the work required to be done in school should not be regulated
accordingly; whether, in designating the studies to be taken, and in
assigning lessons, there should not be taken into consideration all the
circumstances of the pupil's life which can be conveniently ascertained,
even though those circumstances are most unfavorable to school work and
are brought about mainly through the ignorance or folly of parents. Of
course there is a limit to such an adjustment of work in school, but
with proper caution and a good understanding with the parents there need
be little danger of advantage being taken by an indolent child; nor need
the school be affected when it is understood to be a sign of weakness
rather than of favor to any particular pupil to lessen his work. Not
unfrequently there are found other causes of ill health than those which
I have mentioned; such, for instance, as poor ventilation, overheating
of the school-room, draughts of cold air, and the like; not to speak of
the annual public exhibition, with the possible nervous excitement
attending it. All of these things are mentioned, not because they belong
directly to the question of overwork, but because it is well, in
considering the question, to keep in mind all possible causes of ill
health, that no one cause may be unduly emphasized."[1]

[Footnote 1: Forty-ninth Annual Report of the Massachusetts Board of
Education, p. 204 (John T. Prince).]

In private schools the same kind of thing goes on, with the addition of
foreign languages, and under the dull spur of discipline, without the
aid of any such necessities as stimulate the pupils of what we are
pleased to call a normal (!) school.

In private schools for girls of what I may call the leisure class of
society overwork is of course much more rare than in our normal schools