Chapter 74—A Balanced Education
The time spent in physical exercise is not lost. The student who is
constantly poring over his books, while he takes but little exercise in
the open air, does himself an injury. A proportionate exercise of the
various organs and faculties of the body is essential to the best work
of each. When the brain is constantly taxed, while the other organs
are left inactive, there is a loss of physical and mental strength. The
physical powers are robbed of their healthy tone, the mind loses its
freshness and vigor, and a morbid excitability is the result.
In order for men and women to have well-balanced minds, all the
powers of the being should be called into use and developed. There
are in this world many who are one-sided because only one set of
faculties has been cultivated, while others are dwarfed from inaction.
The education of many youth is a failure. They overstudy, while they
neglect that which pertains to the practical life. That the balance of
the mind may be maintained, a judicious system of physical work
should be combined with mental work, that there may be a harmonious
development of all the powers.—
Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and
Students, 295-296
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