Second annual report of the Williams Secular School.

  • Williams Secular School
Date:
1851
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Second annual report of the Williams Secular School. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    not merely for the sake of its direct advantages, but out of reverence to Him who instituted it. Great care is taken, especially with the younger children, to avoid overtasking the brain. The teacher has found it necessary to make the lessons on mental arithmetic of shorter duration than any of the others, as children of highly nervous temperaments have com- plained of headache after such lessons, when protracted to the same length as the other lessons. Any undue activity of the brain is at once manifested by a characteristic brightness and restless expression of the eye, generally accompanied with a flush of the cheeks, and a redness and burning of the ears; sometimes there is a red band across the bridge of the nose, or the chin is more flushed than the rest of the face; in all cases the forehead is unusually hot, and frequently headache is complained of. The experience of the teacher has enabled him to detect these symptoms immediately when they present themselves, and to remove the exciting cause. It is interesting to observe, that while the general mental activity of the children has so greatly increased since the commencement of the school, instances of this kind of morbid activity have become far less frequent, and of late have been almost unknown. A few cases have occurred of highly nervous and excitable children, who for some time after entering the school exhibited continually some of the above named symptoms: but this tendency has gradually subsided, and their general health and robustness have improved, while their intellectual progress has continued very satisfactory ; facts which show strikingly that the system of instruction adopted in the school is safe and healthy, and the tendency to excessive cerebral activity is less than in schools in which tasks to be learned by rote constitute the chief exer- cises, and in which strong st imulants to love of approbation and fear are applied as means of eliciting exertion. This is easily explained when we consider that the blood, which flows to the head under all circum- stances of mental activity, becomes diffused over the whole brain when the action is general, and thus moderate and uniform excitement results; whereas, when only a few organs are active, as in learning lessons by rote, or in mental arithmetic, there must be a tendency to a concentration of the blood upon these parts, and the danger of morbid action is proportionally increased. Thorough ventilation is also carefully attended to, and has a very beneficial effect in warding off drowsiness on the one hand, and undue excitement, from excessive interest in the studies, on the other. The importance of introducing illustrations and ample explana- tions into all the lessons, is even greater in the case of Scotch than of English children, on account of the spoken language of the former differing so widely from the language of printed books. A great many common words, such as “moral” and “immoral,” “mortal” and “ immortal,” and others, derived from Greek or Latin roots, are
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