Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students

Close Confinement at School

The system of education carried out for generations back has been destructive to health, and even to life itself. Many young children have passed five hours each day in schoolrooms not properly ventilated, nor sufficiently large for the healthful accommodation of the scholars. The air of such rooms soon becomes poison to the lungs that inhale it. Little children, whose limbs and muscles are not strong and whose brains are undeveloped, have been kept confined indoors to their injury. Many have but a slight hold on life to begin with, and the confinement in school from day to day makes them nervous and diseased. Their bodies are dwarfed because of the exhausted condition of their nerves. CT 77.3

And if the lamp of life goes out, the parents and teachers do not consider that they had any direct influence in quenching the vital spark. When standing by the graves of their children, the afflicted parents look upon their bereavement as a special dispensation of Providence, when, by inexcusable ignorance, it was their own course that destroyed the lives of their children. To charge their death to Providence is blasphemy. God wanted the little ones to live and be disciplined, that they might have beautiful characters, and glorify Him in this world and praise Him in the better world.... CT 78.1

To become acquainted with the wonderful human organism, the bones, muscles, stomach, liver, bowels, heart, and pores of the skin, and to understand the dependence of one organ upon another for the healthful action of all, is a study in which most mothers take no interest. They know nothing of the influence of the body upon the mind, or of the mind upon the body. The mind, which allies the finite to the Infinite, they do not seem to understand. Every organ of the body was made to be servant to the mind. The mind is the capital of the body. CT 78.2

Children are allowed to eat flesh meats, spices, butter, cheese, pork, rich pastry, and condiments generally. They are also allowed to eat of unhealthful food at irregular hours and between meals. These things do their work of deranging the stomach, exciting the nerves to unnatural action, and enfeebling the intellect. Parents do not realize that they are sowing the seed that will bring forth disease and death. CT 78.3

Many children have been ruined for life by urging the intellect and neglecting to strengthen the physical powers. Many have died in childhood because of the course pursued by injudicious parents and schoolteachers in forcing their young intellects, by flattery or fear, when they were too young to see the inside of a schoolroom. Their minds have been taxed with lessons when they should not have been called out, but kept back until the physical constitution was strong enough to endure mental effort. Small children should be left as free as lambs to run out of doors, to be free and happy, and should be allowed the most favorable opportunities to lay the foundation for sound constitutions. CT 79.1