Let us commence at the foundation, in the Primary Schools.
The moment the child enters the school care should be taken that the mental exercises which are given should be relieved by frequent intermissions for running and playing, under the supervision of the teacher. This we are glad to say is the case in very many of our best primary schools; but it is when the child becomes more advanced, when there are lessons to commit to memory at home, that some simple physical exercises should be taught him every day; exercises calculated to develop the growth and expand the muscles. The calisthenics recommended in Miss Beecher’s work are excellent, simple, and easily fitted to the limits of the school house. The report of Mr. W. H. Wells, Superintendent of Public Schools for Chicago, for 1860, gives some interesting particulars of simple exercises which have been attempted in that city.
There would be but little difficulty experienced in selecting movements and gymnastics suitable for the strength and ability of the classes of younger boys, and girls under instruction, provided the method was established as an imperative duty which must be regularly put in practice, and that no lack of interest on the part of teachers, or laziness of the pupils would be accepted as an excuse for non-compliance with the regulation. We trust if Physical Training is carried out in our system of education, that a carefully prepared Manual of all kinds of exercises, embracing the military drill, will be compiled for the use of schools; in a word, a text-book to which our teachers can turn with confidence to find exercises suitable for all classes of pupils.[26]
From the Girls and Primary, we pass to the Boys Grammar departments, for which we propose military exercises, as being the most economical and advantageous for public schools; for tactics manœuvre large bodies in a small space, in an orderly manner, whereas gymnasiums are too expensive, and can not be made large enough to accommodate many scholars at once. This opens to us our most difficult, but at the same time most useful, field for prompt and energetic action.
Suppose we take for an example one of our large cities. The lower and female departments having simple physical exercises in use, it is wished to introduce military exercises into the grammar schools. Let us see how simply it can be organized, and how far it is possible to extend these studies if desired.
The following interesting letter from the Mayor of Bangor, will show the movement in that city, an example well worthy of being imitated.
City of Bangor,
Mayor’s Office, Dec. 21st, 1861.
Dear Sir:—In reply to yours of the 19th inst., I would say that, upon my recommendation, through a communication I made to our City Council, on the first Monday of the present month, an Order was passed directing the military drill to be introduced into a portion of the Public Schools of this city.
I had given the subject some thought and investigation, and was prepared to recommend the adoption of the drill for the physical training, no less than for the military instruction it might impart. The prevalent idea that education consists in training the intellect only, is gradually becoming superseded by the more rational theory that true education consists in training the moral and physical, no less than the intellectual faculties.
For the physical training of boys, I think the military drill has much to recommend it besides the military instruction it imparts. It will tend to give them a better command of their muscles, and impart a manly gait and bearing. It will also, if properly conducted, teach them self-control, and give them true ideas of order, discipline, and subordination, and whilst it will relieve them from the monotony of their ordinary studies will, by a grateful change, enable them to return to them with renewed interest.