One exercise which will give permanent strength, which will build up healthy bodies for girls and ultimately for women, is the swimming bath, which brings into play all the muscles of the body; another is the gymnastic class, where, in suitable dresses and under the direction of competent instructors, exercises fitted for the strength of girls are set for them to do; and a third is the playground, where such games as fives, rackets, and lawn tennis give amusement and ample exercise. The benefits arising from trained muscular activity are not confined to development of the muscles of the arms and legs, but all the functions of nutrition of the body are helped to become effective by means of exercise. Much of the weakness and suffering of women would be spared if early physical training had been allowed to them.
Punishments.—Such brutal punishments as boxing the ears, pulling the ears, knocking heads together, rapping knuckles with rulers, &c., belong to a past ignorant age. For corporal punishment nature has provided a muscular cushion on which the cane may be applied without fear of serious consequences. “Impositions” mean ruin to the handwriting, and being closeted in the foul air of the class-rooms during hours that ought to be spent in getting fresh air. Double tasks are a still worse form of the same evil. The plan of “keeping in” boys for breaches of school discipline is objectionable, and it is infinitely better to require some loss of recreation time in more healthy ways. In large public schools, where the drill-sergeant is an institution, there will probably be found no more efficacious mode of dealing with forgetfulness and petty turbulences than by calling in the aid of this functionary, who exercises a wholesome influence over the boys, and inflicts punishments without impairing their physical condition in any way, while at the same time lending “tone” to their bodily exercises.
Foreign Schools.—The only good to be gained by sending children to foreign schools is acquiring facility in speaking foreign languages, with more chance of good accent than can be usually gained at home. Against this there are many things to set off; and even this advantage itself is often rendered nugatory by one or two circumstances. In a school where there are many English children there is very often as much English spoken as French or German—there are schools in which an idle child might speak English all day long, and in which the well-paying “Anglais” is not brought too sharply to task for faults of omission. Again, the acquisition of good accent is a matter of ear, and no amount of hearing others speak well will make a child who has no imitative power reproduce an accent with purity. Scotch or Irish children in English schools do not always lose their distinctive accent, nor do Lancashire and Yorkshire tongues always lose their special characteristics. The advantages of foreign schools are thus shown to be less than they at first seem to be.
But there are also positive disadvantages; and one of the most evident and most disastrous in its results, as far as the health is concerned, is that, in matters of food and of arrangements conducive to health, the ways of foreigners are not our ways. English children, brought up to the age of 15 or 16 upon English meat and bread, with plenty of both, cannot accommodate themselves to the diet which suffices for Frenchmen or Germans; and English children in foreign schools not unfrequently know what it is to be hungry from sheer inability to obtain a sufficiently nutritive meal. Many instances have occurred in which long and troublesome illnesses have been distinctly traceable to living in schools abroad, and others in which a life has been cut short through the same agency.
A few words must be said as to the comparative uncertainty regarding the kind of agencies which may be brought to bear in the moral training of a girl, and the little power which a parent has of ascertaining the real nature of these in a foreign, especially a French school. Nor again, is it to be forgotten that, for those parents who are desirous that their children should receive religious training, and should not lose their hold of home habits in that important matter, there are innumerable anxieties in store in sending children abroad.
For those who desire to give their children the advantages of foreign education, there are only two really good courses open. One of these is to establish the home abroad for a certain time. In that case the children are under home influence as to training, are under home care as to food, cleanliness, and personal habits, and do not form a set of associations distinct from those of other members of the family. If the family life is considered important, and if it is desired that the children should early acquire a knowledge of foreign languages, this is the most advisable plan. In case this is not possible, it would be advisable to postpone the foreign residence until girls have reached maturer years—till they have sense to look after themselves, and until their characters are somewhat formed. There would be then the additional advantage that home ties would be strong enough to resist the weakening influence of living apart from the rest of the family, the foundations of a good English education (too often entirely neglected in the cases of those reared in foreign schools) might have been securely laid; and, what is perhaps not the least recommendation, the children themselves would have their minds more advanced, and would be more intelligent and ready recipients of the instruction given to them. (Queen.)
Supplementary Literature.
John H. Howard: ‘Gymnasts and Gymnastics.’ London, 1873.
C. Löfving: ‘Home Gymnastics, for the preservation and restoration of health in children and young and old people of both sexes, with a short method of acquiring the art of Swimming.’ London, 1883. 1s.