Abstract
THREE well-printed and well-filled volumes containing all the addresses and papers read at last year's School Hygiene Congress m London, and a summary of many of the important discussions, have been published recently. On a more leisurely and comprehensive review than was possible at the congress itself, one cannot but be struck with the small amount of irrelevant matter. School hygiene, involving, directly or indirectly, the whole series of systems of modern education, lends itself to the fanatic, the crank, and every other type of abstractionist. It is, however, with agreeable surprise that one finds here a large number of papers full of concrete experience, presented in a well-ordered way. Like the four volumes of the first congress (Nuremberg), these three form a most convenient conspectus of school hygiene at the present day. There are signs that the movement has become more mature, for the studies are in many respects more detailed. It is difficult to select papers for special observation, but there are many that will repay reading and re-reading. The general address by Bishop Welldon on “The Effect of School Training on Mental Discipline” contains many well-loaded aphorisms, but it is disconcerting to read:—“But, at whatever cost, the habit of unquestioned obedience must be created in the young. When I was headmaster of Harrow School, I used to say to my young colleagues, ‘Begin by making the boys feel that you are prepared, if need be, to grind them to powder; then you may safely grant them as much liberty as you will.’” This is one ideal, but it is not the ideal of Froebel, of Pestalozzi, of Herbert Spencer, of Earl Barnes, of Stanley Hall.
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Hygiene—Personal and Environmental 1 . Nature 79, 264–265 (1908). https://doi.org/10.1038/079264b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/079264b0