ABSTRACT
So long as examinations determine the ranking of pupils, and the belief is held that training the memory trains the mind, a tenacious memory will remain the most serviceable gift for a pupil to possess. All that education does, or can do, is to improve the natural faculty; it can never supply it. Parents are apt to attribute the breakdown of the health of a child to educational over-pressure, but the fault lies much more often in the want of suitable education. If it is true of normal children, it is still more true of nervous and backward children that they require individual training as much as possible. If a normal boy tries to do the thing for which he is not adapted, he will fail to gain the two great keys to success: self-confidence and enthusiasm; in a nervous boy, a mistake may destroy the health of the mind and tranquillity of the heart.
