Seeing that one fourth of our young men have been pronounced
physically unsound, it behooves us to turn our gaze toward the past to
determine, if possible, wherein our educational processes have been at
fault.
The thoughtful person who stands on the street-corner watching the
promiscuous throng pass by and making a careful appraisement of their
physical, mental, and spiritual qualities, will not find the experience
particularly edifying. He will note many facts that will depress rather
than encourage and inspire. In the throng he will see many men and women,
young and old, who, as specimens of physical manhood and womanhood, are
far from perfect. He will see many who are young in years but who are old
in looks and physical bearing. They creep or shuffle along as if bowed
down with the weight of years, lacking the graces of buoyancy and
abounding youth. They are bent, gnarled, shriveled, faded, weak, and
wizened. Their faces reveal the absence of the looks that betoken hope,
courage, aspiration, and high purpose. Their lineaments and their gait
show forth a ghastly forlornness that excites pity and despair. They seem
the veriest derelicts, tossed to and fro by the currents of life without
hope of redemption.
Their whole bearing indicates that they are languid, morbid, misanthropic,
and nerveless. They seem ill-nourished as well as mentally and spiritually
starved. They seem the victims of inherited or acquired weaknesses that
stamp them as belonging among the physically unfit.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25