Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 33.djvu/526

510 If Dr. Hammond's statement be correct that many school children of the present day are oppressed mentally and physically by too many and too hard studies, it is imperative that parents, teachers, and even pupils should know what work the child's brain and body can and ought to bear. But this statement of Dr. Hammond will cause the introduction of the studies of physiology and hygiene to be objected to by some on the ground that any additional studies will weigh too heavily upon the children. This objection is a valid one if the prescribed lessons are to be merely memorized by pupils, and if the children are to be rigorously marked for not remembering. Improperly taught, as these subjects too frequently are, they become distasteful to the pupil, discouraging to the teacher, and are calculated to do more harm than good. Properly taught, they will not be merely additional studies for the pupil to grind out with tears and labor and vexation of spirit, but will be welcomed because they lighten the work imposed by the routine of school-life.

Until very recently, in order to obey the precept, "Know thyself," the teaching has been almost altogether anatomical, dry descriptions of the position, shape, and use of bones, muscles, and the various tissues of the body. Unfortunately, much of this sort of teaching still prevails, even for young children, and some of the books in use foster such teaching. Fortunately, many of the books devote more space to physiology than to anatomy, but a few only give much attention to hygiene, which is the most practical of the three studies, but its study should be associated with that of the other two.

Says Dr. Parkes, the eminent sanitarian: "Hygiene aims at rendering growth more perfect, decay less rapid, life more vigorous, and death more remote." Information that will help to effect these ends is what is needed by all who wish to enjoy and accomplish most during life. While it is of interest to know what bones are, and how many there are in the body, where the location of the heart is, and what are its functions, it is of more practical importance for all of us to know what will keep the bones in sound condition, and what we should or should not do in order that our hearts may serve us faithfully many years. The practice of hygienic laws, as well as the study of hygiene, is needed both in and out of schools much more than mere anatomical and physiological knowledge. Dr. Stephen Smith, as President of the American Public Health Association, voiced the opinion of many sanitarians when, in 1873, in an address before the association, he said: "Were a well-digested system of education in hygienic matters, which so vitally concern the well-being of every person, adopted and put in practice with anything like the vigor with which we insist upon the study of the common and useful branches, like