Education and Health
71
Many separate themselves from God by their indulgence of ap-
petite. He who notices the fall of a sparrow, who numbers the very
hairs of the head, marks the sin of those who indulge perverted ap-
petite at the expense of weakening the physical powers, benumbing
the intellect, and deadening the moral perceptions.
The teachers themselves should give proper attention to the laws
of health, that they may preserve their own powers in the best possible
condition, and by example as well as by precept may exert a right
influence upon their pupils. The teacher whose physical powers are
already enfeebled by disease or overwork, should pay special attention
to the laws of life. He should take time for recreation. He should not
take upon himself responsibilities outside of his school-work, which
will so tax him, physically or mentally, that his nervous system will be
unbalanced; for in this case he will be unfitted to deal with minds, and
cannot do justice to himself or to his pupils.
Our institutions of learning should be provided with every facility
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for instruction regarding the mechanism of the human system. Students
should be taught how to breathe, how to read and speak so that the
strain will not come on the throat and lungs, but on the abdominal
muscles. Teachers need to educate themselves in this direction. Our
students should have a thorough training, that they may enter upon
active life with an intelligent knowledge of the habitation which God
has given them. Teach them that they must be learners as long as they
live. And while you are teaching them, remember that they will teach
others. Your lessons will be repeated for the benefit of many more
than sit before you day by day.
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