EDUCATION.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5770, 26 September 1879, Page 3

EDUCATION.

TO THE EDITOR 01' THE NEW ZEALAND TIMERS. Sj ß) As yon have invited a discussion in your columns on the subject of education, perhaps you will allow me to make a few remarks upon the medical aspect of this question. _ All I have to say will tend to confirm the opinion expressed in your journal on several occasions lately, that too much is expected from our children. It is a well-known fact that a certain amount of exercise is necessary for all organa, in order to keep them in health ; but excessive pressure put upon a growing and developing organ will abnormally develops it in structure, while at the same time it will prematurely arrest its growth ; by this I mean that the organ so taxed—the brain perhaps more than any other—will become able, on account of its unnatural growth, to perform mental work which is unsnited to it; it will, as it were, develop unduly for a time, owing to the increased quantity of blood sent to it (owing to the undue demand for it), from which it derives its nutritive elements. Increased work means an increased supply ot blood to the part working ; so, if the brain be called upon to perform an unusually large amount of work, the balance of the circulation is disturbed ; a larger quantity of blood than usual is circulating through the brain, so that it has more than its share. And in order to supply this extra amount, it has to be deducted from the quantity that ought to go to nourish the rest of the body : thus, the general system cannot grow as it ought, because it has not sufficient blood brought to it, and growth cannot go on without a constant and abundant supply of good blood being sent to every part._ The effect of this disturbance, however, will be that the brain will not ultimately arrive at the same size or degree of development, aud consequently the same perfection, as it would have attained had it been supplied in moderation with mental food suited to its development. Nor will the injury bo confined to the brain : all the functions (as respiration, circulation, digestion, &c.), which are under the control of the nervous system (of which the brain is the great centre) will be more or less imperfectly performed. And how common is it to find people with overworked brains suffering from dyspepsia, palpitation, &c., simply the result of defective nervous force ? Mere want of sufficient nervous power iu children is quite enough to induce functional disorders, or light up permanent organic disease in those who have any hereditary tendency to nervous affections. During the period of from seven to fourteen years of age, the time when children are supposed to be able to bear work without barm, there is at all times an extreme sensitiveness of the nervous system, and special liability to the development of transmitted taints ; there is also at this period great activity of the organs of digestion, and derangements caused by impaired nutrition are very common, so that any immoderate intellectual training, at a time when these organs arc enfeebled and the appetite poor, may so impoverish the quality of the blood as to increase the sensitiveness of the brain and nervous centres, as to bring on actual disease, as, for instance, St. Vitus’ dance, or epilepsy, which diseases are unusually common during this period. In an article which lately appeared in your columns, you have referred to one of the great defects of school teaching—namely, the amount of time which children must spend during the evening in the preparation of their lesions for the next day. I

know children of from 10 to 12 years old who have to spend, on an average, two hours every evening in learning the next day s worlc This does not, perhaps, sound much ; but it we consider that it comes at the end of the day, ’.vhen the child i- tirco in oc'ly and mind, the tax is not inconsiderable. We know how frequently children find work at this time wearisome and irksome to a Degree, and I need hardly Hay that 'work done when the brain and body are tired is generally badly done ; or, if by a con tin tied strain and effort the ! ask is ina-tered, it is done at the expen.-e of more vital force and energy than ought to be demanded of a growing child. These arc some of the physiological grounds upon which it is unwise and injurious to over tax ciiiidren’s brains. The injuries to sight and figure, owing in great measure to faulty construction of seats and desks, and improper anti insufficient lighting of school rooms, are also questions which ought not to be overlooked by those who have the direction of the education of children.

When I first decided to read a paper on this subject at the Philosophical Society, I hail no intention of appearing in print; seeing, however, the warm manner in which the subject has been taken up in your columns, I could not refrain from saying a word of warning, as I am fully aware of the harm that is being done from want of some knowledge of those physiological laws which should guide us iu the education of children. —-I am, &c., W. G. Kemp. The Terraco, September 25.