Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1890-07-02
HOW TO TRAIN A CHILD.
CAN HAVE HEALTH AND STRENGTH
BY BREATHING RIGHT.


Should he Straight and the Muscles
soft-Llttle Good I'm Gymnasiums.
Over in Brooklyn is little man with q
gigantic chest and marvelously strong
muscles. He is the founder of new sys-
tenn of physical education. Thirty-two
years ago, when he was wearing his first
knickerbockers, he was so puny that his
parents thought it was hardly worth while
to encourage him to go on living Today,
although he is small he is as strong rs a
bulldog and delights in amusing his
friends and astonishing strangers by lying
fiat on his buck and lifting up 240 pound
men at arms length. He thinks the Gus
tom of putting young Americans through
a course of calisthenic and gymnastic ex
ercises is all wrong.
1.-THE present system Is wrong from. be-
ginning to end, +" he said to a reporter.
"Pick up a six months old infant" he
added, "hold him in an unstrained upright
position, and you will find that his back Is
broad and fiat and that his spine is perfect
ly straight. AS soon as the child begins to
walk the spine begins to curve. Why2 The
weight of the abdomen causes the lower
part of his back-the hollow of his back
so called-to sink forward and sag down
There is error number one. Subsequent
physical training takes no notice Of it.
DEFECTS OF CALIsTHENICs
you will find, too, that an infant in
arms has the power, while sitting bolt up
right, of putting his foot or at least part
of it, in his mouth. This Is because his hip
joint is perfectly free and flexible. He loses
this flexibility almost from the moment he
IL
athletic or calisthenic training takes no no
tice of this loss.
''Now, | claim that above all else child
should be taught how to stand and how to
breathe. Next he should be instructed as
TO the properway Of using every muscle
and joint. Teach him those things and he
will be u graceful, healthy, strong man.
Neglect them and while he may become
temporarily strong his power is neither
lasting nor conducive to long life and vigor
Nothing is more important than to teach
children the general principles of right
development, 1t is mere makeshift to
bring forward calisthenics. Only small
minority of the children in classes for
physical training give any vigor or mean
ing to the few insignificant movements OF
the arms. Most of the boys and almost all
of the girls make merely superficial move
ments, with no sense of the meaning and
no feeling of exhilaration. If anything has
been said to the children about breathing
no effect is visible. If anything has been
said about the carriage of the body the in
struction has been confined to an injunc
ton to keep back the shoulders
POSITION IS EVERYTHING.
'In a nervous effort to obey the latter in
junction children are often found with hol
lowed backs and shoulder blades driven in
against the spine When the shoulders are
violently and persistently thrown back the
shoulder blades almost meet. They press
on the spine and jam the upper part OF II
forward. This effect is simply unavoida-
BILE.
IF n child is sent to school at the age OF
8 or the teacher should watch him at his
desk to make sure that he maintains an
erect position. 1t will be found that II the
head is kept properly held erect the chin is
bound to draw up the breast bone. by
holding the body erect and straight the
child will find it easy to breathe in the
costal way-that is, with the upper part Of
the chest. This claim is the proper way
to breathe OF course it is not easy to
learn all this at once, but n careful teacher
by taking pains could soon bring her class
into such condition that they would find
1t easier to stand walk and sit right than
wrong.
ut is not necessary to spend any special
half hour a day in teaching these things.
The instructor who Is with children all
the time Is the one to keep them standing
or sitting properly. Folding the arms
the present attitude of respectful attention,
is one that cramps the chest and tho
breathing apparatus. IL should never be
practiced. Let the teacher instruct her
children to keep the upper point Of the
forehead and the most prominent part of
the chest always urlfted, as If trying to
push up through the ceiling A word now
and again will soon inculcate the right
sort of carriage. Let all bending forward
be done from the hip ioint-not from the
waist. The back bone need not and should
not be bent in STOPPING to pick up any
thing.
WE SHOULD ALL LIVE TO BIZ so.
"Insteud Of wasting time over rods and
wands teachers should make the children
learn how to hold their bodies and how to
move the shoulders, hips and other joints
properly in the ordinary business of life.
Children can get little good from what
they learn mechanically. The youngsters
interest must be aroused. Teach him that
not dumbbells but the knowledge he &C
uures in the carriage and department Of
his body will make him agile and strong,
and then his physical education will
amount to something. Physical educar
ton is properly accomplished only through
the mind.
Tho mere requirement of muscular It's
sue is not of so much importance as a good
sheath of sound, healthy, agile bone cover
ing by that | mean elastic, supple ten
dons and muscles working in harmony, d.
rected by well regulated mind That is
what children need.
1.-THE shoulders should not be strained
back of the hip joint, These two joints
should be on the same perpendicular lins.
The chest must have prominence on Its
own account, and the shoulders when held
back far enough to give the chest free do
Velopment find natural and comfortable
center.
u am no believer in the theory OF extern
sive destruction in tissues and hurried re-
building of them to secure health. Such
training is abnormal. The cat, the horse,
dog, tiger md other lower animals keep
their strength for the most part with light
eNeftlse. us tNnuuhNy Va Haiu cAefNiSo 10
hard muscles, and hard muscles are bad. IL
Is in the conservation of energy, and not in
the prpdigal dissipation of energy. that the
greatest strength and endurance of the
body will always lie. Our bodies should
remain firm but plant and in most parts
soft. There is no reason why any Of us
should become inactive before our eight
eth birthday. New York World,
A recent writer tells OF school for
La L..