One of the great follies of the present age is, children's parties, where they are allowed to be dressed up like grown-up women, stuck out in petticoats, and encouraged to eat rich cake and pastry, and to drink wine, and to sit up late at night! There is something disgusting and demoralising in all this. Their pure minds are blighted by it. Do not let me be misunderstood: there is not the least objection, but, on the contrary, great advantage, for friends' children to meet friends' children; but then let them be treated as children, and not as men and women!
180. Do you approve of public play-grounds for children?
It would be well, in every village, and in the outskirts of every town, if a large plot of ground were set apart for children to play in, and to go through regular gymnastic exercises. Play is absolutely necessary to a child's very existence, as much as food and sleep; but in many parts of England where is he to have it? Playgrounds and play are the best schools we have; they teach a great deal not taught elsewhere; they give lessons in health, which is the grandest wealth that can be bestowed—"for health is wealth;" they prepare the soil for the future schoolmaster; they clear the brain, and thus the intellect, they strengthen the muscles; they make the blood course merrily through the arteries; they bestow healthy food for the lungs; they give an appetite; they make a child, in due time, become every inch a man! Play-grounds and play are one of the finest institutions we possess. What would our large public schools be without their play and cricket grounds? They would be shorn of half their splendour and their usefulness!
There is so much talk now-a-days about useful knowledge, that the importance of play and play-grounds is likely to be forgotten. I cannot help thinking however, that a better state of things is dawning. "It seems to be found out that in our zeal for useful knowledge, that knowledge is found to be not the least useful which treat boys as active, stirring, aspiring, and ready." [Footnote: The Saturday Review, December 13, 1862.]
181. Do you approve of infant schools?
I do, if the arrangements be such that health is preferred before learning. [Footnote: "According to Aristotle, more care should be taken of the body than of the mind for the first seven years; strict attention to diet be enforced, &c. . . . . . The eye and ear of the child should be most watchfully and severely guarded against contamination of every kind, and unrestrained communication with servants be strictly prevented. Even his amusements should be under due regulation, and rendered as interesting and intellectual as possible."—The Rev John Williams, in his Life and Actions of Alexander the Great] Let children be only confined for three or four hours a day, and let what little they learn be taught as an amusement rather than as a labour. A play-ground ought to be attached to an infant school; where, in fine weather, for every half-hour they spend in-doors, they should spend one in the open air; and, in wet weather, they ought to have, in lieu of the play-ground, a large room to romp, and shout, and riot in. To develop the different organs, muscles, and other parts of the body, children require fresh air, a free use of their lungs, active exercise, and their bodies to be thrown into all manner of attitudes. Let a child mope in a corner, and he will become stupid and sickly. The march of intellect, as it is called, or rather the double quick march of intellect, as it should be called, has stolen a march upon health. Only allow the march of intellect and the march of health to take equal strides, and then we shall have "mens sana in corpore sano" (a sound mind in a sound body).
In the education of a young child, it is better to instruct him by illustration, by pictures, and by encouraging observation on things around and about him, than by books. It is surprising how much, without endangering his health, may be taught in this way. In educating your child, be careful to instil and to form good habits—they will then stick to him for life.
Children at the present day are too highly educated—their brains are over-taxed, and thus weakened. The consequence is, that as they grow up to manhood, if they grow up at all, they become fools! Children are now taught what formerly youths were taught. The chord of a child's life is ofttimes snapped asunder in consequence of over education:—
"Screw not the cord too sharply, lest it snap"—Tennyson.
You should treat a child as you would a young colt. Think only at first of strengthening his body. Let him have a perfectly free, happy life, plenty of food to eat, abundance of air to breathe, and no work to do; there is plenty of time to think of his learning—of giving him brain work. It will come sadly too soon; but do not make him old before his time.