OCR Text |
Show H GYMNASIUM FOR OGDEN HIGH SCHOOL. H An interesting article in a recent issue of the "World's Work" H calls attention to the notable achievements of the past decade. Prom- H ( inent among, these is the achievement made in the elimination of M ' disease and in the diminution .of human suffering. Any discovery Hj that tends to prolong life and strength, and to increase happiness H and well-being pricks the minds of all of us to attention. In tho H marvelous pace which the past century set, no one human being, no H matter how wise, could keep in balance all the new interests which H came to enrich mankind. In the industrial development of our na- H tion, of all nations, some matters must necssarily lose the emphasis Hl duo them. 1 Among these was the matter of the physical well-being of the H individual member of society. Our schools flourished, we rivaled in H college and university the institutions of the Old World, and we H imitated them in curriculum.. Suddenly it came to the minds of 1 some educators that we had dropped something from the very old- H time curriculum that was the most important of all. The old Greek H school was first a gymnasium, a place to train the body and also the H mind. But of first importance was the physical training. What H was the value "of learning in a weak and suffering body? But for H many years, many centuries even, this point of view was lost. "Never H mind the body," thought the old schoolmen, "it is a despicable H thing. Let us chastise the flesh for its sins and look only towards H the spiritual." H Today, at last, we have begun to try to save for the future gen- H erations the good of all the past civilizations, and we see where the j schoolmen were wrong and where the Greeks werc right, and we are H I trying to unite the wisdom of both. Not yet, however, has physical 1 education come to take its relative position of importance. Side H by side with every school of the nation should stand its gymnasium B where the children and young people of the land should learn the M vital truths of right living, of hygiene, and physical morality. H i A cIean strong body means a healthy, normal brain and mind. H Bys and girls who are well and strong turn naturally to good, H wholesome pleasures. A clean, strong body and an unclean, filthy i mind are a paradox; an untrained body, weak and sickly, and a Hl slow, weak mind are natural concomitants. Hi , 0f course, there is always outdoor exercise. For boys there is M a natural impulse to activity. But exercise without intelligent guid- M j ance does not So far enough. The weak boy who needs development H ( in some particular way may overdo and injure himself permanently, M , when, with skilled supervision, he might overcome the weakness and j I become a strong, able-bodied man. As forthe girl, at the age when H I she needs wisdom in the choice and amount of her exercise, she gen- H erally ceases t0 take any active exercise whatever, and so becomes H ' ' permanently a weakling and a semi-invalid for the 'remainder of her H lifc- The proportion of women and girls who are well and strong Hl ' makes an alarming statistic. H ' AU over tho country the interest in athletics and in preventive MIM rather than curative treatment in medicine is awakening Let us Hj get in line here in the west and begin in the right way. Let us H provide for the physical education of the young people of Utah of M Ogden. What is the particular means? Why, let us help to create MM a demand for a gymnasium for our public high school. The demand MH as a matter of fact, already exists, but it comes from the boys and girls H only. Mothers and fathers have not yet thoroughly appreciated MH what a gymnasium would mean for their children. We wish here H , to arouse the interest of all parentB, to ask them if they do not real- MM ize what good would come to them individually if their boys and their H girls were thus trained to health and strength and moral cleanliness M j 'and to ask their co-operation and enthusiasm for this work H ' , W? e bard f edncation furnish the High school with a fryni. j ( 'rfnasiunx? e,y |