Physical Training in the Public Schools

ONE who has traced the course of educational thought in this country during the last quarter century cannot but have seen that the spirit of the old adage, mens sana in corpore sano, has come to have a marked influence upon all the work in public schools, of whatever grade. No considerate person familiar with the educational doings of our time would maintain that the physical side of child nature is not as important in school training as is the intellectual, or perhaps the moral side ; and yet this view seems to be peculiar to modern civilization, although a certain kind of physical culture was not unknown among ancient peoples. Artloving Greece, for example, cultivated the body for beauty and grace primarily, and only in a secondary sense for strength and power; while a different aim was constantly before the Roman people, for they sought a method of training that would always insure their arms success upon the battlefield. In some measure, our own ideals are determining the place which physical training is coming to take in our educational work, and are fashioning the means and methods by which the desired ends are to be secured. We are a various people, though with different ideals, and naturally our manner of attaining these is not in every case alike. It may safely be said, however, that we are not in any great sense a warfaring people, so we have little thought, when we insist that our boys shall have sufficient physical training, of preparing them to achieve renown upon the battlefield, though we desire, of course, that our youth shall have courage and strength to meet the usual emergencies in life ; but these very rarely include experiences in war. We are in a greater measure, perhaps, an art-loving people, and are somewhat desirous that our children shall be trained in a manner to insure them symmetrical and beautiful persons. But above everything else we are a practical people ; and in our educational work, as well with the mind as with the body, we are seeking to prepare our youth for the common affairs of life, and all things that do not strive together toward this end are esteemed to be superfluous, and ofttimes unbecoming. In many parts of our country, this regard for what seems practical so dominates the public mind that any distinct work calculated to develop the body will not be admitted into the schools ; it being maintained that this is wholly unnecessary, since the physical will generally take care of itself, while the more we become possessed of things intellectual, the better we shall be prepared for the emergencies of life. It requires but little observation, however, to see that the physical powers of schoolchildren will not adequately be cared for or developed unless special attention be paid to them ; nor does it seem that any more practical work than this can be done in the schools.

But the great problem in this training of the body is the difficult one of so organizing the work that it may be made practical and serviceable under the many unfavorable conditions which exist in the schoolroom. Our present entire educational equipment has been intended in the main to promote intellectual culture, and consequently the opportunities for physical training are very inferior; and as we are not fortunate in the possession of gymnasia in connection with all of our educational institutions, whatever bodily training is attempted must be accomplished without the aid of special buildings and apparatus. We have in our higher institutions of learning, it is true, special furnishings appropriate for gymnastic exercises ; but the number of those receiving the advantages of a higher education is so slight compared with the multitudes who are in the public schools at large that it by no means follows that, as a people, we are being much benefited by gymnastic training. Any method of physical culture that is intended to help the people in a broad measure must reach down into the elementary and secondary schools, and there accomplish what is now being aimed at in a general way in our higher institutions. Work of this character was not undertaken by any of the peoples of antiquity, although it is ofttimes maintained that the Greeks went far beyond any modern nation in the care and culture of the physical man. It must be remembered, meanwhile, that it was only the privileged classes who had the freedom of the gymnasium ; and, regarded as a whole, they were probably not those splendid specimens of physical development that we are sometimes led to think they were.

Our present methods of physical training have had their origin within the present century. The story of Prussia is familiar: that after its conquest by Napoleon it determined to make every effort to regain its honored position among the nations of the world, and its statesmen foresaw that the first requisite was to reform the education of the people, not only intellectual and moral, but physical. From this determination has sprung a great educational system which has placed Germany first among the nations in intellectual matters ; and many assign it this place, also, in the physical vigor and development of its people. The originator of the German system of gymnastics was Zahn, followed by Guts-muths and Spiess, who collectively elaborated a system adapted to all the grades of the schools, including exercises without apparatus as well as those requiring gymnasia and special equipment. These gymnastics were gradually introduced into the schools ; and it was especially fortunate that they had at the outset such warm advocates as Pestalozzi and Froebel, who used them in their famous schools at Yverdon and Burgdorf. During the revolution in Germany in 1848, many refugees fled to this country, bringing with them the advanced thought of their fatherland in regard to education, intellectual and physical, and their own radical opinions concerning political freedom; and no sooner had they become established here than they set about to put their ideas into practical operation, being particularly emphatic upon the subject of bodily training; for with them the physical had come to be the principal object of worship. They forsook all things religious, and in the communities in which they were strong enough prohibited the establishment of churches, setting up instead Turner Halls, in which physical education became deified. The is little city of New Ulm, in Minnesota, an example of such a community, controlled entirely, in early times, by these German radicals, who established a school for physical training, in which teachers could prepare themselves for work elsewhere. By the continued efforts of these Turners, their system of physical exercises has been introduced, in one form or another, into many public schools, and the work of propagation is going forward rapidly. Like most systems, it comprises exercises in what are called “ free-hand ” gymnastics, and gymnastics with apparatus, light and heavy ; and much emphasis is laid upon marchings and all military movements. The free-hand exercises are designed for use in the grades of schools where it is inexpedient, and in many cases impossible, to use apparatus of any sort. In places favored with appropriate rooms, dumbbells, wands, and Indian clubs are used ; while in schools where there are gymnasia, heavier apparatus, such as chest weights, chest expanders, leg machines, and horizontal and parallel bars, may be found. The system of free-hand training comprises a great many bending, thrusting, and breathing movements (in addition to the marchings), made possible by the numerous muscles and joints of the human body; and with children the first movements are mainly flexions of the head, trunk, and limbs, these being executed in a quick, restless manner, usually in accompaniment to music. From these simple elements the flexions gradually become more involved, and thrustings of the limbs and breathing exercises are introduced. The intention is to call into action, in a definite order, every muscle of the human body, so that dexterity, agility, and strength may be maintained and promoted, and health and muscular development secured. The exercises are all executed upon military command, and the utmost attention and obedience are required in order that the directions of the instructor may be followed. Many purely military movements are given throughout all grades of the work, the purpose being to foster military bearing and promptness in executing commands.

It is unnecessary to say that much good comes to children who are subjected to this discipline from the time they enter school until they leave it; but as a scheme of physical training suited to American children it is not without its faults, and grave and serious ones. In the first place, the exercises lack steadiness and deliberation in their performance, and are not calculated to secure that restfulness and self-control which are so much needed in American life. It is the common judgment of those who are entitled to speak authoritatively that, as a people, we are inclined to be nervous, restless, and ill poised ; and though these exercises may not perhaps increase our natural tendencies, still it seems that they will not prevent them from coming to full fruition as successfully as we had hoped they would in putting them into our schools. In a measure, this German system may be in accord with some ideals in our national life : that we must he constantly in a rush, as well in educational as business activity, ever stimulating ourselves to higher and greater exertions in the attainment of knowledge or of material things, thinking that these constitute the summum bonum in life, no matter what use we may make of such possessions. Teachers and pupils in our schools are ever urged to work harder, that more facts may be acquired from books ; and with all the blessings that flow from this, it at the same time leads to the unrest and lack of perfect control that seem so characteristic of the people of this land. It was the thought of those who favored the introduction of gymnastics into our schools that this feverish tendency might be overcome ; for it was believed that to train the body would make it a natural outlet to the pent-up nervous energy which must be generated by so much mental effort all day in the schoolroom. But in many cases these movements only add to the strain, because of their quick, nervous character calling for great attention and exertion of the will. After two or three hours of intellectual discipline the pupil’s muscles have become constrained, his nervous system is overtaxed, and the purpose of his physical drill should be to relax and relieve this unnatural condition. But instead of the severe military positions and movements demanded by the German exercises accomplishing this, they are liable to aggravate conditions. It is not maintained that this discipline is not most wholesome and good in its appropriate place : but it does not seem that this is, to any great extent, the schoolroom, at a time when children need freedom and relaxation rather than constraint.

Although the movements in this system aim to secure a harmonious and symmetrical development of the body as well as perfect self-control, it does not follow that in every particular they are suited to accomplish this ; for most of the thrusting movements are stiff, awkward, and ungainly, and it has not been sufficiently recognized that these physical attitudes have a marked influence upon the mind and character. Thrustings with closed hands, if not actually injurious to the physical frame of ordinary schoolchildren, have at least a harmful effect upon the mind in disturbing its most perfect poise. Psychologists have long since shown that most intimate reciprocal relations exist between bodily movements and attitudes and mental states; and it follows that those noble, gentle qualities of character which we are anxious that our educational work should instill into the lives of our boys and girls are not as likely to be secured by the ungraceful, stiff movements which the German exercises in some cases demand as by those of a different nature. We are not so anxious, either, that our children should have the bearing and manner of soldiers, with the reciprocal qualities of heart and mind that such demeanor necessarily begets. We cannot sympathize with the German if this be his ideal of the average man and woman; for while we are indeed desirous of possessing courage and strength at all times, yet we wish these qualities to come from gracious confidence, self-control, and self-poise, rather than from that stiffness and formality whose spiritual accompaniment is liable to be selfishness and austerity.

It may not seem that the few minutes which are given each day to physical culture in our schools will affect materially, for better or worse, the character and hearing of the children who are subjected to it; but when it is remembered that this sort of thing goes on day after day for eight or nine years, its influence will be more readily appreciated, and its hygienic importance more fully realized. If the present mental strain is to continue in our schools, then we must strive to overcome the nervousness which it induces through the efficient culture of the body. We must not have as our ideal of the work of physical training the development of great muscular strength and dexterity, so much as the promotion of health, and rendering the body an unconscious and ready instrument of the mind in the expression of its most gracious qualities. Nor can we hope, under the conditions which exist in our schools, to make the bodies of all our children symmetrical and harmonious by physical training ; for we have to deal there with children in the great average, and it is only by dealing with individual tendencies that we can secure perfect symmetry and harmony. But after all, this is not such a serious question ; for if we can foster and promote the health of children, and induce in them the right attitude of spirit, the tendency of nature toward symmetry and harmony will produce gratifying results.

The ideal, then, of physical training in our educational work should be to promote the health of schoolchildren ; and this implies that special care should be taken to overcome that tendency toward nervous unrest that the strain of American life, as well in business and social circles as in the schools, tends to create. The question naturally follows, Can we find any organized system of physical exercises that will secure this ideal in the schoolroom any better than the one just considered ? It will perhaps be agreed that there would be no need whatever for such a system if opportunity could be given the child for sufficient unrestrained, natural play ; for play is the most efficient method to secure both bodily development and relaxation, and is at the same time the most wholesome and conducive to happy, normal childhood and youth. But it is with this as with most other methods of training the body in the schools,—there are insuperable obstacles which render it very difficult to be carried out to the necessary extent. In the first place, most of our graded schools in the cities have not the facilities in the way of large playgrounds, where pupils of all ages may indulge in the games and pastimes which they long for, and enjoy so much. Then, during a large part of the school year it is impracticable for pupils to be in the open air at all; and while some schools have appropriate rooms where play may be carried on with much freedom in inclement weather, yet in most places there are no provisions whatever for this. In some cities pupils are allowed no seasons for recreation during the school day, for it is thought that this affords splendid opportunity for the propagation of various kinds of immorality among schoolchildren. In the city schools of Rochester, N. Y., for example, no recesses are allowed, and it can be seen that some artificial method of relaxation and exercise must be arranged for. It should be said again that if pupils were permitted to indulge sufficiently in the natural appetite for wholesome, healthful play, and were given more physical freedom in their school work, the necessity for physical culture in the schools would be reduced to a minimum, or dispensed with altogether. We find this to be the way in the kindergarten, where the plays and games are participated in with great freedom, and where there seems to be little difficulty with health or the harmonious and gracious development of the body. One often hears, however, that over and beyond this we should have some artificial gymnastics of the German type, on the plea that these put the various members and faculties of the body under perfect control of the will; but it is an erroneous psychology which asserts that the unconscious use and control of all the powers of the body through play, when the attention is wholly upon the play itself, and not upon the movements of the body in attaining the objects of play, are not usually better for so-called will culture than conscious, forced exercises for the sole purpose of these exercises themselves. The right and best way to bring the body under the control of the will is to have it become, through habit, the unconscious medium in attaining the objects which the child desires, and in expressing his highest thoughts and emotions ; and this should, so far as practicable, determine the means and methods of physical training.

It will perhaps be impossible to elaborate any system that will fully meet this ideal, under the embarrassing conditions which exist in our schools ; but it may be said that there are others than the German for which much has been claimed in this direction. During the present half century there has been worked out in Sweden, by Ling and some followers, a series of exercises for use in the schools that is now attracting world-wide attention. This system seems to be based upon a most minute and careful analysis of the human body, and attempts, through a progressive series of exercises, to develop all the powers and capabilities of the physical being. The needs of schoolchildren have been considered to a greater extent than in the German system, and all movements are designed, in the first place, to relieve the strained and congested condition of the body naturally following upon two or three hours’ study ; and in the second place, to develop health and strength in the various members of the body, so as to secure a symmetrical and capable whole. In all the exercises the effect upon the lungs and heart is the great desideratum, for it is believed that upon the right action and condition of these depends the health of the body ; and this is the primary consideration in Swedish gymnastics. In every day’s exercises there is a certain order, which may be stated briefly as follows : (1.) Movements calculated to relieve the strain from the sitting posture during school hours, and to draw away blood from the brain to the extremities. (2.) Breathing movements, for the expansion of the chest, which has been contracted while the child has been sitting at the desk ; and by full, deep inspirations to fill the lungs with pure air. (3.) Poising or balancing movements, designed to cultivate the power of sustaining the body in difficult positions. (4.) Movements of the shoulders and back, designed to afford graceful carriage to the shoulders, and to correct any deformity which may have resulted from faulty positions at the desk. (5.) Finally, movements for the fore part of the body, which seek to stimulate the normal activities of the vital organs in the abdomen. It can be seen from this brief outline that these exercises, when faitlifully carried out, discipline the entire body at every period of training.

All of the movements, however, are stiff and jerky, and are performed upon military command, so that the most exact and stringent attention is required on the part of the child. The objection urged against the German system applies here also, —that instead of relieving the will effort required of the pupil during the intellectual work of the day, the movements, in many cases, make greater demand upon it. The answer made is that the attention is being turned toward entirely different things, and thus the movements are really a relief to the will. But the studies of psychologists along the line of fatigue have shown conclusively that, no matter in what direction the will is exerted, a tax is made upon the nervous system which, while perhaps not felt at the moment, yet reduces the sum total of available nervous energy in the body. This consideration will not be forceful except where children already have as many demands made upon the will as are conducive to perfect health and poise of body and mind ; but as in most of our schools this limit is attained, and even passed, it is apparent that strict military discipline cannot have a very prominent place in our physical exercises. It will certainly be most wholesome to have a little of it, for the training it gives in prompt obedience and exact control; but it is surely wrong that all of our exercises should be based upon it.

An important consideration sometimes lost sight of in physical training is that it should prepare students for the lives they will live and the conditions they will meet when they leave their school. This is what is aimed at in intellectual education; it should be the aim also in physical education. But if it is best, during the work of physical training, for the pupil’s attitude and actions to be stiff and formal, then the same bearing could be justified in recitations. where habit will become formed and readily carried into daily life. The grace, carriage, and posture which most of the German and Swedish exercises encourage are not those which, as Americans, we care for in daily life. The Ling system, too, like the German, seems to have been elaborated upon an analysis of the bodily needs mainly, without tracing very carefully the interdependence of body and mind, and the possibilities of vitally affecting the spiritual by the movements and attitudes of the physical. The main thought has been to secure the health and strength of the body ; and it has been assumed, if the question has been at all considered, that the health and wholesomeness of the spirit would naturally follow. But that any definite discipline of the physical can be used to secure invariable effects on the mind and character has not been recognized in either of these systems, except in a very indirect way. While it has been quite generally acknowledged by observing teachers that any state of the mind shows itself in some activity or condition of the body, the converse of this has not been sufficiently felt and appreciated in our schools. This thought has been embodied in a way, however, in systems of physical culture elaborated by followers of Delsarte upon principles which he announced some forty or fifty years ago. It is constantly maintained by many, though, that there is no such thing as Delsartean physical culture, but that the whole Delsarte philosophy is simply one of expression, making the body capable of portraying accurately and readily the thoughts and emotions of the soul. Though in a sense this last is true, still it seems to be implied that to make the body truly expressive of the soul life is not the very highest function of physical training, which view is not, or at least cannot continue to be. held very extensively by the most open and progressive educators; especially so when it is understood that true expression requires the most complete and harmonious development of all parts of the body, and this necessitates the employment of exercises for training that are as potent in forming and developing the physical being as are any performances in the gymnasium.

The Delsartean systems are all based more or less definitely upon a philosophy setting forth the relation of mind and body, which may be stated in brief as follows : Every state or act of the mind is manifested in appropriate action of the body, either fully expressed or partially inhibited ; and every attitude and function of the body and of its various members always produces a characteristic kind of mental activity. From this it follows that, in the first place, one’s thoughts and deepest character are written in the conditions and activities of his body, and may be read from this external expression ; and in the second place, one’s character and thoughts may be influenced, and even shaped, by the habitual conditions and activities of his physical being. Every part of the body, according to this philosophy, is a medium through which may be read a particular kind of mind and character behind it, or by which this mind and character may be influenced. Thus, one who possesses a coarse, sensuous nature will reveal this to the world by certain characteristic movements of parts of the face, trunk, and limbs, and in his breathing ; and as a converse of this, a coarse, sensuous nature may be cultivated by appropriate activities of these same parts of the body. In like manner, the highest intellectual and spiritual qualities may be expressed through the body, and, conversely, may be cultivated by the proper treatment of the body. So far as this philosophy is concerned in detail it is not of great importance for us to consider, but that in a general way it sets forth a truth in regard to the reciprocal influence of mind and body there can be no doubt; and later investigations in physiology and psychology only tend to confirm this view. It may be said, however, that all the inferences drawn from this relation by Delsarte and his followers have not been generally accepted as yet; for example, that abdominal breathing only is always associated with and promotes sensuality, while clavicular breathing is indicative of and begets intellectuality, and at the same time develops a narrow, unsympathetic nature. But whether we believe in this and similar doctrines as mere theory or not, it is certain that their practical application in physical training produces most beneficent results.

The Delsarte philosophy makes the chest the centre of all being, and its proper development and carriage is the principal object of most of the exercises ; but in order that this end shall be secured the whole body must be harmoniously developed. This is one object, of course, in all systems of exercises for training the body; yet in none of them has symmetrical, harmonious, expressive development been emphasized to the extent it has in the Delsartean systems. Most others, ancient and modern, lay great stress upon physical strength; while all Delsarteans seek rather to develop freedom, grace, and poise, believing that health and sufficient strength will necessarily follow. Especially with schoolchildren there is less need to give particular attention to muscular development than to train them to use freely and graciously what bodily powers they become possessed of in their plays ; but this does not imply that a system of exercises intended to make free the muscles of the body, and to relieve the nervous strain induced by severe mental effort, cannot at the same time develop muscular power. Fault is sometimes found with the Delsartean systems because they have apparently failed to recognize this fact; for many see in their exercises only weak attempts at grace and elegance of carriage and manner, qualities usually considered foreign to our sturdy American life. We have been accustomed to think that substantial strength and usefulness cannot go along with grace and harmony of bodily movement; but it is time to consider whether this is not an entirely erroneous view, particularly since such systems of physical culture as the Emerson, the Preece, and others have already accomplished so much to prove that it is. It is perhaps true that hurry and struggle are not generally compatible with beauty and grace in form and movement; but this only seems to urge the greater need of inducting the present race of schoolchildren into ways of acting that may he self-poised and deliberate. The Delsartean exercises constantly favor this by the emphasis which is laid upon many poising movements that require the greatest calmness and steadiness of person in their execution ; they favor it, again, by the greater stress which is laid upon the frequent relaxation of the entire body from muscular constraint, thus predisposing the mind to composure and restfulness ; they favor it in still another way by the many graceful curved movements, and bending and stretching movements, which are executed with slowness and precision, instead of in a jerky, agitated manner, as is the case with most of the movements to be found in a majority of the schools where physical culture has a place. The exercises are usually accompanied by soothing, restful music, and this is always of marked psychological benefit, producing a peaceful effect as no other agency readily can.

In trying to determine which of these several methods appears best suited to our American schools, it is possible that we cannot find in any one of them alone all that we are looking for. One hears now and again of an American system of physical training ; but aside from the Sargent, which is not calculated for use in the public schools, there is certainly no objective reality to which that term can be applied. What is commonly meant by this is the series of exercises with and without apparatus that have been selected from the different systems described above, and modified to suit our conditions; but it seems apparent that the aims of mere muscular develop meat and military action and bearing dictate to a harmful extent the character of the exercises which obtain favor in our schools. It is not too much to expect that the character of our physical training will shape in a certain measure the destiny of our nation, for history is emphatic in proving this of other times and peoples; and so it behooves us calmly to examine our ideals, and see if the highest that can be kept in view, considering our peculiar needs, are not those of self-poise and deliberation, and the grace and strength of mind and body which flow from them.

M. V. O’ Shea.