FOURTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VITI. 575 



mental and moral, — during the years from six to sixteen. Many inter- 

 esting tests were made, comparing weight, height, strength, vital capa- 

 city and endurance, also the rate of physical growth as compared with 

 mental. 



These tests show a direct relationship between physical condition 

 and intellectual capacity. They show that one is likely to attain ^o 

 his highest mental development only as he reaches the physical growth 

 that nature has marked out for him. Also that the vital capacity in- 

 creases and decreases with the amount of one's activity; that vital 

 capacity and endurance usually develop together. 



In order to secure a broader basis for conclusions, tests were also 

 taken' on the boys of school age in the city prison and in the house of 

 correction. The result was that those boys were • found to be inferior 

 in all the principal physical measurements taken, and that this inferi- 

 ority increases with age. 



This suggests to the parent that he should keep wide open the path 

 of growth for the child by securing for him the best possible conditions 

 of food, shelter and protection from disease. Everywhere it should bo 

 borne in mind that childhood should be sacred to growth. 



As years crowd upon the child, as boyhood and girlhood succeed 

 childhood, and the mind and body strengthen in happy unison, a stronger 

 mind diet should be substituted for the simpler food of earlier years. 



Seek to strengthen the entire group of mental faculties not the men-- 

 •ory alone, but the reasoning, judging, discovering and inventive capaci- 

 ties. The inclination to original thought is oft-times discouraged. 

 "What are you doing," asks the teacher of the young philosopher. 

 "Thinking," says the boy who promises to become a Franklin or an 

 Edison. "Stop it." says the teacher; "stop it and get your lesson." 



Our schools should teach not only literature, science and art, bi't 

 also how governm.ents are made, and why they are made, and how they 

 may be kept pure, and how the laws which hold them together can be 

 regulated and controlled. That the youth of our land may develop the 

 intelligence necessary for advancing civilization. 



Thoughtful men and women realize that our present educational 

 system is inadequate; that we are not accomplishing what we should 

 for the money expended. They are discussing various methods for im- 

 provement. While the public mind is agitated on the subject of re- 

 form there will of necessity be some confusion of ideas. 



Sooner or later the chaff will be blown away, the dust will settle 

 and our State will devise a system more in harmony with our present 

 needs. 



You who have read the Des Moines papers of recent dates have 

 probably noticed the demand made by the Mother's Club of that city 

 for the sanitary improvement of one of their public schools. The life 

 and health of their little ones was being endangered. The mothers rose 

 in their might, several hundred strong, and insisted that the building 

 be put in proper condition. 



This is but an illustration of what can be accomplished when the 

 people demand reform. There is too much indifference in regard to 



