Teachers can by a little effort gain the knowledge requisite properly to instruct their pupils in a few systematic exercises. Gratifying results will follow just as the teacher and pupils evince interest and judgment in the work. It is found by experience that pupils are not only quick to learn, but look forward eagerly to the physical exercises as an interesting change from the routine of school life. There should be a stated time for these school exercises, as for any other duty. There can be practiced in the schoolroom a great variety of interesting and useful exercises, which call for little or no expense for apparatus. Such exercises should no more interfere with the children’s usual games than any other study does. Under no circumstances should the play hours be curtailed. 95. Physical Exercises in School. Physical exercises of some sort, then, should be provided for pupils in our schools, especially in large towns and cities, where there is little opportunity for outdoor games, and they should form a part of the regular course of study. The object should be the promotion of sound health rather than the development of muscle, or performing feats of agility or strength. Exercises with dumb-bells and wands, or even without any apparatus, practiced a few times a day, for five minutes at a time, do a great deal of good. They relax the tension of body and mind, and introduce an element of pleasure into the routine of school life. They increase the breathing power and quicken the action of the heart. Illustration: Fig. 44.—Physical Exercises as carried on in Schools. (From photographs.) Note. “In early boyhood and youth nothing can replace the active sports so much enjoyed at this period; and while no needless restrictions should be placed upon them, consideration should be paid to the amount, and especially to the character, of the games pursued by delicate youth. For these it would be better to develop the weakened parts by means of systematic physical exercises and by lighter sports.”—Dr. John M. Keating on “Physical Development” in Pepper’s _Cyclopædia of the Diseases of Children_. If vigorously and systematically carried out, these exercises invigorate all the tissues and organs of the body, and stimulate them to renewed activity. They serve to offset the lack of proper ventilation, faulty positions at the desks, and the prolonged inaction of the muscles. To secure the greatest benefit from physical training in school, it is important that the pupils be interested in these exercises, and consider them a recreation, and not a task[14].