Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-12-21
EDUCATING CHILDREN's BODIES.
The First Thing to Teach Children Ii
How to Do Things Right.
From the CHICAGO Herald

from the chicago Herald
1t is unfortunately true that most people
have an idea that it is a teachers business
to look after the child's mind, the parents
business to look after the childs morals,
and the child's business to look after the
education of his own physical being. This
is dangerous subdivision of important
principles between teacher who knows
something OF educational principles,
parent who as rule knows less and a
Child who knows nothing of them. Is
there any good reason why the careful dis
cipline and control SO necessary for the de-
velopment of the mind and morals should
be entirely denied to the body? A great
many people who pride themselves on be-
ing practical have way of saying You
do thing right by doing it, Apply this
to all branches of education and the latter
half of mans life would be spent in I'M
learning the errors acquired in the first
half. The first thing to teach children is
how to do things right. A certain degree
OF physical vigor is necessary for good
mental work and the formation of sound
character. More children and young
people break down in school life from want
OF proper physical supervision and training
than from any other cause, and this is
more trae of girls than of boys. 1t is more
true to-day than ever before, though
puSslCdl NiROT IL HOIe ueeueQ lOI q sue
cessful life now than ever before, because
the pace of life is more rapid in every re-
spect, and the struggle for existence is
keeDer.
The younger the child the greater should
be the relative proportion of physical to
mental training. This is one of the under.
lying principles of the kindergarten system
by which the childs mind is approached
and trained exclusively by physical i'm
pressions of such a kind as to create a real
interest for the work in the child. This is
the common sense way of starting child
out in life, for no child should be troubled
with abstract ideas until after the age of
seven years. From this period until the
age of fourteen the time spent in physical
training should be large in proportion to
that given to mental work; it should be a
part of the child's schooling, part of bis
or her education. There should be q GER
tain sequence of exercise. The brain cen.
tiers do not develop uniformly and stimuli
taneously. The leg centers are developed
earlier than the arm centers, those of the
arm earlier than those of the hand, and
those Of the hand earlier than those of the
lips and tongue. These facts should be
recognized in the physical training of the
young child. Children should be taught
from very early age that there is a right
and wrong way of performing every
physical action. Especially should they
be taught how to stand, sit walk, carry the
head, etc. The physical forces should be
suhordinated to the will. This may be par
TALLY but never completely accomplished
by the so. called gymnastic apparatus.
There is one point in regard to which
there is great error. Many people think
that physical exercise is the remedy for
mental overwork. No scheme of physical
work or exercise can neutralize the dangers
of mental oyerwork. The physiological
laws governing nervous and muscular
work are essentially the same; there are
the same wear and tear, the same demand
for rest and nutrition, and the same laws of
fatigue.