VOL. II.

No. 4.

T

HE object of an education should be to fit the individual for usefulness to man and obedience to God. This desired condition is not to be realized at either end of the pendulum that swings. between the mental and the material existence; but is found along the line of balance, where a harmonious combination of soul, mind and body support each other with mutual accord.

This trinity of being, embracing as it does the holy office of the soul, the glorious powers of the mind, and their relation through the physical body, can not be defective in any one of its parts without reacting injuriously upon the others.

In the strife for intellectual excellence and moral purity, we have been breaking this law of harmonious development by continually mortifying the flesh with suppression and indifference; treating it as a menial factor fit only to bear heavy burdens and carry apparal, and giving no consideration whatever to its wonderful powers of expression, and the influence that its conditions bear upon other elements of our being.

The physical is the seat of passion, the controller of the moods and the ma

terial basis upon which our being depends. In youth it should be purified by cultivation, strengthened by exercise, and disciplined by habits of bodily care.

If in childhood there could be instilled a greater reverence for the sanctity of the physical existence, then the columns of crimes would grow shorter, for there would be less degradation and destruction of the body.

The physical weakness of the people of the nation is proven by the fact that they are "wearing out" and "breaking down" just at an age when they ought to be in the best possible condition to enjoy middle life. This condition is not an accident, but it is the result of the rush in business life, which crowds ten years' work into one; the strife for intellectual excellence in the schools, which leaves the pupils at the end of their courses well equipped in everything necessary to success but good health; and the lack of attention to proper diet, healthful clothing and correct exercise.

The Greeks, as a natural consequence, owed their magnificent bodies and high ideals of form, which have made their sculptors immortal through the ages, to

the refined, systematic exercise which was a regular and essential part of their education.

Just how the introduction of physical education in America began, I do not know, surely somebody ought to be congratulated. Perhaps the attention of the poeple was first attracted to the practice of gymnastics by German turner societies, but the promulgation of physical education has spread far beyond them. Hon. W. T. Harris says: "It is the glory of the present revival of physical exercise that it is led by educated physicians. The establishment of a resident physician in each of our colleges, as supervisor of gymnastics and recording inspector of physical development among the students, is a movement of the highest importance."

"The American Association for the advancement of Physical Education" has recently held its seventh annual convention, and discussed in a masterly way the condition and prospects of physical education in the United States," "The Influence of Methodical Gymnastics in Increasing Chest Capacity," "The Influence of Habitual Posture on the Symmetry and Health of the Body," "Delsarte and His Work," "The Swedish System," "The German," and The Best System of Physical Education for American Schools."

The Swedish system has its strong advocates, and has taken firm hold on the Boston schools. The normal schools in Boston and Brooklyn are sending out well-equipped teachers to all parts of the country. In the Eclectic Schools of Physical Training at Chautauqua, N. Y., where Dr. Anderson superintends the instruction of almost a thousand students each year, the work is carried on according to scientific principles. This school the medium of disseminating the pro

found truths of physical training all over the country. In the past thirteen weeks 40,000 children in the St. Louis public schools have been weighed and measured. More than a million items relating to the phisique of these children have been collected, and this research is the most extensive of its kind ever undertaken in this country. And so the work goes on, not only in a scientific way, but from Maine to Texas, teachers clubs, societies and schools have been experimenting on the joints and muscles of the pupils of all ages and conditions. They have patched up the middle-aged and elderly with the Delsarte nerve-training and sleep exercises; they have pinned on to the society lady a few graces and poses; they have rounded out the muscles of boys and girls with Indian clubs and dumb-bells, and they have worn out the little ones, with magnificent displays of sashes, parasols and fans; and what is most marvelous, they have, in eight onehour lessons, prepared physical educators to teach in county institutes.

All of this desultory, fragmentary effort follows in the awakening, and proves that something is perceived to be physically wrong in the people. There may be some good in the dissemination, and be it far from me to depreciate anything that is being done for physical improvement. No effort for the betterment of humanity, however small, can be lost on the grand total. The grandest achievement comes in the fact that through the Kindergarten and manual training principles, the science of pedagogy has made a great discovery-that of the human body in the schoolroom, and the question is, what is best to do with it? Educators and school officers must establish systematic organized movement, that will not only reach the colleges and universities, but the more than thirteen

millions of children in our public schools. Just how far the schools are responsible for the physical condition of the children is a hard question to solve. It would seem they should simply supplement the home, but as conditions are, when in so many instances the home fails to do its part, and in a manner makes a general assignment of its children to the school, then the school must not fail in government. The children of the vicious must be trained for humanity's sake, so must the children of the weak. Health is a poor man's fortune, and the rich man would give his fortune for it. Herbert Spencer says: "The first requisite to success in life is to be a good animal, and to be a nation of good animals is the first condition of national prosperity."

The school management have been somewhat reluctant about taking up the work, partly from the fact that they did not know what to do, and partly because the school curriculum is already overcrowded, and then again they must meet the economy objection.

Physical education should first receive the same intelligent and business-like consideration that is given to other branches of education. There must be money spent in its interests, and push and patience given to creating a sentiment in its favor before it will succeed. The advocate must be prepared to show that the extra work in the schools will abundantly justify added taxation and expense. It will make any teaching a farce to treat it with financial indifferThe ultimate aim will be to secure State legislation on the teaching of Physical Education in all schools supported by public money, for if it is ever to become a potent factor in our educational system it must be made obligatory in the schools where the masses are developed.

ence."

Ohio has already taken the first step in this direction, and at the last legislature passed a law requiring the teaching of Physical Education in the schools of all the cities and towns numbering as many as five thousand inhabitants.

Our advanced thinkers in the higher schools of learning took up the subject first, therefore the tendency has been to reverse the natural order of things and promote the work in the colleges and higher schools instead of in common schools. This is wrong, for if ever a child needs careful body training it is when his body is being built. Then is the time to form habits of health, and teach a greater reverence for the sanctity of the body. The body training should begin with the child's advent into school.

At present the successful introduction of physical education in the public schools will require a competent supervisor, whose duties it shall be to train the pupils at stated times, and as frequently as circumstances will permit, and also to train the teachers who shall daily conduct the work during the intervening period. It would be desirable that each school building should have its properly fitted-up apartment for gymnastic exercises, To which pupils shall repair at such times as they would come directly under the charge of the supervisor.

However, very efficient service will result when the regular teacher can adjust herself to existing circumstances and carry on a health training along with other work of her room.

[With the hope that I may offer a few helpful suggestions to teachers in this work of body-building, I shall continue. this paper in the next number of this journal.]

(To be Continued.)

THE CHANCES GIRLS HAVE.

Many girls believe that their possibiliities are inferior to those of boys, and thereby their best efforts are hindered. It is an erroneous belief, and a girl should maintain the opposite opinion

without fear or favor. She need not be

an egotist, nor indulge in overweening self-confidence, but simply rise above the false sentiment that girls are more "the creatures of circumstance" than boys. Too many are so content with the actual that they do not aspire after the possible. They accept the present situation as if change for better or worse were out of the question. Perhaps they are wholly unconscious of their reserved powers, do

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LAWS OF CHILDHOOD.

In the last issue of the Teacher I expounded briefly the first three Biological Laws-viz. the Laws of Growth and Development, of Nutrition, and of Individuality. I will now consider briefly the two remaining Biological Laws, and introduce the Sociological Laws.

4. The Law of Sexuality. Sex is a great fact in Nature and Life. Next to being a distinct individual the endowment of sex is most important. It is so common a fact in Nature and Life, the all-pervading influence of this law over the physical and mental and social life of the child and personality is almost wholly overlooked. With a vast majority of people the fact that a child is born a boy means that he shall in time wear a certain kind of clothes and run the gauntlet of certain experiences; and that the child is born a girl means she shall wear another kind of clothes and conform to certain conventionalties,-this and little more is what sex means with the superficial. But the sex endowments of the child, influence in a wonderful degree his whole physical, mental and social nature and development. There is a vast difference between the mental types of boys and girls-as great a difference as there is in the physical types. In a word girls' minds are as different from boys'

minds, as girls' faces, features, forms and statures are from boys'. While there are many powers common to the two sexes, these powers vary in strength, quality and quickness in the sexes-sometimes in favor of one sex and sometimes in favor of the other. Then each sex is endowed with some powers peculiar to itself. So that it is a very difficult thing to compare boys' and girls' minds, or the whole mental strength of men and women. Notwithstanding these very evident psychological facts, often hear quacks assert the mental superiority of one sex over the over, as glibly as they would compare the weight of two packages of some material.

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And the pedagogical Solons who compose most of our Boards of Education sit in solemn session for weeks, year after year, and patch up a course of study for our public schools, in utter ignorance of the great facts and principles of psychology and the laws of childhood. sult of their labors is a sort of crazyquilt product, adapted only for wooden minds, with no reference to the living. growing minds of boys and girls. Excellent courses of study from master minds in education could be adopted and modified to meet local conditions, and thus be a great blessing to the children. But these pedagogical seers flatter them