TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION L. 777 



the training colleges. The teacher's certificate includes a knowledge of swimming, 

 and, wherever schools are within easy reach of the sea or baths, swimming takes 

 the place of gymnastics during the summer months. 



During the summer vacation a short course of one month for physical training 

 id held at various centres to enable teachers to refresh their memories and to give 

 instruction to those who did not have it during their college days. These courses 

 are voluntary, but those attending are given free board and lodging besides rail- 

 way passes. Many teachers avail themselves of these classes, and may attend 

 them as often as they like under the same conditions. 



There are at present fifty gymnasiums belonging to elementary schools in 

 Copenhagen, and another three hundred divided amongst some three thoueand 

 schools outside the capital : they are steadily increasing. In the elementary 

 school time-tables at least two hours a week are allotted to physical training for 

 boys and girls under eleven years of age ; those over eleven do three hours a week 

 in many of the schools. Children found too weak to perform the exercises, owing 

 to malnutrition or other causes, are brought to the notice of the authorities; they 

 are then given a hot meal every other day at the school during the three winter 

 months of January, February, and March. So much importance is attached to 

 this physical training that in the eyes of the Danes an expense of this nature is 

 well justified. 



An essential feature of the Swedish system is its carefully considered sequence 

 on a scientific basis within each lesson, one movement being such as to prepare the 

 way for the next. By this progression, as the child gets older the exercises become 

 more specialised, until the beginnings of real physical culture are reached. 



Deep breathing exercises are done frequently between the others, and to pre- 

 vent, so far as possible, the inhaling of particles of dust, a damp felt or sacking is 

 passed over the floors before every lesson. It has been truly said that ' to breathe 

 well means to live well, to live longer, and to live better.' 



If this training is to be universally adopted in England in the elementary 

 schools of every country, it must form a part of the curriculum of all would-be 

 teachers in their training centres and colleges. 



A great deal is now being done in Surrey, where the movement has become 

 very popular amongst the teachers. 



The Swedish system has the great advantage of not being dependent on a 

 gymnasium, though a building fitted up with apparatus is very desirable. The 

 fact that free-standing exercises constitute an essential part of the system puts it 

 within reach of everyone. 



It is suitable for all ages and for both sexes; it brings about a uniform de- 

 velopment of the entire body. Girls who have had the advantage of such training 

 are thereby made more fitted to be the mothers of a future healthy generation ; its 

 national significance cannot be over-estimated. 



Baron Nils Posse, now Director of the Posse Gymnasium iu Boston, says of it : 

 '_ Swedish gymnastics must be the basis of all rational gymnastics, since to-day it 

 is the only system whose details have been elucidated by, and derived from, 

 mechanics, anatomy, physiology, psychology, and whose theory has survived the 

 scrutiny of scientists all over the world. So that, whatever the name or form of 

 the gymnastics of the future, the Swedish system will be its frame, as even now 

 we see it transforming and absorbing all so-called systems.' 



4, The Workers' Educational Association: an Experiment in the Organisa' 

 tion of Working-class Education. By H. 0. Meredith, M,A. 



The Association was founded in 1903 to organise the advanced education of 

 working men. Preparatory work — conferences and the like — occupied the first two 

 years of its existence, but in the winter of 1905-6 it had some twelve local 

 associations at work, with prospect of many more to follow. 



Among the difficulties of the Association may be noted that of constructing 

 courses of study which shall be within the powers and leisure of the mass of wage- 



