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Chapter 23—Recreation
There is a difference between recreation and amusement. Recre-
ation, when true to its name, re-creation, tends to strengthen and
build up. It provides refreshment for mind and body, and thus enables
us to return with new vigor to the earnest work of life. Amusement,
on the other hand, is pursued for the sake of pleasure and is often
carried to excess. It absorbs the energies that are required for useful
work and thus proves a hindrance to life’s true success.
The whole body is designed for action, and unless the physical
powers are kept in health by active exercise, the mental powers can-
not long be used to their highest capacity. The physical inaction that
seems almost inevitable in the schoolroom—together with other un-
healthful conditions—makes it a trying place for children, especially
for those of feeble constitution. Often the ventilation is insufficient.
Ill-formed seats encourage unnatural positions, thus cramping the
action of the lungs and the heart. Here little children have to spend
from three to five hours a day, breathing air that may be infected
with the germs of disease. No wonder that in the schoolroom the
foundation of lifelong illness often is laid.
The brain, the most delicate of all the physical organs, and from
which the nervous energy of the whole system is derived, suffers the
greatest injury. By being forced into premature or excessive activity,
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and this under unhealthful conditions, it is enfeebled, and often the
evil results are permanent.
Children should not be long confined indoors, nor should they be
required to apply themselves closely to study until a good foundation
has been laid for physical development. For the first eight or ten
years of a child’s life the field or garden is the best schoolroom, the
mother the best teacher, nature the best lesson book. Even when
children are old enough to attend school, their health should be
regarded as of greater importance than a knowledge of books. They
should be surrounded with the conditions most favorable to both
physical and mental growth.
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