Close Confinement at School
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beautiful buds and opening flowers. By calling the attention of her
children to their different colors and variety of forms, she can make
them acquainted with God, who made all the beautiful things which
attract and delight them. She can lead their minds up to their Creator
and awaken in their young hearts a love for their heavenly Father, who
has manifested so great love for them. Parents can associate God with
all His created works. The only schoolroom for children from eight to
ten years of age should be in the open air, amid the opening flowers
and nature’s beautiful scenery. And their only textbook should be the
treasures of nature. These lessons, imprinted upon the minds of young
children amid the pleasant, attractive scenes of nature, will not be soon
forgotten.
In order for children and youth to have health, cheerfulness, vi-
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vacity, and well-developed muscles and brains, they should be much
in the open air and have well-regulated employment and amusement.
Children and youth who are kept at school and confined to books,
cannot have sound physical constitutions. The exercise of the brain
in study, without corresponding physical exercise, has a tendency to
attract the blood to the brain, and the circulation of the blood through
the system becomes unbalanced. The brain has too much blood, and
the extremities too little. There should be rules regulating their studies
to certain hours, and then a portion of their time should be spent in
physical labor. And if their habits of eating, dressing, and sleeping are
in accordance with physical law, they can obtain an education without
sacrificing physical and mental health.