Parents should ever be watchful regarding the education of their young
children when they approach the age of puberty, that is, the period when
the child begins to develop into the man or woman.
Profound and rapid changes take place at this period in mind, brain, the
nervous system, the glandular system, and, one may indeed say, in the
body generally. The nerve centers temporarily lose some of their normal
stability, and such conditions as insanity, hysteria, and epilepsy,
rare in childhood, now become common. Even though no actual nervous
disease develop, there is quite commonly during this change from
childhood to adult life a period of nervous excitability and exhaustion
accompanied by physical weakness, which to a great extent unfits the
young person for close pursuit of his or her studies. Particularly in
young girls is there the greatest necessity for curtailing any tendency
to overwork at school during this period.