The Physical Training of ChildrenChavasse, Pye Henry
Science
The Physical Training of Children
Chavasse, Pye Henry
Child care; Children -- Health and hygiene
A little warm water might at first, and during the winter time, be
added, to take off the chill; but the sooner quite cold water is used
the better. The body ought to be quickly dried (taking care to wipe
between each toe), first with the diaper, and then with the Turkish
rubber. In drying your back and loins, you ought to throw, as you would
a skipping-rope, the Turkish rubber over your shoulders, and move it a
few times from side to side, until the parts be dry.
Although the above description is necessarily prolix, the washing itself
ought to be very expeditiously performed; there should be no dawdling
over it, otherwise the body will become chilled, and harm instead of
good will be the result. If due dispatch be used, the whole of the body
might, according to the above method, be thoroughly washed and dried in
the space of ten minutes.
A boy ought to wash his head, as above directed, every morning, a girl,
who has much hair, once a week, with soap and water, with flannel and
sponge. The hair, if not frequently washed, is very dirty, and nothing
is more repulsive than a dirty head!
It might be said, “Why do you go into particulars? why dwell so much
upon minutiæ? Every one, without being told, knows how to wash himself!”
I reply, “That very few people do know how to wash themselves properly;
it is a misfortune they do not—they would be both much healthier and
happier if they did!”
303. _Have you any remarks to make on boys and girls learning to swim?_
Let me strongly urge you to let your sons and daughters be _early_
taught to swim. Swimming is a glorious exercise—one of the best that can
be taken; it expands the chest; it promotes digestion; it develops the
muscles, and brings into action some muscles that in any other form of
exercise are but seldom brought into play; it strengthens and braces the
whole frame, and thus makes the swimmer resist the liability of catching
colds; it gives both boys and girls courage, energy, and
self-reliance,—splendid qualities in this rough world of ours. Swimming
is oftentimes the means of saving human life; this of itself would be a
great recommendation of its value. It is a delightful amusement; to
breast the waves is as exhilarating to the spirits as clearing on
horseback a five-barred gate.
The art of learning to swim is quite as necessary to be learned by a
girl as by a boy; the former has similar muscles, lungs, and other
organs to develop as the latter. It is very desirable that in large
towns swimming-baths for ladies should be instituted.
Swimming ought, then, to be a part and parcel of the education of every
boy and of every girl.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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