DISCUSSION E. G. LANCASTER, professor of psychology and pedagogy, Colorado College, Colorado Springs, Colo.-I do not agree with the speaker as to the definition of the adolescent period. It is not merely the high-school age, but begins during the last two years of grammar grade and continues thru college life. It is the period of growth in which the child develops out of the stage of primitive man into the modern civilized man. This growth means, first, development in size; second, differentiation. The tadpole which is kept in the dark will grow to be a large tadpole of the size of the frog, but will never develop into a frog. There are men and women tadpoles, morally and intellectually undifferentiated. The adolescent period ends, for the girl, at about the age of twenty-five; for the boy, at twenty-eight. The hope of the race depends on the lengthening of the adolescent period, say, until forty. As to the question of the fitness of high-school studies to adolescents, the speaker has implied that they do and that they do not fit, and I agree with him. Rather than prepare a high-school course of study, I recommend to the audience the paper by President G. Stanley Hall, of Clark University, in the School Review for September. Adolescensce, as the speaker said, is the time of ideals. We should use those ideals for discipline, and should discipline only thru ideals. Practical considerations are not so important in the high school. The average age of the inventor is thirty-three. The old psychology laid down the three fundamental principles of mind-knowledge, feeling, will. This is not the order of the unfolding of the human mind. Feeling comes first. Nothing is done without enthusiasm. In the properly trained child the emotions are not very prominent until adolescense, and then they come in a flood. We must take account of this emotional life. Any subject that lays hold of the emotional life is a good subject. Is it Latin, geometry, physics? This depends on the teacher, on the way in which the subject is taught. We need teachers who understand adolescent psychology. The dull teacher, without enthusiasm, is unfit for adolescents. DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION SECRETARY'S MINUTES FIRST SESSION.-WEDNESDAY, JULY 9, 1902 The meeting was called to order in the Exposition Auditorium at 2:30 P. M. by the president, Dr. William O. Krohn, of Chicago. After an overture by the Danz Orchestra, Director D. H. Painter conducted a class in tactics, uniform rank, Adams School. The president's address followed, on "Educative' Physical Education." Dr. Krohn thanked the large audience that had assembled for their interest in this branch of education, and said: "Not only is this the largest session this department has ever had at any annual association, but the largest attendance any department has ever had." Six thousand people were present at the meeting. The remainder of the afternoon was devoted to the exhibition work of the Minneapolis public schools, given by pupils and teachers under the direction of Mrs. Louise Preece, director of physical training, city schools, Minneapolis, Minn. The program was as follows: Holmes School: Director, Agnes L. Robinson. Harrison School: Director, Agnes M. Price. The president appointed the following Committee on Nominations: SECOND SESSION.-THURSDAY, JULY 10 The meeting was called to order at 2: 30 P. M. in the Exposition Auditorium by the president. A violin solo was given by Miss Verna Golden, of Minneapolis. A paper on "Requirements for Physical Education in our Public Schools" was read by Dr. Henry Hartung, member of the board of education of Chicago, and delegate from the North American Turner Bund. After another solo by Miss Golden, discussions were led by Dr. E. A. Lyttle, state inspector of New York, and by Miss Jean L. Gowdy, principal of the Washington School, Minneapolis, Minn. Mr. Henry Suder, director of physical training, Chicago public schools, then gave an exhibition on his new combination apparatus to be used in schoolrooms. The Committee on Nominations reported the following officers for the ensuing year: President Dr. William O. Krohn, Chicago. First Vice-President - Baroness Rose Posse, Boston, Mass. Second Vice-President- Mabel L. Pray, Toledo, O. Secretary- Alta Wiggins, Buffalo, N. Y. The report of the Nominating Committee was accepted without dissent, and the nominees declared elected. The department then adjourned. MABEL L. PRAY, Secretary. the classification of our pupils with reference to class work in physical education than age or grade. Because certain groups of pupils happen to be reading in the same reader, or working the same problems in arithmetic, or because a certain group of pupils happen to be of the same age, does not give us warrant for putting them thru the same physical training, for the reason that of a given number of pupils of the same age, or of the same school grade, many will be much farther advanced in their physical education than others. A better basis of classification than age or grade is weight. A still better basis of classification would be weight and height. I have seen in the public schools of one of our cities a class of boys of the same grade taking their lesson in physical education. The difference in weight between the lightest and heaviest boy taking the same routine of exercises was forty pounds. The difference in height between the shortest and the tallest boy was thirteen inches. If the exercises were adapted to the heaviest boys in the class, they were certainly not adapted to the lightest; if they were adapted to the tallest boy in the class, they were certainly ill-adapted to the shortest boy. Roughly speaking, the difference in physical development, as represented by the two extremes in this particular class that I have in mind, was at least two and one-half years, the best-developed boy in the class being at least two years and a half farther along in his physical development than the leastdeveloped boy. If the exercises of this particular lesson that I have in mind were educative for the average child in the class, they were certainly not educative for the best-developed or least-developed boy. There are three characteristics that should mark each lesson in physical training: First, quickness; second, grace; third, precision. If any fact has been established as a result of modern researches in physiological psychology more plainly than any other fact, it is that of the reciprocal relation of mind and body. The mind acts upon the body, and the body acts upon the mind. We know that any change in the quantity or quality of blood supply acts directly upon the brain cells, and thus influences. our entire range of mental activities. We know that certain drugs, such as phenacetine, accelerate those activities, while other drugs, as the bromides, inhibit these activities. On the other hand, while we all admit that body acts upon mind, we must also recognize the fact that mind acts upon body, that every thought we think, every emotion we feel, registers itself upon the organism; that there is a different rate of heart-beat, a different kind of pulsation, during the solving of a mathematical problem from that accompanying the reading of a poem; that intellectual activity directly affects the blood supply; that grief, melancholia, and other emotional states affect many of the secretions. It is just as true that anxiety, grief, melancholia, or any state of mental depression, causes loss of appetite, retarding the flow of the secretions, as it is that the improper action of the digestive organs may cause melancholia. The relation between ideas and movement has been recognized by many of our schools of physical education, and in all of our exercises we should endeavor and insist upon real enthusiasm and real purpose before any attempt at expression is allowed. The child must have a definite notion of the exercise, and having this definite notion must enter into it with enthusiasm, so that the exercise will accomplish the most possible for him. I stated that quickness is one of the qualities that should characterize every lesson in physical education. If we do not develop an alertness, not only a physical alertness, but a mental alertness, we are failing signally in our endeavors; if we are not developing grace then we are failing dismally to make more and more possible a ready co-ordination of the muscles as expressive of mental states. Without precision our exercise will be in vain. If the exercises do not promote quickness we are developing as a result a brain lethargy or brain slowness. If our exercises do not develop a certain marked physical grace there is, as a result, a brain slovenliness. If they are not carried on with precision there is, as a result, a brain disorderliness which cannot be eradicated by ordinary schoolroom methods. Your physical education, to be educative, must have in mind first of all the development of mental symmetry; in the second place you must have in mind development of mental force; in the third place your exercises, to be fruitful of good results, must promote an increased mental activity. These three mental symmetry, mental force, mental activity must enter into every lesson if that lesson is to be educative. Some have the idea that physical exercises in the schools should be simply ornate or recreative, rather than educative. Many schools have provided for physical exercises in the grades without an intelligent notion of the educational function that this provision is to afford. We are prepared, however, to make this broad declaration, and not without careful thought: that those physical exercises which do not have a part in the real education of the child, the education of his mind and brain, as well as a mere employment of muscles for a few minutes, the ornate movements so fully elaborated without any definite idea of their educational content or purpose, are not only negative as far as educational results are concerned, but are injurious and harmful. Just as some mental exercises are extremely beneficial to the child of ten, and other exercises are negative,and still others are injurious, so certain methods and lessons in physical training may be beneficial to the child, may be totally without result, or may be harmful. The one supreme test that should measure every lesson in physical education is the educational test. Does this or that exercise give the child a better co-ordinated brain life, a better mental symmetry, increased mental force, accelerated mental activity? Are we developing his brain into that hair-trigger condition that will enable it to respond quickly to outside stimulus as he pursues his other lessons in the school? Are the physical exercises we plan for him of neceseity going to result in a better the classification of our pupils with reference to class work in physical education than age or grade. Because certain groups of pupils happen to be reading in the same reader, or working the same problems in arithmetic, or because a certain group of pupils happen to be of the same age, does not give us warrant for putting them thru the same physical training, for the reason that of a given number of pupils of the same age, or of the same school grade, many will be much farther advanced in their physical education than others. A better basis of classification than age or grade is weight. A still better basis of classification would be weight and height. I have seen in the public schools of one of our cities a class of boys of the same grade taking their lesson in physical education. The difference in weight between the lightest and heaviest boy taking the same routine of exercises was forty pounds. The difference in height between the shortest and the tallest boy was thirteen inches. If the exercises were adapted to the heaviest boys in the class, they were certainly not adapted to the lightest; if they were adapted to the tallest boy in the class, they were certainly ill-adapted to the shortest boy. Roughly speaking, the difference in physical development, as represented by the two extremes in this particular class that I have in mind, was at least two and one-half years, the best-developed boy in the class being at least two years and a half farther along in his physical development than the leastdeveloped boy. If the exercises of this particular lesson that I have in mind were educative for the average child in the class, they were certainly not educative for the best-developed or least-developed boy. There are three characteristics that should mark each lesson in physical training First, quickness; second, grace; third, precision. If any fact has been established as a result of modern researches in physiological psychology more plainly than any other fact, it is that of the reciprocal relation of mind and body. The mind acts upon the body, and the body acts upon the mind. We know that any change in the quantity or quality of blood supply acts directly upon the brain cells, and thus influences our entire range of mental activities. We know that certain drugs, such as phenacetine, accelerate those activities, while other drugs, as the bromides, inhibit these activities. On the other hand, while we all admit that body acts upon mind, we must also recognize the fact that mind acts upon body, that every thought we think, every emotion we feel, registers itself upon the organism; that there is a different rate of heart-beat, a different kind of pulsation, during the solving of a mathematical problem from that accompanying the reading of a poem; that intellectual activity directly affects the blood supply; that grief, melancholia, and other emotional states affect many of the secretions. It is just as true that anxiety, grief, melancholia, or any state of mental depression, causes loss of appetite, retarding the flow of the secretions, as it is that the improper action of the digestive organs may cause melancholia. The relation between |