filing down man's brain by that sandpapering process called a
school curriculum.

A champion of the transformation of pedagogy into a
psycho-physiological science is to be found in Sweden in the
person of Prof. Hjalmar Oehrwal who has discussed in his essays
native and foreign discoveries in the field of psychology. One
of his conclusions is that the so-called technical exercises,
gymnastics, manual training, sloyd, and the like, are not, as
they are erroneously called, a relaxation from mental
overstrain by change in work, but simply a new form of brain
fatigue. All work, he finds, done under conditions of fatigue
is uneconomic whether one regards the quantity produced or its
value as an exercise. Rest should be nothing more than
rest,--freedom to do only what one wants to, or to do nothing
at all. As to fear, he proves, following Binet's investigation
in this subject, how corporal discipline, threats, and ridicule
lead to cowardice; how all of these methods are to be rejected
because they are depressing and tend to a diminution of energy.
He shows, moreover, how fear can be overcome progressively, by
strengthening the nervous system and in that way strengthening
the character. This result comes about partly when all
unnecessary terrorising is avoided, partly when children are
accustomed to bear calmly and quietly the inevitable
unpleasantnesses of danger.

Prof. Axel Key's investigations on school children have won
international recognition. In Sweden they have supplied the
most significant material up to the present time for
determining the influence of studies on physical development