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Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students
To those who are desirous of becoming efficient laborers in the
cause of God I would say, If you are putting an undue amount of
labor on the brain, thinking you will lose ground unless you study
all the time, you should at once change your views and your course.
Unless greater care is exercised in this respect, there are many who
will go down to the grave prematurely.
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In regulating the hours for sleep, there should be no haphazard
work. Students should not form the habit of burning the midnight
oil and taking the hours of the day for sleep. If they have been
accustomed to doing this at home, they should correct the habit,
going to bed at a seasonable hour. They will then rise in the morning
refreshed for the duties of the day. In our schools the lights should
be put out at half past nine.
Voice Culture
Voice culture is a subject that has much to do with the health of
students. The youth should be taught how to breathe properly and
how to read in such a way that no unnatural strain shall come on the
throat and lungs, but that the work shall be shared by the abdominal
muscles. Speaking from the throat, letting the sound come from the
upper part of the vocal organs, impairs the health of these organs
and decreases their efficiency. The abdominal muscles are to do
the heaviest part of the labor, the throat being used as a channel.
Many have died who might have lived had they been taught how to
use the voice correctly. The right use of the abdominal muscles in
reading and speaking will prove a remedy for many voice and chest
difficulties, and the means of prolonging life.
Diet
The character of the food and the manner in which it is eaten
exert a powerful influence on the health. Many students have never
made a determined effort to control the appetite or to observe proper
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rules in regard to eating. Some eat too much at their meals, and
some eat between meals whenever the temptation is presented.
The need of carefulness in habits of diet should be impressed on
the minds of all students. I have been instructed that those attending