Many children today are greatly to be pitied because too much is done for them and dictated to them and they are deprived of the learning processes. We seem to have dropped into an age of entertaining, a breathless going from one sensation to another, whether it be mechanical toys for the five-year-old or moving-picture plays for the sixteen-year-old. It not only destroys their power to think, but also makes happiness, contentment, and resourcefulness impossible. At seventeen, life is spoken of as “so dull” if there is not “something doing” every waking hour.
That’s a quote passed along by Prof. Mark Liberman (Language Log), from Gail Harrison, Modern Psychology in its Relation to Discipline, 53 Journal of Proceedings and Lectures 658 (1915). Prof. Liberman gives more samples as well.