Intoxication often leads to quarrels, which, from mere wordy disputes, turn into blows, and subsequently lead to lamentable duels, to which many a young life falls a victim. For all these reasons everyone should beware of the first intoxication; the first is mostly soon followed by a second, and in this way the round of days of intoxication is begun. On these days occur more frequently than on other days mishaps during work in all, especially in dangerous, industries; also a disinclination to bodily as well as mental labor, consequences which are particularly noticeable after Sundays and holidays, and which give rise to the so-called "blue Monday." What an important part the immoderate use of alcoholic drinks has in producing demoralization is shown by the number of drinkers committed to jail. According to reliable statistics, in Prussia, in 49 penitentiaries and 32 jails for men, in 18 penitentiaries and jails for women, and in 21 houses of correction for both sexes, 43.9 per cent of the 30,041 male prisoners and 18.1 per cent of the 2,796 female prisoners were addicted to drink. Most of their criminal actions had, as evidence showed, been committed on Sunday or Monday. 3 and 4. Injuries to family life and to the economy of the family. Poverty does not lead to the use of liquor, but liquor leads to poverty. The diligent laborer, the well-bred man, wishes for his comfort a clean dwelling, an orderly conducted household, a faithful spouse, and solicitous mother for his children. To reach this end, i. e., a comfortable home, the wages earned by the man are of decisive importance, as is his moral example for the education of his children. In both directions it will prove to be a great detriment if a large portion of his wages is sacrificed for strong liquor and other alcoholic drinks and consumed in disorderly, wasteful living. These lamentable consequences, alas, are easily detected in the modern habits of life of a part of the population in numerous places and families. It is easily proved that wage laborers too often spend as much as one-third of their well-earned wages on pay day in the liquor shops. Wives and children often follow the example of the father. Such a life undermines family happi- ́ ness, leads to disorder in the household economy, and not infrequently to complete collapse of the domestic housekeeping. Disordered conditions of family life are increasing. The husband does not receive sufficient food, because his money has been wasted in liquor; the wife loses the desire to attend to domestic order. The marriage tie is loosened, discord and strife break out, the liquor bottle is brought into the house, and the evil example of the parents endangers the education of the children and their whole future. To such a sad result another circumstance abundantly contributes, namely, that the unmarried laborer can find no other shelter for entertainment and edification than the saloon, the beer house, or some other retreat where he is obliged to pay for his stay by buying alcoholic beverages. Places of entertainment or recreation that do not require this alcoholic admission tax" are very rare in the German Empire. Lodging accommodations for unmarried people are often so narrow and insufficient that relaxation and recreation from daily toil can not be had in bedrooms. Habituated to this mode of life, the workman enters into wedlock. No wonder that he soon looks up his old drink companions, spends his hard-earned money in brandy or beer, and thus the household (which has only been established after great trouble and often with borrowed money) is deprived of it. Bad domestic conditions lead the drinker, as experience shows, in many cases to committing punishable acts (against property, public order, etc.). 5. Injuries to the economy of the state. Injuries to the health through immoderate use of alcohol, if it be not curbed, will diminish the defensive power of a country. To that is added the financial damage to the state. In the German Empire there are spent every year about three thousand million marks (about $750,000,000) for alcoholic liquors. What injury, what an amount of grief and misery, is caused through this wasteful expenditure for superfluous, unhygienic, and demoralizing means of enjoyment! How much good, on the other hand, could be done by using these enormous means for individuals and the commonwealth. If the injuries are extended over a large number of families, the moral and economic life of a town must suffer. That the taxing strength is diminished thereby, and the whole economy of the state is injured, goes without saying. This consideration demands urgently that the state should intercede with a firm hand to curb the immoderate use of alcohol. This is done most effectively by the method of prevention, if the great hygienic, moral, and economic injuries arising from the use of alcohol are pointed out to the young. It will be especially a matter for teachers in elementary and secondary schools to take part in combating drunkenness, and to instruct their pupils (in a manner suitable to their comprehension) concerning the evil consequences of the immoderate use of alcohol, and solemnly and emphatically keep before their eyes the dangers lurking in alcoholic drinks. REPORT ON TEMPERANCE INSTRUCTION IN WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS.a [By G. T. FLETCHER, Agent of the Massachusetts State Board of Education.] Required temperance instruction has brought the study of physiology into most of our schools. While some text-books and the plans of work may not be best adapted in all cases to meet existing conditions and to secure desired results, much good to children and to the community has been achieved. The following circular letter was sent to superintendents of schools in western Massachusetts: To the Superintendent of Schools: NORTHAMPTON, MASS., January 25, 1904. To what extent as to time and material and by what methods do individual teachers in your schools present physiology, hygiene, and temperance instruction to pupils? An early reply will oblige, G. T. FLETCHER. A few complete statements from individuals, quite fully covering the ground of the questions, are given. Other replies are combined and condensed to indicate opinions and methods. The subject is taught in all grades of the elementary schools and in connection with biology in the high school. It is taught for the last two months of the school year, and during these months a daily lesson is given. The actual length of the lesson depends on the age of the pupils. In the middle and upper grammar grades the lesson is usually from half an hour to forty minutes; in the primary and lower grades it is often not more than twenty minutes. We emphasize hygiene especially, and due emphasis is laid also on the effects of narcotics and alcohol. We do less in anatomy and also in physiology than My own impression is that we are doing still more was done some years ago. 67 Mass. Rep. (1902-3), 212-215. in these two phases of the subject than ought to be done. It seems to me that nearly all the time devoted to the subject of so-called "physiology" should be given to hygiene, which necessarily includes the discussion of the effects of alcohol and narcotics. No more physiology and anatomy should be taught than is absolutely necessary to make the instruction in hygiene rational. The instruction to our teachers in the grades calls for an oral lesson once a week in all grades but the sixth, where the subject is studied daily through the year, the recitation period being about twenty minutes. A text-book is used in the sixth grade and in some of the other grades. I do not know that the methods in this subject differ from the methods used in teaching other similar subjects. The experiments suggested by the text-book are presumably made for the benefit of the class, and an effort is made to secure effective work and permanent results. In fact, the subject is treated in essentially the same way as other subjects which are not classed with arithmetic, reading, spelling, geography, and language. We give more time to physiology than we give to civil government in the grades, and about one-third of the time we give to history. Of course due attention is given to the effects of stimulants and narcotics. As to time: In grades I-V, one recitation period a week; grades VI-IX, about two recitations a week. Generally in the higher grades instruction is not given throughout the year, in which case there is solid work throughout the spring term, a recitation daily. As to material: How to Keep Well is used in intermediate grades, and Conn's Physiology and Hygiene in the eighth and ninth grades; we use the Pathfinder series in the fourth and fifth grades; Blaisdell's How to Keep Well in the fifth and sixth grades; Blaisdell's Our Bodies, and How We Live, in the seventh and eighth grades; and Martin's Human Body in the ninth grade and high school. As to method: Little is done in the primary grades that could be called more than health talks. Most of the instruction is oral up to the sixth grade. Pupils are supplied with books from the fourth or fifth grades up. The teachers are instructed to give one lesson in temperance physiology each week. These lessons are given by the teacher in the form of talks, except in the ninth grade, where it is made a regular study. The normal teachers have material that they have used in the normal school. In one town we take up the study of physiology in the ninth grade in a very thorough way. In the other grades we take it up during the winter term, using topics that I assign. These lessons are given by the teacher. We have tried using a book, but I think it is the unanimous opinion of the teachers that they can get better results by taking topics in the form of talks. We employ none but normal or college graduates in this town, the largest in my district, and all these have material that they are familiar with and can present in a more interesting way than they could from a text-book. We give the equivalent of one period each week in each grade to this subject. It is not always the case that it is taken by weekly periods; it sometimes seems better to give it consecutively, allowing it to take the place of some other subject for the time being. I find that the teachers vary in their ability to keep the interest of the pupils if several days pass between the successive periods of study in this subject. This work is supplemented by the teacher according to her spirit and enthusiasm. The work indicated is the minimum. The results vary in different schools, and under various conditions in the same schools. The materials for illustrating the subject are very limited in addition to the text-books. We use the New Century physiologies, and find them well adapted to our needs. . Grades I to IV.-One lesson a week. General lessons on the care and cleanliness of the hands, face, hair, and body. Lessons on eating, drinking, breathing, and sleeping, with reference to the formation of right habits and self-control. Simple talks on the senses, and what we learn through them. Parts of the body, their uses and care. Special lessons on the care of the teeth and nails. Teach temperance in all things." Temperance implies self-control, obedience to the law, to right feeling, and right living. In the schools of this district physiology is taught incidentally in grades up to and including the fifth. The instruction is along the lines of personal cleanliness, decency, and morality. In grades VI, VII, and VIII we use Colton's Ele mentary Physiology as the basis of our work, and complete it in the three years. Directions are sent to teachers, suggesting materials and methods. Teachers are expected to give lessons weekly to all grades, the time varying from fifteen minutes to thirty. We give two periods a week to the study in all grades above the first or second, depending upon the classes. No books are used below the fourth grade. We put special stress upon such things as teach care of the body, cleanliness, temperance in eating, drinking, thinking, speaking, doing. In all grades excepting the very lowest time is given to a consideration of the effects of narcotics and stimulants. Our teachers take hold of the work with interest and common-sense methods. Some teachers are interested in the subject and get good results; others do not like to teach it. The general tendency seems to be toward oral instruction and the use of some reading matter treating of hygiene and temperance in the lower grades, with considerable use of books in the upper grades. The time element varies in different schools and with different teachers. The opinion is held that too much or too little time may be given to the topic to secure the best results. Interest must be maintained. The salient points of temperance instruction should be emphasized in some way during each year of school life, that they may make a lasting impression for good. Superintendents and teachers generally manifest an interest in temperance instruction. Not all think alike regarding a method, and a few seem to lack confidence in the educational value of the instruction or are in doubt regarding the best method. Good has evidently been accomplished. CHAPTER VIII. NOTICES OF SOME EARLY ENGLISH WRITERS ON EDUCATION, 1578-1603. WITH DESCRIPTIONS, EXTRACTS, AND NOTES. BY PROF. FOSTER WATSON, Of University College, Aberystwyth, Wales. CONTENTS. [NOTE. The date given to the left of the title is the date of the earliest edition of the work.] 1581. B. Batty: The Christian Man's Closet. Wm. Lowth, translator_ 660 661 1633. Cardinal Sermonetta's Instructions to Young Gentlemen. 667 667 William Bullokar: 1580. Book at Large, for the Amendment of Orthographie_ A. J. Ellis's authorities on early English pronunciation_ Early books on the teaching of English. 667 668 670 "Notices of English writers on education, preceding in point of time those here treated, have appearded in previous Reports of the Commissioner as follows: Report of 1901, Vol. I, chap. 17 (pp. 861-884): Report of 1902, Vol. I, chap. 10 (pp. 481-508); Report of 1903, Vol. I, chap. 6 (pp. 319–350). |