2nd March, A. D. i8gg. 



ESSAY 



BY 



Mrs. DELIA F. COREY, Nokthboro, Mass. 



Theme: — The Early Education of Glnldren, 



IiN attempting to say anything on this subject, I realize that 

 many great minds and hearts have given their best strength to 

 it, and what can 1 hope to do with so great a theme save to 

 l)rino[ together the results of the investigations of others with 

 perhaps a few thoughts of my own ! The child is a being of 

 three-fold nature, and nuist be treated as such in our efforts to 

 i)ring him to most complete maturity. Considered and devel- 

 oped as either a physical, an intellectual, or a moral being 

 simply and the result is a deformed thing pitiful to see. 



I believe the tendency of the present day is to treat the child 

 as an intellectual being simply. Public instructors and edu- 

 cators seem anxious to learn new methods of instruction and to 

 acquire greater skill in developing the mental power, and but 

 little is said of the physical, and less of the moral, nature. Mr. 

 Anagnos once said in a lecture that from what he had learned of 

 our schools he was convinced that American children were 

 hurried into and through subjects that they could not digest in 

 their school life ; and it is true that we begin the process of 

 training with our little ones while they are yet babies, sending 

 them to kindergarten at any age between three years and five 

 and continuing till, as we say, they are finished — in academy or 

 college. Many of our girls are so nearly finished in our high 

 schools that it is rare to find one whose bodily health has not 

 become somewhat impaired ; at least, as we say, she has become 



