MOTOR EDUCATION 269 



the hearth-stone, into a mere abiding-place, whence the least as well as 

 the greatest must fare forth to earn money for necessities, or, it may 

 be, for useless luniries. It is true, the best motor education is sup- 

 plied in the ideal home, on howsoever humble a basis, as that of the 

 pioneer, the farm laborer, the small farmer. Here there is a constant 

 supply of normal stimuli to action, made convenient and necessary by 

 communal interests. Each one, to the youngest child, is called upon 

 to do such things as lie within its capabilities, thus contributing pro- 

 portionally to the common welfare. This, in its better aspects, can 

 not be surpassed as an educative groundwork. The poorer city dweller, 

 subsisting on ready-made foods and with no outdoors but the street, 

 finds no scope for the primitive actions of digging, chopping wood, 

 carrying water, hence can not develop symmetrically. Even among the 

 well-to-do things are little better. The street, with its many perils 

 from " devil-wagons," trolley cars, etc., is becoming more and more 

 unfit for a playground. The schoolhouse yards sometimes provide 

 space wherein the scholars can give vent to motor impulses, but at best 

 these are wholly inadequate. Even the very rich city dweller is poor 

 in opportunities in comparison with the country child, who has access 

 to a bit of woodland and a farm-yard. 



Look at any lot of city school children and you will find, with only 

 moderate scrutinizing, a pitiable array of asynmietries, local weaknesses, 

 evidences of inadequate development. They are handicapped from the 

 cradle; weighed down with damaging tendencies to stoop, to slouch, to 

 impair the chest, in which the heart and lungs must have space; to 

 tilt downward the pelvis, which is the key to the nutritive organs. 



No fuller argument is needed to establish my contention that all 

 children, especially those of the cities, require not only ample oppor- 

 tunities to expand and develop, especially by exercise, as in plays and 

 games, but also specific motor training to correct the perpetual tendency 

 to minor deformities. 



The most thorough method of acquiring both mental and physical 

 efiiciency is by systematic motor education. We may then outline how 

 this can best be achieved. Always the play impulse should be encour- 

 aged. Amusement-games alone, however, often lead to listlessness, 

 spiritlessness, impassivity, aimlessness, at best but negative qualities. 

 Competitive games accomplish much more where there are able leaders 

 to animate and direct action. The most educative factor is to stim- 

 ulate the motor centers by enforcing precision of movement. A few 

 exact movements conscientiously performed accomplish more for accu- 

 rate coordination than hours of listless, half-hearted movements. 

 Routine, monotony, repetitions, weary minds and fatigue bodies. 

 Always it is the degree of spontaneity, the heartiness of response, the 

 candor of cooperation, which make for progressive invigoration. 



Hence the ideal educational agency, not only of gross motion, but 



