Motives for Cultivation of Physical Powers
Recent educational practice has laid great emphasis on the cultivation of children’s physical natures as well as their mental powers. This new emphasis on physical training is due in part to a recognition of the wisdom of extending education so as to include all sides of the individual. It is due in part also to the conviction that the only way to deal successfully with the ordinary work of the classroom is to provide the kind of change and relief which comes from physical exercise. Regular opportunities for play are accordingly provided in the schools of to-day, and an elaborate system of physical supervision is being developed in all the leading school systems. Some review of these movements will be appropriate by way of supplement to the general survey in earlier chapters of the activities of the school system.