54 PHYSICAL TRAINING 



graceful, and where the pleasure is primarily in 

 the movement and not in sex interest, as is the 

 case in the common dancing-school dances. Dr. 

 G. Stanley Hall tells us that the first kind of 

 dance is immensely valuable, but that dancing 

 has fallen on "evil days," and that the modern 

 dance has for its attraction sex interest only. 



Generally, too, where children are sent by the 

 dozen to the semi-fashionable dancing school, we 

 find their parents of the well-to-do type whose 

 children so often "go wrong." We find these 

 children are rarely allowed full play to their many 

 natural instincts. Their parents cannot realize 

 that the boy of twelve is not a man in miniature, 

 but a creature as different from a man as one 

 kind of animal is from another. These parents 

 do not realize that their children have many nor- 

 mal characteristic instincts — both girls and boys 

 — which must be provided with means for a 

 natural expression to prevent a perverted break- 

 ing-out later on. Here is the fatal mistake of 

 creating an adult standard of manners for young 

 children — the dangerous endeavor to make the 

 boys and girls little "gentlemen" and little 

 "ladies." They are sent to dancing school to get 

 poise and manners, and an artificial standard of 

 behavior is forced upon them. The outlets for 

 the expression of their normal semi-barbaric 

 instincts are closed to them, and only one instinct 



