State Board of Health, 
305 
will declare themselves, whether we will or no, in after life. But 
the aptitudes of some should not be made the standard of excel¬ 
lence for all. The class system must, under our system of educa¬ 
tion, in some measure continue; but its wrong tendencies can be 
largely mitigated or entirely remedied by an increase of instruct¬ 
ors, so that the person will not be lost in the class. If it be urged 
that an increase of teachers demands increased expenditure of 
money, the statement may be doubted. Increased facilities would 
shorten the time of schooling necessary; but, if the expenditure of 
money should be more, can it be doubted that the fuller and more 
symmetrical development of the individual would be more than 
abundant compensation? 
A very general opinion obtains that our children’s brains are be¬ 
ing overworked, and that their bodies are underworked. Neither 
opinion is well founded; indeed, there is little hazard in saying that 
the reverse of both opinions is true. Both minds and bodies enjoy 
certain kinds of activity. The body enjoys play; the mind enjoys 
a certain kind of intellectual vagrancy; and so both have a tendency 
to be busy in these ways, but neither enjoys persistent, coherent, 
useful work; and yet, such is the very kind of work that must be 
done to make useful men and women. 
Children are not required to do too much intellectual work, but 
under the present system (the class) they are often required to lift 
impossible w^eights. Oft-repeated unsuccessful efforts to accomplish 
a given intellectual result will as surely injure the brain as unsuc¬ 
cessful efforts to lift a weight will injure a muscle. Hence, the im¬ 
perative need of individual care. Doubtless, too much and too 
great a variety of work is often required to be done in a given time, 
but too much work, on the whole, is not required. 
Special excitants, applied to the brain to induce it to accomplish 
its highest possible work, are of more than doubtful utility. This 
applies to the entire system in schools, high or low, of marks and 
prizes, honors and contests, whether at home or abroad. The sys¬ 
tem is pernicious in a variety of ways. It stimulates the delicate, 
active, highly organized brain to overwork, under the pressure of 
wdiich some are injured and some break down. It engenders in 
those who win, self-confidence and expectations seldom realized in 
after life. Those who have made a vigorous struggle are humiliated, 
so that while few rejoice, many mourn; while the incapable or lazy 
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