The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-12-02
H1GH SCHOOL ArHIErTcs

The competitive athletics of our American colleges and universities of ten harbor unsuspected dangers In that they encourage oyerdoing 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 or ganisn. But the win-at-any-c ex- ertion, taxing vital organs to the very limit of their endurance. exceeding the factor of safety in physiIogic func- tfons,. and sometimes carried to the breaking strains represents 8 sort of unjustifiable se1f-sacrifice that may properly be made for one's country but is never called for to uphold the glory of ones college The sooner 1t is realized that there are better tests of nanltness than the ability to en- or to complete the football season in spite of acquired injuries, the more wholesome will American college life become.
 Unfortnnately. there is a widely manifested tendency for the pupil of ances Of his older brother in the col Iege. This is shown In the tntroduc- ton of Greek letter societies and so- ciaI functions into the secondary schools, tending to counterbalancel some of their wholesome features of social iintercourse with the snobberys of excIusiv eness and the deteriorating influence of late hours and tiring dis- fractions. Even more baneful, how ever, is the growing custom of al-9 lowing the same sort of intense som petftive sports in the high school that are the cause; of complaint in respect to their dangers to the older college student
 We are glad to note ,says The Jour nal of the American Medical Asso-4 ciation, a spirit of protest in various | parts of the United States against all the forces, social and athletic, which tend to deterinrate the American boy (or girlJ at the adolescent age of the high school period. One health off, cer has recently made public an uouncement that proper exercise in a weII-equipped gynasium, under the l guidance of a trained instructor, is good for any one. but that competitive athletics requiring most strenuous ex- l erfion, long and tedious training and l self denial, is positively bad for any | one before full development, and that 1 all such overacts tend to Impair the keenness of the mind and interfere | with school work proper, as well as | to in5ure the body. The competitive ] interscholastic games which require ] great physical exertion and mental 1 tension should be done away with and a good gynasiun1, under the d1-f 1 rection of one trained in physical cuI- | ture, should be provtdede and work according to the condition ana need of each pupil assigned. We agree, 1 further, that mild and Well-timed ath- letic exercise and occasional social | functions will tend to relieve the mon l otony of school life and invigorate | body and mind; but over indulge ence l is likely to be detrimental
 | The dangers referred to are not in ! sfgnificant; they are real. Prof. c.  i consin has pointed out. in connection
 with the participation in athletics in
 his institution, that the increasing 1 amount of heart disease noted in this I country by nfe-insurance companies 1 and others makes it important for the l physician to make himself acquainted
 with the chief causes responsible for
 these conditions so that he can pro- | tect his patients. Over-exertton in
 competitive sports, especially in
 school boys is one factor. From to 1 10 per cent of freshmen entering the
 state university have enlarged hearts with dilation attributed to athletic sports This condition not only keeps
 these students out of college sports, 1 but to some extent hampers their | scholastic work in college.
 Criticisms of this sort are never | welcomed when they contravene es-
 tab1ished customs. Yet there is an
 obvious contradiction in directing the | energies and funds of the state toward 1 the prevention of disease and the es-
 tablishment of habits of right living l in the earliest ages of our public l schools, only to permit their undoing | at a subsequent period. School doc tors and school nurses in the primary
 departments have come to stay for some time. at least. Why not more
 healthful school customs in later Lxears?