The Educational Writings of Richard MulcasterMulcaster, Richard
History
The Educational Writings of Richard Mulcaster
Mulcaster, Richard
Education -- History
[Mulcaster gives a list of the forms of exercise which he thinks
most suitable, both for indoors, and for out of doors. In the
former class are--speaking and reading aloud, singing, laughing,
weeping, holding the breath, dancing, wrestling, fencing, and
whipping the top; in the latter are--walking, running, leaping,
swimming, riding, hunting, shooting, and playing at ball. These
of course are not all considered suitable for children, but a
selection could be made from them to be practised in school under
the regulation of the master. He then enters upon a detailed
and curious examination of the value of each of these forms of
exercise, considered mainly in regard to their physiological
effects. In all this it has been pointed out by Schmidt
(_Geschichte der Erziehung_, Vol. III., Pt. I, pp. 374-6) that
Mulcaster followed closely, though without special acknowledgment,
the _De Arte Gymnastica_ of Girolamo Mercuriale, a contemporary
Italian physician. As the science is mostly of the traditional
and somewhat fantastic character then prevalent, the discussion
is not particularly profitable from a modern standpoint. It will
be interesting, however, as an illustration of his treatment, to
see how he deals with a game that seems to have had much the same
features in his day as in ours.]
Football as a Form of Exercise.
Football could not possibly have held its present prominence, nor
have been so much in vogue as it is everywhere, if it had not been
very beneficial to health and strength. To me the abuse of it is
a sufficient argument that it has a right use, though as it is
now commonly practised, with thronging of a rude multitude, with
bursting of shins and breaking of legs, it is neither civilised,
nor worthy the name of any healthy training. And here one can
easily see the use of the training master, for if there is some
one standing by, who can judge of the play, and is put in control
over the players, all these objections can be easily removed.
By such regulation, the players being put into smaller numbers,
sorted into sides and given their special positions, so that
they do not meet with their bodies so boisterously to try their
strength, nor shoulder and shove one another so barbarously,
football may strengthen the muscles of the whole body. By provoking
superfluities downwards it relieves the head and the upper parts,
it is good for the bowels, and it drives down the stone and gravel
from the bladder and the kidneys. The motion also helps weak hams
and slender shanks by making the flesh firmer, yet rash running
and too much violence often break some internal conduit and cause
ruptures.
Is Education to be offered to both Sexes?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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