A Lecture on Physical Development, and its Relations to Mental and Spiritual Development, delivered before the American Institute of Instruction, at their Twenty-Ninth Annual Meeting, in Norwich, Conn., August 20, 1858 — John Shaqi
A Lecture on Physical Development, and its Relations to Mental and Spiritual Development, delivered before the American Institute of Instruction, at their Twenty-Ninth Annual Meeting, in Norwich, Conn., August 20, 1858Calthrop, S. R. (Samuel Robert)
Science
A Lecture on Physical Development, and its Relations to Mental and Spiritual Development, delivered before the American Institute of Instruction, at their Twenty-Ninth Annual Meeting, in Norwich, Conn., August 20, 1858
Calthrop, S. R. (Samuel Robert)
Physical education and training
The sporting world, then, with its manly games and manly sports, gives
us the means which are needed by the community at large for physical
education; and the future educators of the country must be taught to
love these manly games at school and at college, and then they will be
able to disseminate them; whereas, at present, educators in this country
are almost entirely ignorant of any manly games whatever. "But are not
these games very dangerous," asks a careful mamma; "don't you find that
boys get hurt very much by them? I have heard of some one who got his
teeth knocked down his throat by them. Somebody else got his head hurt
at shinney and so that was put a stop to, I believe, at Mr.----'s
school." Such mammas, doubtless, put into the hands of their children
some good little book, with a narration of this sort. Little Johnny was
told by his mamma not to climb trees. He was a good boy, and generally
obedient. But one day he was in the garden of one of his schoolfellows,
who asked him to climb a cherry tree; he forgot his mother's command,
and went up, but after he had climbed nearly to the top his foot
slipped, and down he tumbled through the branches on to the ground. He
cried very much, and could not move, so they had to put him upon a
shutter and carry him home. The doctor found that his leg was broken;
the pain was dreadful when he had it set, &c. &c.; the drama ending by
Johnny throwing his arms round his mother's neck, and declaring that if
he ever got well, he would never disobey his dear, dear mother any more!
The good people who write these edifying stories never seem to think
whether it was wise for mamma to forbid Johnny to climb a tree. Monkeys
are never forbidden to do so, and I seldom hear anything of their
falling off. Poor people's children climb trees, and there does not seem
to be an extraordinary increase of juvenile mortality on this account.
What should you say if some hard-hearted person, myself for instance,
were to say to the dear mother of little Johnny, "Dear Madam, you
yourself, I grieve to say, were the cause of Johnny's accident; you have
habitually prevented him from doing anything which would quicken his
perceptions and strengthen his limbs. He must not soil his pinafore, he
must not get his hands dirty, and above all he must not play at any
games which make his hair untidy, or tear his clothes. In fact, you have
forbidden him to do precisely those things which Nature prompted him to
do. He has generally been very obedient, you say, and therefore his
bodily powers have become weaker instead of stronger. Well, the
temptation came, the unused and untrustworthy limbs were summoned to
act, his consciousness of doing wrong enfeebled him still further, and
made them still more nervous. He went up the tree, and the natural
consequence was, that he fell."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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