He gave it as his deliberate opinion, in
conversation with Basil Hall, that five and a half hours form the limit of
healthful mental labor for a mature person. 'This I reckon very good work
for a man,' he said. 'I can very seldom work six hours a day.' Supposing
his estimate to be correct, and five and a half hours the reasonable limit
for the day's work of a mature intellect, it is evident that even this
must be altogether too much for an immature one. 'To suppose the youthful
brain,' says the recent admirable report, by Dr. Ray, of the Providence
Insane Hospital, 'to be capable of an amount of work which is considered
an ample allowance to an adult brain is simply absurd.' 'It would be
wrong, therefore, to deduct less than a half-hour from Scott's estimate,
for even the oldest pupils in our highest schools, leaving five hours as
the limit of real mental effort for them, and reducing this for all
younger pupils very much further.'
"But Scott is not the only authority in the case; let us ask the
physiologists. So said Horace Mann before us, in the days when the
Massachusetts school system was in process of formation.
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