Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1888-08-03
phXalnAI OIIIrIrHr.
An Educational Matter ofMoro Than or
dinnry Interest,"

= The Massachusetts, Medical Society
selected timely and popular topic for
consideration at It's annual meeting
whom 1t arranged for the report on
physical education In the schools.
This report, the work OF special COM
mittee, is OF far more than passing In
teresf, and IL Is to be hoped that It's
recommendations will receive the very
careful attention OF the State Board OF
Education, to which it was referred.
People who were educated in the old
fashioned schools OF years ago, espec-
tally II they were in the country dis
tricts, are sometimes too much inclined
to make light OF the subject of tho sys-
tematio physical training OF school
children. They assert that in their
school days they needed q stimulus to
study rather than to exercise; that their
sports out-of-doors in the fields and
woods and on the'river afforded all the
physical education that was necessary,
and that the time in school could far
more profltably be devoted to books
than to gymnastics. There is some
truth In this way of considering the
matter, but 1t overlooks two important
points. These are, first, that the chill
dren, even In the villages and rural
districts whore participation in health
giving sports and access to the open
country is an easy thing, would be bet
ter off for the systematic regular forms
of exercise such as is embodied In the
modern schemes OF physical culture as
practiced in our schools. Then, In the
second place, the disproportional
growth OF our city population and the
presence in 1t OF large numbers OF chill
dren of foreign origin or parentage,
whose physical no less than whose
mental powers have been sadly stunted,
makes It unwise to rely on the old idea
of permitting each child to get such
physical training as it could in it's daily
recreations. Crowded cities are poor
play grounds. The best system OF pub
lie parks which was ever devised would
not supply facilities sufficient to meet
the needs of city children in tho way
of physical exercise. In country
ical training is desirable; in city schools
it is an absolute necessity, The SUBJ
ject OF physical in connection with
mental education has not been taken
up day too soon. 1t must be pursued
with unhagging zeal and thoroughness
until its proper prominence is recog-
nized. not in tho wealthier and more
progressive towns and cities, but in
every corner of the nation.
But any scare or exaggerated state
ment OF the deficiencies of our school
children in this important direction is
TO be deprecated. Such nonsense as is
sometimes talked and written about
the physical degeneracy of the people
of this generation can not be too much
condemned. There has never been a
time when physical training was better
understood and practised than Mt
present. The modern American and
the modern Englishman are better
men than their fathers were. Despite
the panicky predictions of patent medl-
cine vendors the Anglo-Saxon race is
not going to decay. 1t is not necessary
to frighten people nowadays to con-
vince them of the need of regular
habits and systematic physical training.
Much remains to be done in this direc-
tion. butmuch has already been accom-
plished. The individual, professional
or lay, who is an habitual alarmist on
the subject of the physical condition OF
the race, is about as much TO be blamed
as the individual who pooh-poohs the
need of such thing as systematic
care and training of the body.-Bos-
ton journal