Pedagogical Anthropology, Maria Montessori [online e book reader TXT] 📗

will come when science will raise to the dignity of a new sexual morality the physiological function which to-day is considered material and shameful—and that comprehends the most sublime of human conceptions. In it are to be found the words which ancient races deposited in their religious tabernacles: creation, eternity, mystery. And in it are also to be found the most sublime conceptions of modern races: the destiny of humanity, the perfectionment of the human species.

Accordingly, we must to-day regard the serving of food in the schools as a necessity of the first order; but it is well, in introducing it into the schools, to surround it with that halo of gladness and of high moral significance that ought to accompany all manifestations of life. The hymn to bread, which is a human creation and a means of preserving the substance of the human body, ought to accompany the meals of our new generations of children. The child develops because the substance of his body passes away, and the meals that he eats symbolise all this: furthermore, they teach him to think of the vast labour accomplished by men who, unknown as individuals, cultivate the earth, reap the grain, grind the flour, and provide for all men and for all children. Where they are and who they are, we do not know; the bread bears neither their name nor their picture. Like an impersonal entity, like a god, humanity provides for all the needs of humanity: and this god is labour. If the child is destined some day to become himself a labourer, who produces and casts his products to humanity without knowing who is to receive his contribution toward providing for humanity, it is well that as he lifts his food to his lips he should realise that he is contracting a debt toward society at large, and that he must give because he takes; he must "forgive debts as his have been forgiven"; and since life is gladness, let him send forth a salutation to the universal producing power: "Our Father, give us our daily bread!"

The Providence of human labour rules over our entire life; it gives us everything that is necessary. The God of the Universe, in whose train come cataclysms, is not more terrible than the god, Humanity, that can give us War and Famine. While we give bread to the child, let us remember that man does not live by bread alone: because bread is only the material of his fleeting substance.

The system of furnishing meals in school constitutes a chapter of School Hygiene that cannot directly concern us. Nevertheless, there are three rules of this hygiene which should be borne in mind: Children should never, in any case, drink wine, alcoholic liquors, tea or coffee—in other words, stimulants, which are poisons to their childish organisms. On the other hand, children need sugar, because sugar has a great formative and plastic power; all young animals have sweetish flesh because their muscles, in the course of development, are extremely rich in sugar. The method of giving sugar to children should be as simple as possible, such, for instance, as is endorsed by the very successful English system of hygiene for children, which recommends freshly cooked fruits, sprinkled with sugar or served with a little syrup. But the substantial nourishment for young children should consist of soup or broth served hot, since heat is as essential as sugar for organisms in the course of evolution.

The English recommend soups made of cereals and gluten, in which it is never necessary to use soup stock, just as it is never necessary to use meat in children's diet.

That nutrition has a noteworthy influence upon growth, and therefore upon the definitive limits of stature, is exhaustively proved by statistics.

In his brilliant studies of the poorer classes, Niceforo has collected the following average statures:[21]

Age Stature (in centimetres) Children Rich Poor 7 years 120 116 8 years 126 122 9 years 129 123 10 years 134 128 11 years 135 134 12 years 140 138 13 years 144 140 14 years 150 146

from which it appears that, in spite of the strong biological impulse given by the attainment of puberty, the children of the poor continue to show a stature lower than that of the well-to-do. Alĕs Hrdlĭcka has compiled the following comparative table of the poor or orphaned children received into the asylums, and the pupils of the public schools in Boston:

Stature of American children Boys Age in years 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 In asylums 971 1088 1172 1163 1234 1261 1315 1367 1424 1452 1518 — in Boston public schools 1060 1120 1176 1223 1272 1326 1372 1417 1477 1551 1599 1665 Girls In asylums — — 1101 1158 1204 1289 1290 — — 1398 — — in Boston public schools 1052 1109 1167 1221 1260 1315 1366 1452 1492 1532 1559 1567

Even after reaching the adult age these differences are maintained, as may be shown by the following statistics taken from various authorities:

Average statures obtained from soldiers (in centimetres) Italians English French Students and professional men 167 Professional men 175 Students 169 Tradesmen 165 Merchants 172 Domestics 166 Peasants 164 Peasants 171 Day labourers 165 City employees 169

from which it appears that while in Italy the class of labourers having the lowest stature is the peasant class, which lives under the most deplorable economic conditions, in England on the contrary it is the workers in the cities who live under worse economic conditions than the peasantry, it being well known that the English peasant is the most prosperous in the agricultural world.

According to Livi, it is nutrition which causes the differences of average stature that are usually to be found between different social classes, and those between the inhabitants of mountains and of plains, or between the dwellers on the mainland and on the islands. In general the mountain-bred peasants have a lower stature than those of the plains; and this is because the means of procuring food are fewer and harder in mountainous regions.

Similarly, the islanders, because of less ready means of communication, have less likelihood than those on the mainland of obtaining adequate nutrition.

The same may be said regarding the differences found between the statures of cultured persons and of the illiterate, to the disadvantage of the latter (the poorer classes).

Students show the tallest stature of all, because they have in their favour the joint effect of the two chief factors of environment that influence this anthropological datum: mechanical causes and nutrition. A sedentary life, and above all a hearty diet both contribute to the tall stature of students, doctors, and members of the liberal professions. In this respect, the average figures of all the authorities agree, as appears from the following tables:[22]

LIVI: 256,166 ITALIAN SOLDIERS

Professions and callings Average stature in centimetres Students and professional men 166.9 Small shopkeepers and the like 165.0 Peasants 164.3 Blacksmiths 165.0 Carpenters 165.1 Masons 164.8 Tailors and shoemakers 164.5 Barbers 164.3 Butchers 165.7 Carters 164.4 Bakers 164.7 Day labourers in general 164.4

ROBERT AND RAWSON: 1935 ADULT ENGLISHMEN

Professions and employments Average stature in centimetres Professional men 175.6 Merchants and tradesmen 172.6 Peasants and miners 171.5 City labourers 169.2 Sedentary workmen 167.4 Prisoners 168.0 Insane 166.8

OLORIZ: 1798 CONSCRIPTS FROM THE CITY OF MADRID

Professions and employments Average stature in centimetres Liberal professions 163.9 Including: Students 164.0 Other professions 161.1 Workmen employed in the open air 160.7 Workmen employed in closed rooms 159.8 Including: Tailors, hatters and the like 159.0 Shoemakers 158.9

Conditions of nutrition, which are always accompanied by a combination of other hygienic conditions all tending toward the same effects, have also an influence upon the development of puberty.

Puberty is retarded by malnutrition. As a result of an inquiry made among the inmates of the Pia Barolo Society, which offers an asylum to reformed prostitutes, Marro[23] records that out of ninety rescued girls only those above the age of fourteen had begun to menstruate: notwithstanding that the normal period for the development of puberty in Italian women is between the years of twelve and thirteen. Furthermore, among the girls above the age of fourteen, menstruation had not yet begun in all cases; on the contrary, a large proportion of them still failed to show the phenomena of puberty:

Age in years Whole number Number menstruating 14-15 11 4 15-16 11 7 16-17 11 8 17-18 8 7

All the rest (thirty in number) menstruated for the first time after the age of eighteen.

Among those in whom menstruation had appeared earlier, the order of appearance was as follows:

Years 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Number 1 3 4 5 12 17 9 5

When we consider that we are dealing with rescued girls, we may conclude that direct sexual stimulus does not facilitate the normal development of puberty, but on the contrary, in conjunction with other causes, retards it. Accordingly, we must not confound the normal development of the organism with its disorders: whatever aids the natural development of life is useful and healthy. There may be conditions unfavourable to the development of puberty, which are favourable to the development of sexual vices (see, further on, the other causes influencing puberty, and moral conditions in colleges).

In his work above cited, Marro compares his figures obtained from the Pia Barolo Society with those of Dr. Bianco[24] taken from 78 young girls in city institutes representing young women in easy circumstances:

Date of first menstruation. Girls in the Pia Barolo Society.
Percentage Girls in city institutes for the wealthy classes.
Percentage 10 years 1.7 —— 11 years 5.3 1.3 12 years 7.1 13.3 13 years 8.9 18.7 14 years 21.4 29.3 15 years 30.3 20.0 16 years 16.0 8.0 17 years 8.9 4.0

It should be noted that the cold climate of Turin retards puberty (see below): but the above table clearly shows the precocious puberty of young women in easy circumstances; in the great majority, in fact, it occurs between the ages of twelve and fourteen, with thirteen for the average; on the other hand, the majority for reformed prostitutes is between fourteen and sixteen, with fifteen for the average.

Besides labour and nutrition, there are other factors that contribute to the development of stature (which we regard as an index to the entire mass of the body). Such factors are:

Physical Conditions—Heat, Light, Electricity

Thermic Conditions.—Among the physical conditions which may have an influence upon the stature, the thermic conditions ought to receive first consideration.

It is a principle demonstrated by nature that organisms in the course of evolution have need of heat. Even the invertebrates, as for example the insects, develop during the heat of summer; and the eggs of the higher vertebrates such as the birds, develop their embryo by means of the maternal warmth. In placental animals the development throughout the whole embryonic period takes place within the maternal womb, in the full tide of animal heat. In order to preserve life in premature babies, that is, in those born before the expiration of the physiological term of nine months, incubators have been constructed, an oven-like arrangement in which the child may be maintained at a temperature considerably higher than would be possible in the outside air; the term is also specifically used of the structures in which fertilised hens' eggs are kept during the required period of time until the chickens are hatched.

Accordingly it is a principle taught us by nature that organisms in the course of evolution have need of heat. The most luxuriant vegetation, the most gigantic animals, the most variegated birds belong to the fauna and flora of the tropics.

How is this physiological law, which nature expresses in such broad, general lines, to be interpreted by us in the environment of the school? It is well known that in this regard there are two conflicting opinions. There are some who would go to excessive lengths in protecting small children from the cold, by dressing them entirely in woolen garments and keeping their apartments well heated; others on the contrary assert that the physiological struggle of adaptation to the cold invigorates the