The muscular development given to the boys, the love of athletic exercises and manly sports, will be worth quite as much to their future life, as the mental culture and book knowledge there imparted. Erect forms, well developed chests, grace of movement, and ease of carriage are the results. No harm seems to result, however. The annual May parties are quite a feature of the schools, giving a vast amount of enjoyment to smiling faces and twinkling feet, and real delight, and a merry time, to friends and parents not Puritanical, but social. Singing receives a good degree of attention, but should receive still more.
Music is an essential element in the education of girls.
It is vastly more important for a young lady, in the social circle, to know how to sing, than to comprehend all the mysteries even of cube root, square root, algebra and geometry. A gentle voice is a pleasant thing in a woman. We think the course of study in the grammar schools might be slightly modified for the better. One half the time in all the schools is devoted to arithmetic the grand hobby of American teachers, and Yankee ones, in particular while penmanship, drawing, and spelling receive comparatively little attention. In this respect, our primary schools are a quarter of a century behind the European.