104 THE SCHOOL 



develops the intellectual qualities of alertness, self-knowledge, 

 executive ability, and " presence of mind," or the ability to think 

 effectively in a crisis; and the moral qualities of self-control, self- 

 reliance, courage, endurance, humility in victory, fortitude in defeat, 

 and loyalty to one's fellows through working together for a common 

 end. Manual training specifically trains the hand as the executive 

 of the mind; it gives opportunity for self-expression in material 

 f orms -- raffia, paper, pasteboard, cloth, wood, and metal; it gives 

 facility in the manipulation of the simplest and most generally used 

 tools that have aided man in his ascent from savagery; it cultivates 

 the mental and moral habits of accuracy and truthfulness, and it 

 induces a realization of the dignity of labor. 



Without these four forms of physical culture -- play, gymnastics, 

 athletics, and manual training - - no school is doing its perfect work. 



Only in very recent years has the conception of physical education 

 as an essential part of a child's training found its way into educational 

 theory and practice. Hence the people's schools in our large cities 

 are, as a rule, very inadequately equipped for any of the forms of 

 physical education. 



A most serious difficulty in the way of providing such equipment 

 is raised by the congestion of population in our large cities, caused 

 partly by the ever-increasing immigration and partly by the con- 

 tinuous movement of population from rural to urban life. The 

 result is a deplorable lack of space in which children may play. 

 This condition exists in nearly all our large cities, and particularly 

 in New York, where the huge tenement, crowded to suffocation, full 

 of nerve-racking noises, abominable stenches, and woeful sights, is 

 the home, if home it may be called, of hundreds of thousands of 

 children. With no place to play but the streets, boys, so deep-seated 

 is the instinct for play, form organizations of their own for street 

 games. The organization is the gang, and the games are gambling, 

 stealing, fighting, and sometimes even stabbing or shooting. With 

 no comfort or privacy in the rooms they call home, girls show a 

 constant tendency to degenerate both physically and morally. 

 Moreover, the poorer classes are in these days invariably the most 

 prolific. If, as Prime Minister Balfour recently pointed out, the 

 chief burden of perpetuating the race falls upon the poor in urban 

 communities, then it is essential to the well-being of society that 

 the school should labor incessantly for their physical improve- 

 ment. 



The physical-education problem of the school is, therefore, twofold: 

 To secure equipment for gymnastics and manual training in school 

 buildings, and to provide space for athletics and free play, in which 

 the child's individuality may have scope to develop amid pleasant 

 and healthful surroundings. 



