"
But in regard to the number of hours of confinement, and amount of study
required of children, it is hard to believe that schools have ever been
much more murderously exacting than now.
The substitution of the single session of five hours for the old
arrangement of two sessions of three hours each, with a two-hours interval
at noon, was regarded as a great gain. So it would be, if all the
brain-work of the day were done in that time; but in most schools with
the five-hours session, there is next to no provision for studying in
school-hours, and the pupils are required to learn two, three, or four
lessons at home. Now, when is your boy to learn these lessons? Not in the
morning, before school; that is plain. School ends at two. Few children
live sufficiently near their schools to get home to dinner before half
past two o'clock. We say nothing of the undesirableness of taking the
hearty meal of the day immediately after five hours of mental fatigue; it
is probably a less evil than the late dinner at six, and we are in a
region where we are grateful for _less_ evils! Dinner is over at quarter
past three; we make close estimates.
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