Jasper County Democrat, Volume 17, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 May 1914 — Undue Pressure Applied In Forcing Mental Development of School Children [ARTICLE]

Undue Pressure Applied In Forcing Mental Development of School Children

By Dr. ARTHUR A. KNOCK

of Wa'nut Hills High School,

Cincinnati

FOOTBALL, basketball apd long distance races in grammar and high schools are almost criminal. Our public officials ought to know that such strenuous physical exertion exhausts almost all organs and that a DILATED HEART IS THE NATURAL RESULT°OF THE UNREASONABLY PROLONGED TENSION INCIDENT TO SI CH GAMES. Our ideal should not culminate in the training of ; young athletes, but in the education of mentally and physically sound and harmoniously developed men and women, whose gait, posture and i bodily movements would arouse the admiration of all. THE GENERAL OPINION OF PROGRESSIVE PEDAGOGUES AND PHYSICIANS IS RAPIDLY DEVELOPING INTO A CONVICTION THAT UNDUE PRESSURE IS APPLIED, AND APPLIED PREMATURELY, IN FORCING THE MENTAL DEVELOPMENT OF SCHOOL CHILDREN. IT IS CRUEL TO DEMAND THAT CHILDREN FROM SIX TO TEN YEARS I SHOULD REMAIN IN A COMPLETELY PASSIVE POSITION FIVE HOURS DAILY IN A MUSTY, GENERALLY OVERHEATED SCHOOLROOM WHEN EVERY FIBER IMPELS THEM TO RUN INTO THE FREE AND BEAUTII FUL OUT OF DOORS. . . I We overburden our pupils mentally at too early an age, and this is 1 one of the reasons why such lamentable results are obtained during the first four school years. ,