Teach the students that right living depends on right thinking, and that physical activity is essential to purity of thought. The question of suitable recreation for their pupils is one that teachers often find perplexing. In the gymnasium many youth, by their attempted feats of strength, have done themselves lifelong injury. Exercise in a gymnasium, however well conducted, cannot supply the place of recreation in the open air, and for this our schools should afford better opportunity. Vigorous exercise the pupils must have.
Few evils are more to be dreaded than indolence and aimlessness.
Yet the tendency of most athletic sports is a subject of anxious thought to those who have at heart the well-being of the youth. Teachers are troubled as they consider the influence of these sports both on the student's progress in school and on his success in afterlife. The games that occupy so much of his time are diverting the mind from study. They are not helping to prepare the youth for practical, earnest work in life. Their influence does not tend toward refinement, generosity, or real manliness.