Physical education

“ This personal care and training may include attention to special sense-organs, — teeth, throat and other parts of the body which may need treatment as well as corrective gymnastics for tendencies to weakness and deformity. The improved physical education of the future will provide for the logical correlation of large motor-activities with subjects and interests of the young in school and outside wherever such correlations are practicable. The material of the new physical education will be largely composed of play, dancing and games. ”

“ There should be instituted in physical education a special technical teaching in which the mechanism of the movements and their physiology shall be studied with all the development which it permits. On this condition we can raise the level and the return of physical education. We can also by this means introduce ameliorations into manual trades by seeking for a more perfect adaptation of tools to the human organization, and in general the best utilization of muscular force wherever it is called into exercise. ”

“ The school, as at present constituted, cannot do much for physical education; and it must, as a necessity and a duty, graduate its demands to the physical as well as the intellectual abilities of its pupils. ”

“ To conclude then, physical education must be encouraged, but as spiritual training and as formation of character. Gymnastic exercise, therefore, far from being the only way to this end, may even lead in the opposite direction; and it will do so as long as it is considered apart from the remainder of education, with a particular scope of its own, and with heterogeneous contents in respect to spiritual education properly so-called. The teacher of physical education must always bear in mind that he is not dealing with bodies, bodies to be moved around, to be lined up, or rushed around a track. ”

“ We ought to have one in every place where any sort of education is provided for: for physical education is of at least as much consequence as anything that is taught in our schools. Under the instruction of a master of physical exercise, the weak part of any man’s anatomy may be brought up to an equality with the rest in a very short time. ”

“ Physical education, in short, ought to confirm health, give a harmonious development to the body, and teach how best to utilize the muscular force in the different applications which are demanded in life. We should also have regard to the necessities imposed by the social medium, and try to obtain results by intensive means, requiring little time and little space, and which address a large number at once. ”

“ Physical Education.—The modern public elementary school, in pursuit of mental education, neglects not moral education only, but physical education also, by condemning the child to prolonged physical inactivity. ”

“ But a wise system of physical education must take into account the fact that a carefully selected and organised system of exercises can do much for the development of the centres of the middle level which have to do with the proper co-ordination of various bodily movements. ”

“ We propose, in the introduction of physical education into schools, that it should be at once of the simplest and best kind; not a system of one particular character, but one which should combine everything that is useful in various systems, and which should interest the scholar, while it develops his physical life. ”

“ Hence the evil effects of the school itself must be removed or remedied by some means having as their aim the increased functional activity of the respiratory and circulatory systems of the body. And therefore the aim of any system of physical exercises should be not merely increase of bone and development of muscle but also the sustaining and improving of the bodily health of the child by "expanding the lungs, quickening the circulation, and shaking the viscera." This, as we shall see later, is not the only aim of physical education. ”

“ Program Elements.—A physical education program funded under this subpart may provide for one or more of the following: `` (1) Fitness education and assessment to help students understand, improve, or maintain their physical well-being. `` (2) Instruction in a variety of motor skills and physical activities designed to enhance the physical, mental, and social or emotional development of every student. `` (3) Development of, and instruction in, cognitive concepts about motor skill and physical fitness that support a lifelong healthy lifestyle. ”

“ It is within the scope of physical education, then, to indicate the kind and amount of motor-activity desirable for different ages and sexes and to provide in play, games, dancing, athletics and gymnastics the activities necessary to the best development of th© young and for the preservation of health and organic efficiency in adult life. It also is within the responsibility of physical education to know the biologic condition of the individual and to provide as far as is possible for the care and training made desirable by personal limitations. ”

“ Physical education then will be nil, and we shall look to physical exercise merely as a hygienic measure to insure health, all the neuro-muscular mechanisms ripening and coming into perfect function, through the inherited discipline furnished by countless generations of ancestors. ”

“ Suppose Smith or Wellesley, or Vassar or Bryn Mawr, should at once introduce in their deservedly famous colleges a system of physical education which should proceed on the simple but intelligent plan, first of training the weaker muscles of each pupil until they are as strong as the rest; and then of transferring the young woman thus physically improved from the class of this or that special work, to that which insures to all muscles alike ample, daily vigorous exercise. ”

“ The first years of life, from infancy to the end of the period of second dentition, should be devoted to education of the physical powers, carried on193 under the superintendence of the parents, especially of the mother. Physical education, as usually practised, is nothing but mere muscular exercise; but a more important object is that of training the senses, and giving manual skill, so as to develop from the very first our powers of observation and action. ”

“ If apparatus is used, see to it that the pupils do not get hold of heavy pieces, or attempt more difficult exercises than they are prepared for. Overdoing here is as bad as over-study. Strict discipline must be preserved, and the same thoughtful attention given to this as to any other department of study.
Illustrations of the Results of Physical Training.—Wherever physical education has been tested in the schools, of whatever grade, and in whatever country, the results have furnished the most abundant proof of its value. ”

“ There ought to be no more delay in this matter of physical education in the schools. Prompt and vigorous steps should be taken to acquaint every school-teacher in this country with such exercises as would quickly restore the misshapen; insure an erect carriage; encourage habits of full breathing; and strengthen the entire trunk and every limb, and bring them to their full size at every girth. If the teachers have not the requisite knowledge now, let it at once be acquired. They, of all persons, are expected to know how to acquire knowledge ”

“ All that is done in schools or colleges toward physical education is the mere strengthening of the muscular system by muscular exercise; but this is not half enough. These remarks may be deemed irrelevant to my subject, but they can not be lost to an audience whose highest interest is the education of man ”

“ Were the influences of bodily conditions upon mental growth and activity fully appreciated, the schools would doubtless make a sudden shift toward providing adequately for physical education. Physical development has been regarded with considerable favor for some time, but it has usually been a secondary affair when it should have been introduced as a vital feature. Educational systems should provide for the training and development of the physical as well as the mental life. ”

“ Physical education in colleges, The individual system of physical training, Athletes in secondary schools, Military drill in the public schools, and Physical training in the school and college curriculum. ”

“ Be that as it may, however—for this is not the place for the grave discussion of so broad a question—one thing, to my mind, is perfectly clear, namely, that until physical education shall receive more attention from all those who hold the sacred office of instructors of the young, humanity can neither be much elevated nor improved. ”

“ But, for boys, the most thorough physical education is the best; a child can never be too weakly to profit by gymnastic exercises. If the culture of the bodily faculties were made a regular branch of public education, robust strength would be the rule and debility the rare exception. ”

“ In order that the reader may judge intelligently concerning the controverted question of the choice of a method of physical education, it is indispensable to cast at least a rapid glance upon the different forms of usual exercises, and to compare their tendencies and spirit. The immense number of bodily exercises, which it is impossible to describe here or even to enumerate in full, may be referred, if we regard their spirit rather than their details, to two methods—the natural and artificial. ”

“ Nothing more is wanted than a pair of very light Indian clubs, a pair of light wooden dumb bells, a long wooden rod, and a pair of wooden rings,—the last for combined exercises. Indeed, a systematic motion of the body itself, without any extra artificial resistance, is quite sufficient for the purposes of physical education. ”

“ We cannot escape the fact that children have bodies. The first duty of the schools, therefore, is to recognize the existence of these bodies by giving them due attention, particularly at the crucial periods of physical [46] growth. Therefore every school must provide as much physical training as is necessary to insure normal body growth at each particular age. ”

“ The progressive realization of these tendencies has prompted most of the best recent and great changes motor-ward in education and also in personal regimen. Health- and strength-giving agencies have put to school the large motor areas of the brain, so long neglected, and have vastly enlarged their scope. Thousands of youth are now inspired with new enthusiasm for physical development; and new institutions of many kinds and grades have arisen, with a voluminous literature, unnumbered specialists, specialties, new apparatus, tests, movements, methods, and theories ”

“ Both made provision for exercise and contained a system of baths, but in the thermæ the baths occupied the greater part of the space, and the rooms and courts for exercise were smaller and fewer.
The Influence of Physical Training on the Health and Life of the Individual.—If we believe, with Spencer, that “Education is preparation for complete living,” we must appreciate that good carriage, bodily control, physical judgment, will power, and courage are an important part of the equipment of every man and woman. ”

“ The training of the youthful minds may be safely left to the Education Departments; it is necessarily commensurate with the individual capabilities of the boys.
The physical training can be accomplished, and is already so accomplished in certain schools, by a progressive system of physical culture. There is no difficulty in providing a manual of physical culture for boys which shall be progressive and uniform in character, and which can be taught in all schools by the teachers themselves; in fact, one has been already prepared at my suggestion by Mr. Weber, Melbourne. ”

“ Physical Training.—The class should be carefully trained throughout in correct muscular movements. The position of the body should be closely watched in working and in sitting, and the classes should enter and leave the room in systematic order. ”

“ Physical culture, school the place for, 76, 79.
Physical education, daily, 29; at Smith College, at Bryn Mawr, at Vassar, at Wellesley, 34; for girls, Herbert Spencer on, 35; at Amherst, 83; at Training-school for Christian Workers, 83; should be compulsory in all schools, 104; for all, 110.
Physical exercise, for girls, 25, 29, 36; daily, increases their usefulness, 36; does it dull one mentally? 129; rests the brain, 130.
Physicians, exposure of, 59, 108; get little exercise, 59; health of, 59; need of education of, as physical directors, 109. ”

“ Within a certain kind of environment, an activity may be checked so that the only meaning which accrues is of its direct and tangible isolated outcome. One may cook, or hammer, or walk, and the resulting consequences may not take the mind any farther than the consequences of cooking, hammering, and walking in the literal—or physical—sense. But nevertheless the consequences of the act remain far-reaching. To walk involves a displacement and reaction of the resisting earth, whose thrill is felt wherever there is matter. It involves the structure of the limbs and the nervous system; ”

“ A program of physical training wisely planned with reference to infancy, childhood, and early youth would include types of exercises, play, games, and sports, that would perfect the neuro-muscular and other functions far more completely than is commonly accomplished through the natural unsupervised and undirected physical training of those early age periods either in city or in rural communities. ”