The Young Mother: Management of Children in Regard to HealthAlcott, William A. (William Andrus)
Science
The Young Mother: Management of Children in Regard to Health
Alcott, William A. (William Andrus)
Children -- Health and hygiene
The seats of children are usually bad, both at table and elsewhere. It
seems not enough that we condemn them to the use of knives, forks,
spoons, &c., of the same size with those of adults. We go farther; and
give them chairs of the same height and proportion with our own. There
are a few exceptions to the truth of this remark. Here and there we see
a child's chair, it is true--but not often.
But how unreasonable is it to seat a child in a chair so high that his
feet cannot reach the floor; and so constructed that there is no outer
place on which the feet can rest. What adult would be willing to sit in
so painful a posture, with his legs dangling? No wonder children dislike
to sit much, in such circumstances. And it is a great blessing to both
parent and child that they do. No wonder children hate the Sabbath,
especially in those families where they are compelled to keep the day
holy by sitting motionless! Sabbath schools, though they bring with them
some evil along with a great deal of good, are a relief to the young in
this particular--especially if their seats are more comfortable
elsewhere than at home. They consider it much more tolerable to spend
the morning and intermission of the day in going and returning from
Sabbath school, than in constant and close confinement. They prefer
variety, and the occasional light and air of heaven, to monotony and
seclusion and silence.
It happens, however, that the seats at the Sabbath school and at church,
are not always what they should be; nor, so far as church is concerned,
do I see that this evil can be wholly avoided. Children usually sit with
their parents, in the sanctuary--and they ought to do so: and the height
of the seats cannot, of course, accommodate both. If there is a building
erected solely for the use of the Sabbath school, the seats may be
constructed accordingly, without seriously incommoding anybody; but in
the church, I do not see, as I have once before observed, how the evil
can be remedied.
The greatest trouble in regard to seats, however, is at the day school;
especially in our district or common schools. There, it is usual for
children to be confined six hours a day--and sometimes two in
succession--to hard, narrow, plank seats, a large proportion of which
are without backs, and raised so high that the feet of most of the
pupils cannot possibly touch the floor. There, "suspended," as I have
said in another work, [Footnote: See a "Prize Essay," on School Houses,
page 7.] "between the heavens and the earth, they are compelled to
remain motionless for an hour or an hour and a half together."
I have also shown, in the same essay, that in regard to the desks, and
indeed many other things which pertain to, or are connected with the
school, very little pains is taken to provide for the physical welfare
or even comfort of the pupils; and that a thorough reform on the subject
appears to be indispensable.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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