Six lectures upon school hygiene : delivered under the auspices of the Massachusetts Emergency and Hygiene Association to teachers in the public schools.

  • Massachusetts emergency and hygiene association.
Date:
1885
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Six lectures upon school hygiene : delivered under the auspices of the Massachusetts Emergency and Hygiene Association to teachers in the public schools. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    and strong may pass through the ordeal unscathed, the delicate, the over-ambitious, and those who have in- herited tendencies to disease, cannot escape with im- punity the too common results of the present system of education. In the light of experience, the question which we should all put to ourselves is, whether the amount of school work has not reached its utmost limits, perhaps overstepped these limits, consistent with a proper regard for the health and well-being of the pupils. I think that it has. It is not alone, however, in the pupils that we see this evil outcome of the high-pressure system. The teachers themselves, particularly if they are females, too often break down under the strain. As sad as it is to see educational mistakes exemplified in the young, just as sorrowful perhaps it is to contemplate the effects of overwork upon those, who, in their obligations to push forward their pupils to a successful completion of the allotted yearly tasks, are forced to perform an amount of daily work, which many men in active busi- ness-life could not long endure. If a teacher could or would, as a daily habit, procure the requisite amount of exercise in the open air, and give to herself — I say to herself, for these remarks are addressed particularly to you lady-teachers — sufficient intermission at noon; if she would eat a proper meal before going to school, without hurry, or anxious haste to assume the routine work of the day; if she allows herself pleasant recreation, and if, finally, she is not obliged to carry the burdens of her school duties home with her, then the number of hours required for the faithful performance of her tasks in the school-room