The Period of Puberty and Its Special Problems
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.