Omaha daily bee., 1909-10-17
They are inspired with a world-old idea
which is eternally new.
VaIwe nF the Ga-ea

They are inspired with a worid-old idea
which is eternaly new.
value of the Games.
This, idea is that organized play is more
fundamentally educational this the three
RS. and that prisoners base, kick the
wicket and all cooperative physical games
have a pedagogical value in intoxicating
courage. tenacity. fair play. cheerfulness
under failure and most of the rules that
keep civilization running smoothly. Or, as
DR.. Champion puts IL when summing up
the principles underlying all the work Of
the department Of physical training, play,
not discipline, is the true natural disci-
pline."
And to illustrate this principle, DR.
Champion says: For ages the child had
no other means of education than play.
BY organized play the child learns the
vltues and the social qualities long before
the names OF moral qualities are learned
or those names can even be spelled"
But to leave the theory and return to the
practice. Last year the public Schools
turned out III all round base ball teams
and in basket ball there was even a better
record OF 125. teams. Such an athletic out
put meant daily practice for the boys In
the ECnOOl ydFuSs III Ah6 X AiAheAhihAo dAA
on the roof Fairgrounds. And these daily
practices meant the voluntary attendance
for supervising and coaching purpose of
hundreds of teachers, who thus sacrificed
their precious after school leisure for the
we'll being Of New York's school children.
saving the Girls.
One phase Of the athletics for girls, ac-
cording to enthusiastic teachers. bids fair
to revolutionize the i'll dancing
academies by a surer method than legis-
lation. This is the folk dance, whose many
and very beautiful forms are taught daily
to New York school girls. The girls who
have mastered the intricate measures OF
the Bohemian Starsak and the Hungarian
Scardes and have learned to love dancing
as a delightful form of physical exercise
will, according to the folk dance teachers,
scorn the present dance halls and demand
in their stead airy, spacious halls such as
the municipality of Chicago has provided
for it's girls.
Public school folk dancing is right now
supplanting the children's dancing schools,
which, the teachers say, with but few ex-
ceptions encourages artificiality. love Of
dress and inappropriate not to say injur-
ious relations between boys and girls. And
the school law forbidding the use of cos
tune in the folk dance exhibits was espe-
cially designed to discourage the display
element in the dance and to lay stress on
it's real nature as a delightful form Of
physical exercise.
But really to catch the spirit Of these
after school athletics one must spend an
afternoon on one Of the seven large ath-
t..s. stzns. ,,otaNot.a1 hy rho roOar ri Of
Education. Here on a single field from
500 TO 1000 boys will receive expert training
and carry forward every form of athletics
from team games to individual track work.
Little fellows from the primary grades
strive with spartan seriousness on the
Ginning bar and for the broad jump.
Ihe older boys, who have been getting
their base ball and basket ball into trim
in the school yards and roof Fairgrounds,
are having their regular teams made up by
the athletic supervisors. White clad figures
are speeding over the running track. vault
ers and leapers a their turn at the APP
paratus and everywhere happy faces and
boyish good nature mark an evolution in
boy nature since these same boys left their
street gang fights for athletic sports.
System and Its Expense.
The New York system has been extern
sively copied abroad. The department Of
physical training has given help in the
organization of similar systems in eleven
Of the cities in the United States. as we'll
as in old world India, in Chile and in the
Argentine Republic. And in each case Il
has been able to apply TO local needs and
conditions the principles gathered in the
New York work.
And the feature of this playground and
athletic field system most encouraging for
its adoption throughout the great cities of
the world is the comparatively slight cost