill themselves with overwork—which killed them body and mind. He had two eases to quote —the ease of a boy who was a dux at the Boys' High School onee, and a girt who attained a similar honour at the Girls' High School. These two people lay in the asylum hopeless lunatics, 1 and they had a right to protect these people rendered insane for life. Not only had human lives been blasted, but it applied in an economic way tooKvcrv person sent to an asylum cost tlie State an average of £'b»•>•). " Fancy," said the doctor, " sixty years of life spent in an asylum because of your system of education." Dr King's report to the Mini.-ter eon. i.lined the following paragraph " In the apparent causes uf insanity among pat units admitted, thai of "overstudy" is ot special interest, it is extremely important, that parents and guardians should clearly recognise that prolonged and excessive mental strain and uegleet of exercise, recreation, and rest, especially among girls, during the period of rapid growth ami development, cannot be continued without an ultimate deteriorating of both wiudaml body, and grave peril to the integrity of the organism. In the stress of competition for honours and prizes, the brain is so often worked at the verge of the breaking strain to the neglect of every-

thing el>«\ that one is inclined to wonder that meni#! eollapie doe* not re«nU wore frequently. If the wcondary eflVeis of ov«rpre»sure among gsrh in imperilling the potentialities of reproduction and heal; by maternity were wore widely known, it would pos>ibly prove u greater incentive to moderation than the more striking comparatively rare causation of insanity," The details of ihe ca-M;s mentioned by Dr King revealed no >p«:einl cireiimsUnee-, except tbftt the girl was accustomed io work till three o'i'l«!i in the morning ami to get up agam at >ix o'i'hvk. The boy wan very < i«-v«»r W% did not indulge in games or seek companionship. The giri, too, dH not participate m games or any other tiori. Continuing, lue doctor pointed out that these were outside ea#es. The injury done to the thousand* of otiiera \xi\% apparent m weakly offspring or no oil spring at u!L spencer said *" Suree*'* in life depends wore on energy than information," and no system w'mrft Micriiicfd «nergy for information was q-i n i hi- life tUphyMral underlay iin- mental, and the mental must not he developed at the expense of the physical. j ft* would make some praet ml Mi«ge.stio».< for a .start. The should be greatly cut down. So child should be taught a iot of suojrrls ,-a onee. Then; should be teachers abreast of modern and fundamental requirements. There were certain things which every teacher ought to do in the physical examination of the children under his charge. For example every child ought to be weighed at school at least every three months —if possible, every month. The children could weigh each other. In that way they would get to be proud of their physical condition, and ashamed of any falling away ot it. From this examination the teacher would know when there was any great change in his children's weight, and would have to seek the cause. Then, the eye of a teacher properly trained, would notice m an instant the flagging interest or the jerky movements, or the many other signs which eould apprise the teacher that something was wrong. The doctor concluded by remarking that hchad visited a kindergarten that daj-, and could not understand how they eould fail to do g<»od. The system was absolutely right.

Dr Levinge, another authority on mental disease, endoraea in a general way what Dr King says, that highpressure education is a fruitful source of mental deterioration in the young, and that it has a tendency to exhaust tbo nervous energy and vital fores generally. Dr Levinge's f«tatctnent is worth quoting in fall. It is as follows :—

'• I think the chief difficulty is the anxiety of masters to get the best possible results, and they naturally, press the most brilliant students to achieve* meats which may be beyond their strength. With a complex education system and a syllabus such, as Br Ivmg indicates, there can be no doubt there are comparatively few brums able to stand the strain without suffering from exhaustion. It depends, also, to a great extent, on the physical health of the raiklren subjected* to the test, and a weakly child could not stand the same amount of pressure as one in good bodily health. And in the ca.se or these weaklings I speak of, their bodily weakness often indicates their mental condition. But we must make certain allowances for cause and effect in these cases. There may be other causes contributing to mental breakdown than high-pressure education, and I think mental break-down may often be ascribed to this eauife, when it is really due to inherent physical weakness. It is a well-known fact that some of the greatest geniuses live on the borderland of insanity, and that it takes very little to push them over, as it were. " I think parents often show a disposition to sacrifice the future of their children by their anxiety to get educational results at too early an age. That they are really discounting the future is shown by the fact that so few of the brilliant pup'ls and students at school or college turn out the most brilliant in after life, and the inference is that their brain has become prematurely exhausted. Nor does this principle apply exclusively to education. You will lind many other causes operating m the direction of exhausting the nervous energy and the vital forces at an early age.

1 " Unfortunately, neurosis is on the t increase, and I think m many case t those brilliant youths and girls have [ inherited a neurotic strain, consequently educational methods may be credited * with producing results" which hare 1 really arisen from other causes. The . evils of over-study may often he eort reeled, however, by more attention to physical development. The principle " underlying the lihodcs Scholarships is, ' to my mind, the right one —those scholarships are awarded to youths who , have not merely shown great intellectual capacity, but who have proved their proficiency iu athletic games and : general manliness. Brielly, mental . education and development should take , place pari passu with physical development, and you have it* all in the old motto : " Mens *>ano m corpore sano." From the observations of these medical experts the outstanding reqftireiuenU of the educational system appear to be two-fold—proper training of teachers and judicious encouragement of!he development of the physique of the scholars. It is reassuring to notice that the movement in the last few years has been in the direction of improvement in both these important particulars. Stili, there is much to do ami the co operation of such men as tho.se whose opinions we have quoted will be of the greatest assistance in the matter. _____