Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-01-01
ATHLETICS IN EDUCATION.
Muscular Competition Does Not Lower
the Physical Condition of Students.
From the Atlantic Monthly.

From the Atlantic Monthly.
In some institutions of learning it appears to
have been noticed that athletic contests have
served to diminish the interest of the student
body in personal exercises. tits supposed that
the interest of the individual student in his own
physical culture is in some way diminished by
the success of his comrades. who, by virtue Of
their natural parts or long-continued training.
have attained to perfection in the art Thus.
in the report made by a committee of the board
OF overseers of Harvard college, the ground
was taken that competitive athletics had
served to lower the physical condition of the
students, few taking part in such sports for
the reason that they could not attain distin-
gulshed excellence in their work. My own
experience student and teacher in
Harvard college, which extends altogether
over period of thirty years. does not support
TINS Judgment. i note in the first place that a
poor physical condition is at present q matter
OF reproach to an individual. and he feels that
ne has to justify his bad state to his comrades
py some kind of plea i'll extenuation. l notice,
furthermore, that, in teaching geology in the
neid. set walks which twenty years ago sur
passed the pedestrian powers Of quite one-half
my students are now within their abilities.
mat the reader may not be led to explain this
difference by the fact of growing infirmity on
my own part may say that not only the dis
tances, but the times involved in the journey
are the same now as of old. There can be no
question in my mind that the physical condi-
tion OF the average student at Harvard college
Is vastly better that it was a score of years ago.
Along with this improvement in physical
condition OF youths has gone a decided gain in
certain moral qualities. Thus, between 1864
anu 1911 IL was not uncommon to find students
IN Harvard college seriously the worse for
habits of drinking. l can recollect in those
years dozen cases in which felt impelled to
eXPostulate with young men on this subject
Az least as many persons were known to me to
pc what we may properly call drunkards but
from 1870, when the athletic motive began to
develop, and particularly since the foundation
oi tne new gymnasium, and the consequent
VIDE development of feli and house athletics
THIS wee has been rapidly diminishing. At
present L do not know in my acquaintance
with the students, which extends, perhaps. 70
nall the members of the university, a sim
sie case IN which the young man can be called
drunkard. l believe this gain to be due in
large measure to the sense of pride in phys
lcai state which affect by far the larger part
OF the students. Their experience in train
ing, which Is undergone in one way or another
Dy a very large part of the young men, gives
them by experiment clear understanding as
10 the influence of hygienic conditions In
similar way the use OF tobacco has diminished
between 1860 and 1880 it was not uncom-
mon to find men SO sodden with tobacco that
they were unpleasant subjects to have in a
small lecture room.
In this decade have found but two or three
persons affected to this extent by tobacco
Even the use Of tea and coffee. on the whole
undesirable with youth, but extremely COM
mon IN former years. has remarkably dimip-
ished am informed that only about one half
OF the students who take their meals at Memo
RAJ hall indulge in these beverages In fact,
the ways OF the trained men in a college, like
the customs of an army i'll state where the
military arm has great Importance. are effect
I'VE upon the body of the folk. Reasonable liv-
ing Is necessary to athletic success, and the
habits OF those men become in way pattern
for the school life.
Inquiries which have just been made bv a
committee OF the college faculty. to whom was
referred the report of the board of oyerseers
concerning intercollegiate sports, have shown
that about One-half of the students in Harvard
college submit themselves to the valuable
physical and moral discipline involved in train
lng. though only part of this number have
attained to success as athletes, they all share
the advantages which the preparation gives.
The gain III physical and moral stamina which
comes from such modes of life is intellectually
great All the teachers of Harvard college who
have kept themselves in close relations with the
students are sensible of this profit.