HIGHER SCHOOL AGE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21470, 19 April 1933, Page 14

HIGHER SCHOOL AGE

Sir —In reference to the above question, I wrote to the Herald some years ago, pointing out the physical and mental injury inflicted upon helpless infants by sending them to school too earlv. I have felt that one of many blessings that have come to us in the present depression is the wise course taken by our Government in raising the school age. People do not know what terrible injury they are inflicting on the growing child by sending it to school too early. Most of the blood in the body is absorbed by the brain, and too early activity there means that an abnormal amount is taken from the growing body to the and the teeth, °bones and various tissues are robbed of their rights. Again, even at seven years of age, the brain is not greatly developed beyond the foetal stage, and ought not to be taxed in any way. All the leading psychologists name seven years as the earliest for the general run of children to be sent to school. Many parents must have noticed the restless nights, the terrifying- nightmares, the strained look in the eyes, the twitchings of hands and eyes, the decaying teeth, or some such troublej arising from over-wrought nervous system and over-charged brain. It must not be forgotten that the children have rights as well as parents and teachers. Not long ago, Dr. Savage, then a surgeon at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London, said: "A child of five years is too young to commence school. The brain of a young child is not in a condition to learn until it is seven years old." "Children," he added, "are often overtaxed. This accounts for a lot of trouble." He would refuse to allow a child to attend school until seven years, even if the authorities fixed the age at five years The senior inspector of schools in New Plymouth said in a report: "Wo are probably sending our children to school at too early an age, thereby doing the children harm, and wasting the -country's money." When the Great War broke out in 1914 only 23 per cent- of our j'oung men were found fit to go to the front—a terrible condition of affairs—and I have no doubt too early pressure at school must have been a considerable factor in that result. J. Farquharson Jones, D.D.