Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1914-11-28
Saturday, November %, 1914.
High School Athletics.

When criticisms eontravene estab-
nished customs they are seldom well
coined Hence solemn warnings
against the dangers of overdone good
things are likely to go unheeded. Take
this instance: while funds of state
are devoted to the prevention Of dis
ease and the establishment OF habits
of right living in the earlier years of
our public schools, later years Of
school life, We are told by scientific
investigators, is undoing it all. That
is. we have medical advisers and
school doctors for our primary de-
ipartments, and deplorable customs
that are generally accepted in the
later years.
Perhaps we are coming to see the
contradiction of this, for the Journal
of the American Medical Association
says that it notes with pleasure
spirit of protest in various parts of
the United States against all the
forces, social and athletic, which tend
Ito deteriorate the American boy Cor
.giri) at the adolescent age Of the
high school period. One health Of
ificer has recently made a public an
nouncement that proper exercise in
well equipped gymnasium, under the
guidance of trained instructor, IS
good for any one, but that competi-
tive athletics, requiring most strenu-
Gus exertion, long and tedious train
ing and self denial, is positively bad
for any one before full development,
and that all such overacts tends to i'm
pair the keenness of the mind and in
terfere with school work proper, as
well as to injure the body. The COM
,petitive interscholastic games which
require great physical exertion and
mental tension should be done away
with and a good gymnasium, under
the direction of one trained in physi-
cal culture, should be provided and
work according to the condition ana
need of each pupil assigned. We
agree, further. that mild and WELL
timed athletic exercise and occasional
social functions will tend to relieve
the -monotony of school life and in
vigorate body and mind but over
indulgence is likely to be detrimen-
tai.
The dangers referred to are not in
significant; they are real. Prof. C. r.
Bardeen Of the University of Wiscon-
Elm has pointed olt, in connection
with the participation in athletics in
his institution, that the increasing
amount of heart disease noted in this
country by life-insurance companies
and others makes it important for the
physician to make himself acquainted
with the chief causes responsible for
these conditions so that he can pro-
tect his patients. Over-exertion N
competitive sports, especially in
schoolboys, is one factor From to
10 per cent. of freshmen entering the
state university have enlarged hearts
with dilatation attributable to ath-
lctic sports. This condition not only
keeps these students out of college
sports, but to some extent hampers
their scholastic work in college
The competitive athletics of our
American colleges and universities Of
ten harbor unsupported dangers in
that they encourage OVERRIDING on the
part Of the participants. No one
would deny that systematic and even
strenuous exercise may exert a most
wholesome effect on the human organ
ism. But the win -any-eost exer-
ton, taxing vital organs to the very
limit Of their endurance exceeding the
factor Of safety in physiologic func-
tons, and sometimes carried to the
breaking strain, represents a sort Of
unjustifable self sacrifice that may
properly be made for ones country
but IL never called for to uphold the
glory of ones college. The sooner it
is realized that there are better tests
Of manliness than the ability to en-
dure 4-miie race in the college boat
or to complete the football season in
spite Of acquired injuries, the more
wholesome will American college life
become.
Unfortunately, there is a widely
manifested tendency for the pupil of
the high school to ape the perform
ances of his older brother in the col
lege. This is shown in the introduce
ton Of Greek letter societies and So
eial functions into the secondary
schools. tending to counterbalance
some Of their wholesome features Of
social intercourse with the snobbery
of exclusiveness and the deterioratins
Influence a "a