Essays On Education And Kindred Subjects (Fiscle Part- 11) - Herbert Spencer (if you give a mouse a cookie read aloud txt) 📗
- Author: Herbert Spencer
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Offspring Of Other Creatures, And Were Careless Of Learning How Best To
Rear Their Own Offspring, He Would Have Paralleled Any Of The Other
Absurdities He Ascribes To Them.
The Matter Is A Serious One, However. Ludicrous As Is The Antithesis,
The Fact It Expresses Is Not Less Disastrous. As Remarks A Suggestive
Writer, The First Requisite To Success In Life Is "To Be A Good Animal;"
And To Be A Nation Of Good Animals Is The First Condition To National
Prosperity. Not Only Is It That The Event Of A War Often Turns On The
Strength And Hardiness Of Soldiers; But It Is That The Contests Of
Commerce Are In Part Determined By The Bodily Endurance Of Producers.
Thus Far We Have Found No Reason To Fear Trials Of Strength With Other
Races In Either Of These Fields. But There Are Not Wanting Signs That
Part 1 Chapter 4 (Physical Education) Pg 51Our Powers Will Presently Be Taxed To The Uttermost. The Competition Of
Modern Life Is So Keen, That Few Can Bear The Required Application
Without Injury. Already Thousands Break Down Under The High Pressure
They Are Subject To. If This Pressure Continues To Increase, As It Seems
Likely To Do, It Will Try Severely Even The Soundest Constitutions.
Hence It Is Becoming Of Especial Importance That The Training Of
Children Should Be So Carried On, As Not Only To Fit Them Mentally For
The Struggle Before Them, But Also To Make Them Physically Fit To Bear
Its Excessive Wear And Tear.
Happily The Matter Is Beginning To Attract Attention. The Writings Of
Mr. Kingsley Indicate A Reaction Against Over-Culture; Carried Perhaps,
As Reactions Usually Are, Somewhat Too Far. Occasional Letters And
Leaders In The Newspapers Have Shown An Awakening Interest In Physical
Training. And The Formation Of A School, Significantly Nicknamed That Of
"Muscular Christianity," Implies A Growing Opinion That Our Present
Methods Of Bringing Up Children Do Not Sufficiently Regard The Welfare
Of The Body. The Topic Is Evidently Ripe For Discussion.
To Conform The Regimen Of The Nursery And The School To The Established
Truths Of Modern Science--This Is The Desideratum. It Is Time That The
Benefits Which Our Sheep And Oxen Are Deriving From The Investigations
Of The Laboratory, Should Be Participated In By Our Children. Without
Calling In Question The Great Importance Of Horse-Training And
Pig-Feeding, We Would Suggest That, As The Rearing Of Well-Grown Men And
Women Is Also Of Some Moment, These Conclusions Which Theory Indicates
And Practice Indorses, Ought To Be Acted On In The Last Case As In The
First. Probably Not A Few Will Be Startled--Perhaps Offended--By This
Collocation Of Ideas. But It Is A Fact Not To Be Disputed, And To Which
We Must Reconcile Ourselves, That Man Is Subject To The Same Organic
Laws As Inferior Creatures. No Anatomist, No Physiologist, No Chemist,
Will For A Moment Hesitate To Assert, That The General Principles Which
Are True Of The Vital Processes In Animals Are Equally True Of The Vital
Processes In Man. And A Candid Admission Of This Fact Is Not Without Its
Reward: Namely, That The Generalisations Established By Observation And
Experiment On Brutes, Become Available For Human Guidance. Rudimentary
As Is The Science Of Life, It Has Already Attained To Certain
Fundamental Principles Underlying The Development Of All Organisms, The
Human Included. That Which Has Now To Be Done, And That Which We Shall
Endeavour In Some Measure To Do, Is To Trace The Bearings Of These
Fundamental Principles On The Physical Training Of Childhood And Youth.
The Rhythmical Tendency Which Is Traceable In All Departments Of Social
Life--Which Is Illustrated In The Access Of Despotism After Revolution,
Or, Among Ourselves, In The Alternation Of Reforming Epochs And
Conservative Epochs--Which, After A Dissolute Age, Brings An Age Of
Asceticism, And Conversely,--Which, In Commerce, Produces The Recurring
Inflations And Panics--Which Carries The Devotees Of Fashion From One
Absurd Extreme To The Opposite One;--This Rhythmical Tendency Affects
Also Our Table-Habits, And By Implication, The Dietary Of The Young.
After A Period Distinguished By Hard Drinking And Hard Eating, Has Come
A Period Of Comparative Sobriety, Which, In Teetotalism And
Vegetarianism, Exhibits Extreme Forms Of Protest Against The Riotous
Living Of The Past. And Along With This Change In The Regimen Of Adults,
Has Come A Parallel Change In The Regimen For Boys And Girls. In Past
Generations The Belief Was, That The More A Child Could Be Induced To
Eat, The Better; And Even Now, Among Farmers And In Remote Districts,
Where Traditional Ideas Most Linger, Parents May Be Found Who Tempt
Their Children Into Repletion. But Among The Educated Classes, Who
Chiefly Display This Reaction Towards Abstemiousness, There May Be Seen
A Decided Leaning To The Under-Feeding, Rather Than The Over-Feeding, Of
Children. Indeed Their Disgust For By-Gone Animalism, Is More Clearly
Shown In The Treatment Of Their Offspring Than In The Treatment Of
Themselves; For While Their Disguised Asceticism Is, In So Far As Their
Personal Conduct Is Concerned, Kept In Check By Their Appetites, It Has
Full Play In Legislating For Juveniles.
That Over-Feeding And Under-Feeding Are Both Bad, Is A Truism. Of The
Two, However, The Last Is The Worst. As Writes A High Authority, "The
Effects Of Casual Repletion Are Less Prejudicial, And More Easily
Corrected, Than Those Of Inanition."[1] Besides, Where There Has Been No
Injudicious Interference, Repletion Seldom Occurs. "Excess Is The Vice
Rather Of Adults Than Of The Young, Who Are Rarely Either Gourmands Or
Epicures, Unless Through The Fault Of Those Who Rear Them."[2] This
System Of Restriction Which Many Parents Think So Necessary, Is Based
Upon Inadequate Observation, And Erroneous Reasoning. There Is An
Over-Legislation In The Nursery, As Well As An Over-Legislation In The
State; And One Of The Most Injurious Forms Of It Is This Limitation In
The Quantity Of Food.
"But Are Children To Be Allowed To Surfeit Themselves? Shall They Be
Suffered To Take Their Fill Of Dainties And Make Themselves Ill, As They
Certainly Will Do?" As Thus Put, The Question Admits Of But One Reply.
But As Thus Put, It Assumes The Point At Issue. We Contend That, As
Appetite Is A Good Guide To All The Lower Creation--As It Is A Good
Guide To The Infant--As It Is A Good Guide To The Invalid--As It Is A
Good Guide To The Differently-Placed Races Of Men--And As It Is A Good
Guide For Every Adult Who Leads A Healthful Life; It May Safely Be
Inferred That It Is A Good Guide For Childhood. It Would Be Strange
Indeed Were It Here Alone Untrustworthy.
Perhaps Some Will Read This Reply With Impatience; Being Able, As They
Think, To Cite Facts Totally At Variance With It. It May Appear Absurd
If We Deny The Relevancy Of These Facts. And Yet The Paradox Is Quite
Defensible. The Truth Is, That The Instances Of Excess Which Such
Persons Have In Mind, Are Usually The _Consequences_ Of The Restrictive
System They Seem To Justify. They Are The Sensual Reactions Caused By An
Ascetic Regimen. They Illustrate On A Small Scale That Commonly-Remarked
Truth, That Those Who During Youth Have Been Subject To The Most
Rigorous Discipline, Are Apt Afterwards To Rush Into The Wildest
Extravagances. They Are Analogous To Those Frightful Phenomena, Once Not
Uncommon In Convents, Where Nuns Suddenly Lapsed From The Extremest
Austerities Into An Almost Demoniac Wickedness. They Simply Exhibit The
Uncontrollable Vehemence Of Long-Denied Desires. Consider The Ordinary
Tastes And The Ordinary Treatment Of Children. The Love Of Sweets Is
Conspicuous And Almost Universal Among Them. Probably Ninety-Nine People
In A Hundred Presume That There Is Nothing More In This Than
Part 1 Chapter 4 (Physical Education) Pg 52Gratification Of The Palate; And That, In Common With Other Sensual
Desires, It Should Be Discouraged. The Physiologist, However, Whose
Discoveries Lead Him To An Ever-Increasing Reverence For The
Arrangements Of Things, Suspects Something More In This Love Of Sweets
Than Is Currently Supposed; And Inquiry Confirms The Suspicion. He Finds
That Sugar Plays An Important Part In The Vital Processes. Both
Saccharine And Fatty Matters Are Eventually Oxidised In The Body; And
There Is An Accompanying Evolution Of Heat. Sugar Is The Form To Which
Sundry Other Compounds Have To Be Reduced Before They Are Available As
Heat-Making Food; And This _Formation_ Of Sugar Is Carried On In The
Body. Not Only Is Starch Changed Into Sugar In The Course Of Digestion,
But It Has Been Proved By M. Claude Bernard That The Liver Is A Factory
In Which Other Constituents Of Food Are Transformed Into Sugar: The Need
For Sugar Being So Imperative That It Is Even Thus Produced From
Nitrogenous Substances When No Others Are Given. Now, When To The Fact
That Children Have A Marked Desire For This Valuable Heat-Food, We Join
The Fact That They Have Usually A Marked Dislike To That Food Which
Gives Out The Greatest Amount Of Heat During Oxidation (Namely, Fat), We
Have Reason For Thinking That Excess Of The One Compensates For Defect
Of The Other--That The Organism Demands More Sugar Because It Cannot
Deal With Much Fat. Again, Children Are Fond Of Vegetable Acids. Fruits
Of All Kinds Are Their Delight; And, In The Absence Of Anything Better,
They Will Devour Unripe Gooseberries And The Sourest Of Crabs. Now Not
Only Are Vegetable Acids, In Common With Mineral Ones, Very Good Tonics,
And Beneficial As Such When Taken In Moderation; But They Have, When
Administered In Their Natural Forms, Other Advantages. "Ripe Fruit,"
Says Dr. Andrew Combe, "Is More Freely Given On The Continent Than In
This Country; And, Particularly When The Bowels Act Imperfectly, It Is
Often Very Useful." See, Then, The Discord Between The Instinctive Wants
Of Children And Their Habitual Treatment. Here Are Two Dominant Desires,
Which In All Probability Express Certain Needs Of The Child's
Constitution; And Not Only Are They Ignored In The Nursery-Regimen, But
There Is A General Tendency To Forbid The Gratification Of Them.
Bread-And-Milk In The Morning, Tea And Bread-And-Butter At Night, Or
Some Dietary Equally Insipid, Is Rigidly Adhered To; And Any
Ministration To The Palate Is Thought Needless, Or Rather, Wrong. What
Is The Consequence? When, On Fête-Days, There Is Unlimited Access To
Good Things--When A Gift Of Pocket-Money Brings The Contents Of The
Confectioner's Window Within Reach, Or When By Some Accident The Free
Run Of A Fruit-Garden Is Obtained; Then The Long-Denied, And Therefore
Intense, Desires Lead To Great Excesses. There Is An Impromptu Carnival,
Due Partly To Release From Past Restraints, And Partly To The
Consciousness That A Long Lent Will Begin On The Morrow. And Then, When
The Evils Of Repletion Display Themselves, It Is Argued That Children
Must Not Be Left To The Guidance Of Their Appetites! These Disastrous
Results Of Artificial Restrictions, Are Themselves Cited As Proving The
Need For Further Restrictions! We Contend, Therefore, That The Reasoning
Used To Justify This System Of Interference Is Vicious. We Contend That,
Were Children Allowed Daily To Partake Of These More Sapid Edibles, For
Which There Is A Physiological Requirement, They Would Rarely Exceed, As
They Now Mostly Do When They Have The Opportunity: Were Fruit, As Dr.
Combe Recommends, "To Constitute A Part Of The Regular Food" (Given, As
He Advises, Not Between Meals, But Along With Them), There Would Be None
Of That Craving Which Prompts The Devouring Of Crabs And Sloes. And
Similarly In Other Cases.
Not Only Is It That The
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