HYGIENE AND SCHOOL LIFE. 8r 



that without proper and scientific Hghting" and ventilation of 

 school-rooms it was practically a waste of time to attempt to 

 teach them. Now, if such psychological facts obtain in 

 Europe, how much more serious are they in a hotter climate 

 such as ours. 



I am of opinion that the present system of long vacations 

 reacts detrimentally upon children, and that it would be better 

 to have more vacations of shorter duration, or, as an alterna- 

 tive, to have instructive amusements provided for the children, 

 especially of the humbler class, at intervals during the long 

 vacations. The study of Nature, the visiting of museums, 

 gardens, factories or ships, under sympathetic escort, classes 

 for drawing, music, physical culture and manual instruction 

 suggest themselves as desirable interludes to idleness in evil 

 surroundings, which would provide their minds with some- 

 thing to talk about. The monotony of child-life can only be 

 relieved and its natural intelligence cultivated by a change 

 of scene, company and occupation. 



No doubt some teachers will condemn my proposals because 

 they would entail the sacrifice of their leisure, but I am 

 assuming that our first duty is to serve the children, and the 

 second so to re-arrange the teachers' hours and duties as to 

 render their work as easy and pleasant as possible. 



Now, I cannot, at this juncture, pass a -subject that I believe 

 every parient feels very strongly about, and that is the 

 exhausting tax inflicted upon themselves and their children by 

 the: ever-mcreasing home-work. There is, I submit, some- 

 thing radically wrong when a father or mother, after an 

 (exhausting day, has to give up an hour every evening to 

 teach the children lessons that they think they have paid a 

 master to teach them. They believe that while they are doing 

 this, the teacher is enjoying his or her leisure, and that the 

 process is destructive to their child's health and mind. I am 

 quite sure that not one child in a hundred between the ages of 

 12 and i6 has finished home-work before 9 to 10 o'clock of 

 an evening, and that, as a rule, our children, considering 

 climatic conditions, etc., are much over-worked, and as a 

 result their digestive and nervous systems become exhausted, 

 and they are the more susceptible to attacks of diseases well 

 known to all capable teachers and intelligent members of 

 School Boards. 



It would be unwise for me to enlarge upon the medical side 

 of personal hygiene, but I feel it a duty to call the attention 

 of those interested to some of the commonest and most serious 

 weaknesses that any teacher should be capable of detecting. 



The Eye. — In this country of sunshine, children are more 

 free from ocular defects than in centres where artificial light 

 has to be resorted to in day time, but the teacher should be 

 on the watch for shortsightedness, longsightedness, squint, 

 or colour-blindness, and at once report the matter for medical 

 advice, due attention being given to the fact that children with 

 defective vision cannot be expected to do the same amount of 

 work as those not so affected. In any case, the school pro- 



