The Parents' Review

A Monthly Magazine of Home-Training and Culture

PNEU Notes

pg 199-204 still need typing

from monthly "P.N.E.U. Notes" column
comment about drawbacks of public school pg 202-203

IPSWICH.--It has been a great disappointment to this Branch that, owing to the illness of the Hon. and Rev. Canon Lyttelton, the lecture arranged for January 9th on "Professions, and how to choose them," has had to be postponed until next session.--On Thursday, February 8th, Mr. Bridge, M.A., assistant-master at the Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, read an interesting paper on "The Limitations of the School."  After pointing out that in moral education the home and the school ought to be the supplement and corrective each of the other, the lecturer went on to deal with some of the weak points of the public schools of the present day in respect to the intellectual side.  The intense and vigorous social life of public schools, which was England's chief contribution to the science of education, and was the admiration and envy of foreigners, had its inevitable drawbacks.  The atmosphere it created was not altogether favourable to study and intellectual life. A certain indifference to mental culture--or, as Lord Rosebery recently put it, to "science"--was, no doubt, one of our national characteristics. The present swarm of examinations was also injurious to the intellectual life of schools. Mr. Bridge argued that the principle that the object of the schoolwork was mental discipline was being pushed too far. The disciplinary subjects, languages, and mathematics were getting an undue share of attention, while the information-giving subjects, such as history, geography, and natural science, were pushed into the background.  Schools were turning out too many skilled scholars and mathematicians, whose minds were destitute of ideas or information. One of the problems educationists would soon have to face was the reduction of the amount of language work done in schools. Ignorance of the mother-tongue was one of the commonest hidrances to a boy's progress in learning forgein tongues, and here parents might do much to help teachers. Mr. Bridge advocated the reading aloud at home during the holidays of such books as Sir Walter Scott's novels, and later on of Shakespeare's and Milton's Works; of awakening interest in our children's minds in the current topics of the day, such as the war in South Africa.

from monthly "P.N.E.U. Notes" column
suggestions for preventing damage to eyesight Page 204

Southport.--The third meeting of the session was held in the Albany Rooms, Lord Street, on Saturday evening, February 10th, when Dr. Russ Wood read an able paper on the "Care of Children's Eyes.: Mr. Canon presided, and spoke of these lectures as unique for their useful information, and invited an increased membership. The interesting paper was so written as to be simple and helpful to all present, models and diagrams being shown. Most children, it was argued, in early life have normal eyesight, but statistics prove that shortsight is enormously developed during school life, often for very obvious reasons, one of which is the poor quality of gas. (Bray's penny economizer, and a cheap white eggshell globe is somewhat of an antidote for this). Differing from longsight, which tends to improvement, shortsight is a disease and increases. There is no cure for it, only aids, and new eyes cannot be given as new teeth can. Mothers might note that anything tight about the neck causes congestion of the head, and affects the eyesight. Much harm is done by children leaning over their lessons in school. The child should sit erect to a desk arranged so that the light falls on the left of the child at work. A schoolroom facing south or east, having light wallpaper and furniture, is another preventive. Red and blue papers absorb light, yellow is the best. A drawing of a model desk was shown.