Race Improvement; or, Eugenics: A Little Book on a Great SubjectBaker, La Reine Helen McKenzie
Philosophy
Race Improvement; or, Eugenics: A Little Book on a Great Subject
Baker, La Reine Helen McKenzie
Eugenics
Of study in general Eugenics will find much to say. It is impossible
to neglect any branch of knowledge. The human will no less than human
necessity presses forward in every direction. We may be like King
Solomon surrounded by material wealth and possessions, but, like him,
if we are forced to choose between them and knowledge, the noblest
thing within us will cry for knowledge. We must learn to discriminate
between knowledge-values, and endeavour to frame our study-time so
that even the least of us may be encouraged to learn all that we
can. For those who can rapidly digest huge continents of study the
prizes of scholarship are assured. It is not in the interests of
Eugenics that knowledge should be acquired with this rapidity by those
constitutionally unfitted for the strain. An educational system devised
for men may not necessarily be suited to women equally anxious to
know and willing to give as long a period to study. It may be found
practicable on Eugenic grounds to give more facilities than we do for
broken studies, for studies which go slower and last longer, and for
studies where the honours are not given to those who can cram most in
the least time.
It is impossible for any view of Eugenics in relation to education to
ignore the terrible danger of child-labour. Economic consideration of
this subject is common enough; it is time that Eugenics made its voice
heard in denunciation of a system which cannot fail to demoralise the
race if persisted in. The energy of a growing youth is required for
building up his own constitution, and if his early labours are spent
in occupations inconsistent with physical development he becomes a
stunted weakling from whose loins we cannot expect the issue of a noble
race. In the case of girl-labour the trouble is intensified, partly
because the occupations of young girls are mostly of a description
requiring a bodily posture which works untold evil in their future
health and fitness. Needlework, laundry-work and typewriting are cases
in point. Housework, with which every young girl should be familiar at
a reasonably early age, becomes an intolerable check to womanly growth
when overdone. Factory life and "home" labour are equally objectionable
where children are forced by parental pressure, or the exigences of
economic circumstance to earn bread for themselves or to contribute to
the family sustenance.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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