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FINAL CONSIDERATIONS. "$* 619
struggle with difficulties arising out of the polyglot
character of the country.
Persevering work in a limited field of knowledge produces
thoroughness, a quality which must be instilled into the minds
of the young. Whether we use the ancient or the modern
languages, mathematics, or some other science, for the
purpose of attaining this end may perhaps be a matter of
indifference, and should be determined by the requirements
of the time and in accordance with the inclination and
talents of the individual student.
This opportunity may be taken for offering some criti­
cisms upon both the- Realgymnasien and the classical
schools. In the first place the overcrowding of the
curriculum with lectures cannot be approved of from the
hygienic point of view. To compel boys and young men
to sit at their desks for thirty-two hours a week, and
perhaps also to spend some hours daily in preparing their
school exercises at home, cannot fail to act injuriously upon
their bodily development. The increasing short-sighted­
ness, the pale cheeks and narrow chests of the students
afford convincing evidence of this. In no class of the
gymnasium should the number of lecture hours exceed
twenty-four or twenty-six a week if the bodies of the
students are to be kept healthy and their minds clear.
Boys must be allowed time for recreation, and they must
have the opportunity afforded them of developing their
individual aptitudes* And here the wish may be expressed
that more time should be devoted to gymnastics and bodily
exercise generally at schools than has hitherto been the
case: it must be confessed that much has been done in this
respect of recent years : but much still remains to be done
before the requirements of hygiene are satisfied.
One great mistake in the gymnasia of Germany and the
* *
* Zeitung f. d. hohere Unterrichtswesen Deutschlands, Leipzig 1883, No. 48.
—HASEMANN: Die Uberburdung der Schiiler, Strassburg 1884.—Centralbl. f.
allgem. Gesundheitspflege, her. v. Finkelnburg, Jahrg. iii, H. 7, 8.— Cf. P.
FRANK op. cit. vi, Th. 3, S. 260.