St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1889-07-18
PHYSICAL TRAINING OF THE
VOTING

Now let Boston put DR.. Sargent on
its school board; New York, DR..
White or DR.. Savage of the Berkeley
lyceum, or the director of the gymna
SUM at West Point, with Prof Dowd
to help him; Brooklyn, Dr. Anderson
of the Adelphi academy; Philadelphia,
Dr. White of the university of Penn
svlvania; and Baltimore, DIR. Hart
well of Johns Hopkins university Of
the annual appropriation for educa-
ton, give the children's bodies not a
third and the mind the other two
thirds. but give their bodies simply
one-tenth, and give these experienced
and able men free scope to at once
put their ideas into active practice,
not in some one high or normal
school alone, but in every public
school in the CITY There is no need
of having all follow any one system.
There are as many good methods OF
bodily training as there are kinds OF
food If the studies stand in the way,
lop off some of the less important
ones,-enough till of the five hours
devoted to the education of our chill
dren each day, their bodies shall have
almost as important as sma ttering
of history, or even fair knowledge
of geography. In that half-hour ev-
cry scholar in the city can be readily
given a good deal of vigorous yet
never violent exercise for about every
muscle of body or limb, and for the
entire lungs, and can quickly be
taught-a thing they now know
practically nothing about just what
muscles any known exercise callsinto
play.
The work can be done at present
right in the school-room, the Win
dows being thrown open to let out
the air which has already been
breathed number of times and let
in the fresh, pure article. The quick
ened circulation, the deep breathing,
the buoyant, gay feeling which lively
exercise always brings, will send
them back to their books with brains
cleared, nerves strengthened, and the
whole mental and bodily machinery
the better for this brief unbending of
the bow
Let them study also the best ele-
mentary work on hygiene. But if
there is only time for one of the two,
get the exercise and let the books go.
Then so arrange the afternoon, as
they do at Harvard, that the hours
from four to six are left wide open to
exercise. Get the parents to see that
no piano practice or anything else
shall interfere with these afternoon
hours of play If it is the skating
time of year and the iceis good, teach
them what skating does, what parts
it calls into play, and what it does
not. If it is the rowing time, what
rowing does; and so of swimming
and tennis, canoeing and football,
and all popular sports, each i'll its
season-knowledge by-the-way, that
they will acquire in one lesson, and
with avidity. Show them how much
work is enough, and what will over
do. Urge the thin-legged to devote
much of their two hours to foot
work, of which there is such a pleas
ant variety, and the narrow-chested
to arm and shoulder work.
Especially impress it on the weak,
the poorly built, and the Overstudi
Gus, who are not good at any sport,
that they are going to make very
one-sided men and women, if they
live that long, and get them out of
doors in all weathers to lay in a
store of vigor and stamina, SO neces-
sary to all who hope to ever accom-
plish anything in life William Bla-
kie in Harper's Magazine.