PHYSICAL TRAINING OF YOUNG CHILDREN. 449 

 PHYSICAL TRAINING OF YOUNG CHILDREN. 



By M. FEENAN LAGEANGE. 



IT would be a great mistake to apply, in the physical training 

 of children, the same principles as those by which gym- 

 nastics for adults is adapted. And as we recognize different 

 grades in the intellectual teaching of children, corresponding 

 with their different ages, so the exercises prescribed for them 

 should vary, to correspond with the different degrees of their 

 bodily development. The child's gymnastics should be quite dis- 

 tinct from that which is considered best suited to mature age. It 

 should not look to utility, but should serve an exclusively hy- 

 gienic end. The first object should be to give good carriage, to 

 aid the pupils in reaching a full maximum of growth, and see that 

 they are developed regularly, without deformity and without 

 blemishes. All these conditions are within the domain of hy- 

 giene. A second feature of the exercise adapted to children re- 

 gards the cerebral conditions which result from their being at 

 school. They require diversion from the mental work that is piit 

 upon them, and such diversion can be obtained only by giving 

 them the pleasure of recreation. 



Hence, we have the two essential features that should be 

 secured in infant gymnastics — the hygienic and the recreative. 



The usual school gymnastics lacks much of being irreproach- 

 able from the hygienic point of view. Some of the methods seem 

 to have been chosen rather because they were convenient of appli- 

 cation than on account of any hygienic value. They are not 

 adapted so much to the requirements of the child as to the accom- 

 modations of the school premises. Methods have been sought by 

 which they could be applied in narrow spaces, and considerable 

 muscular effort called out in a very short time. It may be con- 

 venient to collect a class of children once or twice a week and make 

 them perform vigorous movements, but it is hardly what their 

 hygiene demands. To measure out approximately the amount of 

 exercise that ought to be taken in a week and administer it all 

 at once is no more valid than it would be to give food for several 

 days at a single meal. The child's exercise should be as carefully 

 allotted to him as his food, and excessive fatigue as sedulously 

 avoided as indigestion. A system of giving gymnastic exercises 

 at too long intervals involves the dilemma that too great exertion 

 may be called out at each lesson, or, if the labor is moderated, too 

 little will be done. The child does not want intense effort at rare 

 intervals, but moderate exercises frequently repeated. 



The fact that intense muscular effort interferes with the de- 



TOL. XXXIV. — 29 



