is objectionable for this purpose, since it exposes
the eyes. But the hand--in boxing the ears or striking in any way--is
more so. The bones of the head, in young children, are not yet firmly
knit together, and these concussions may injure the tender brain. I
know of whole families, whose mental faculties are dull, as the
consequence--I believe--of a perpetual boxing and striking of the head.
Some individuals are made almost idiots, in this very manner.--But the
worst is not yet told. Many teachers are in the habit of striking their
pupils' heads with thick heavy books; and with wooden rules. I have seen
one of the latter, of considerable size and thickness, broken in two
across the head of a very small boy; and this, too--such is the public
mind--in the presence of a mother who was paying a visit to the school.
I have seen parents and masters strike the heads of their children with
pieces of wood, of much larger size;--in one instance with a common
sized tailor's press-board; in another with the heavy end of a wooden
whip-handle, about an inch in diameter.

Children are sometimes severely beaten across the middle of the
body--the region where lie the vital organs--the lungs, the heart, the
liver, &c. They are sometimes beaten too, across the joints, or in any
place that the excited, perhaps passionate teacher or parent can reach.
Rules and books are thrown with violence at pupils in school. There is a
story in the "Annals of Education," Vol. IV. at page 28, of a teacher
who threw a rule at a little boy, six years old, which struck him with
great force, within an inch of one of his eyes. Had it struck a little
nearer to his nose, it would, in all probability, have destroyed his
left eye.

* * * * *

But without extending these remarks any farther, every intelligent
mother who reads what I have already written, will see, as I trust, the
necessity of properly informing herself on the great subject of physical
education; and of being better prepared than she has hitherto been for
acquitting herself, with satisfaction, of those high and sacred
responsibilities which, in the wise arrangements of Nature and
Providence, devolve upon her.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Young Mother, by William A. Alcott

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