When
left to children and youth, or to the care of parents, very little will
be accomplished. Children will participate in the customary sports, and
perform the allotted labors; but in cities these sports and labors are
inadequate even for boys, and in country, as well as city, girls are
often the victims of neglect in this respect. Availing ourselves, then,
of the light shed by recent experience upon the subject of primary
instruction, it seems possible to diminish the length of the school day
with a gain rather than a loss of educational power. This change may be
followed by the establishment, in cities and large towns, of public
gymnasiums, where teachers answering in moral qualifications to the
requisitions of the laws shall be employed, and where each child, for
one, two, or three years, shall receive discreet and careful, but
vigorous physical training. After a few years thus passed in
corresponding and healthful development of the mind and body, the pupil
is prepared for admission to the advanced schools, where he can submit,
with perfect safety, to greater mental requirements even than are now
made. The school, as at present constituted, cannot do much for physical
education; and it must, as a necessity and a duty, graduate its demands
to the physical as well as the intellectual abilities of its pupils. But
I am satisfied that it is occasionally made to bear a weight of reproach
that ought to be laid upon the customs and habits of domestic, social
and general life.
Pages:
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127