School and industrial hygiene / by D. F. Lincoln.

  • Lincoln, David F. (David Francis), 1841-1916.
Date:
1896
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: School and industrial hygiene / by D. F. Lincoln. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    what constitutes a fair amount of work ? In reply, it should be said that a parent knows more about a child, in the generality of cases, than a teacher.* It is a parent's eye that can best see when the child is unlike himself; and the parent is justified in feeling anxiety whenever the child loses sleep and the desire for food and play. The means by which children are urged are well known, consisting of credits, rank, prizes, public ex- hibitions, and the moral influence of a teacher of strenuous disposition. It will not do to condemn all of these at once, for they have arguments in their favor. But, as a general thing, the giving of prizes, or at least public displays upon the stage, may safely be forbidden in the case of girls as useless, if not harmful. Their nervous system responds too quickly to such stimuli. If there be novels which do harm by giving false views of life, are there not schools for girls which do precisely the same thing, by the excessive im- portance which they allow the pupils to attach to a paltry gift, or, far worse, to success in beating rivals ? The scholar's future health cannot but be bene- fited by an effort to conquer indolence; but—to re- turn to our chief point—children ought in some cases * Especially if the child be one among fitty-six, who remain only five months with one teacher.