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Show n I FEB S3 1 1898 library. UNIVERSITY Or UTAH. THE VIE Official Organ of the Utah Federation of Womens Clubs. PRICE FIVE OEUT8. $1.00 PBB YEAB. YOL. SALT LAKE III. PHYSICflU EDUCATION. ALTA WIGGINS. The intrinsic value, as well as the absolute necessity of physical training as a part of the public school curriculum is becoming more generally recognized. The folly of an educational system which cultivates with absolute preference the mental faculties, and totally neglects the physical development, is now comparatively well understood, and measures are being taken to repair the loss occasioned by the neglect. All of the best schools of our own country, as well as those of European countries, have established this department as fundamental. Germany has a national law enforcing daily physical exercise in all her common schools. Perhaps America, in time, may follow Ohio has already her example. passed a similar law affecting cities of a certain size, and sees no reason to regret it. Pennsylvania and Rhode Island are making an effort in the same direction. Wisconsin has just defeated a law of this kind but such things die hard. As early as 1825, Daniel Webster writes to a prominent The need of educator of that day: the age was knowledge and refinement the need of our age is health and sanity, cool head and If this were true good digestion. seventy years ago, it is alarmingly true -- pre-scientif- ic now. We know that not one adult person in twenty-fiv- e can be said to be in Oil Y, FEBRUARY 19, 1898. perfect health, and there are many reasons for it. At the present time there is a growing demand for one skilled in some particular thing, resulting in the over development of some parts and lack of development of others. Some kinds of employment require muscular force, some rapidity, some skill, and some kinds of labor do not develop us either physically or mentally. The man who sits all day long receiving the tickets on an elevated railroad, is a fine example of this class. What occupation can we think of that gives an equal amount of play to all the principal muscles ? Tne influences of city life, and even to town life, are plainly detrimental r physical development. Think of the ravages that city life makes upon the physical constitution of the boys and girls of our schools. Thinking of these things, do we not see that we have in this question of physical train ing about the most important question that could interest us? Not merely as parents and teachers, but as citizens of our country, and as men and women of our race. Physical education means to some minds exclusively the education of the physical, while in reality it is much more comprehensive than that, and means the education of the physical in relation to the complete education. But if the loftiest aim were simply physical health, grace, strength, skill or symmetry of figure, would we not be justified in giving it at least a part of our best efforts? NO. 7. There has been much agitation and discussion of this most important branch. Mary crude and short lived experiments have been factors in the American physical educational move- ment heretofore. But there are gleams of promise in the sky, and the very fact that our National Educa- tional Association has made physical training one of its departments is most significant and encouraging. It has come to stay, and the thoughtful investigator of educational advances looks upon the cause no longer as a fad or a luxury, but as a necessity. It has grown to mean more than fancy exhibition drills, cheese muslin dresses, Greek sandals and artistic posing. (This is not a depreciation of the aesthetic, for the aesthetic undeniably has its place.) The time was when to be a teacher of gymnastics one needed only to know certain mechanical possibilities of the body just able to direct certain movements to be made with the arms, legs, trunk, etc., but that time is rapidly passing, if not already past. There is a growing scientific spirit in matters of physical training. The critics of educational aims and methods are abroad in the land, and the recognized systems of physical education are being severely measured and tested by all the laws of anatomy, physiology, philosophy, psychology and pedais now being gogy. Discrimination made between what is shadow and what is substance. The public too art beginning to ask for results they ) Ten Thousand Yards Mill Remnants of Peracles, Light Outing Flannels, Figured Satines, and White Goods at Less than Factory Prices. . OPPOSITE POSTOFFICE. NEW YORK CASH |