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The German System
A paper written by Heinrich Metzner of
the New York German Turnverein and read by Mr. Carl Eberhard, Superintendent of
the Boston Athletic Club Gymnasium
The desire to improve
or to attain a higher standard in culture and civilization, natural to almost
every human being, is the cause of all education, its aim is the perfection of
mankind, and its means are the gradual development of all faculties, mental and
physical, by instruction, example and exercise.
Education should therefore strive to avoid a partial or
one-sided development by preferring either body or mind at the expense of the
other, or to strain any one faculty to great proficiency and thus destroy and
disturb the harmonies activity and co-operation of both mind and body.
This maxim, however old and often demonstrated, has not yet
gained that public recognition which is necessary to secure its practical
application in the schools of this country.
As gymnastic exercises, we denote all bodily exercises and movements
produced by the controllable muscles with consciousness and intention, for the purpose
of developing all bodily faculties in an agreeable manner, and at the same time
of bringing out all those qualities which are the natural result of health and
strength; namely, courage, self-reliance, and joyfulness.
A gymnastic system we may call the scientific combination of
the gymnastic exercises, based on physiological laws, their classification, and
the instruction of their practical application.
A method is the application suiting the different wants as to sex, age, bodily
condition, and health.
The system is based upon the knowledge of the human body, its
divers organs, their relative functions, and of the laws of anatomy and
physiology. The method is the result of practical experience.
The German system gymnastics ranks high among all the
different systems known. It is not an experience of late years, like so
many others which have been put forward with great promises and pretensions by
their inventors, in order to meet the want of bodily training in our present
school education, which, however, have been laid aside again after a short trial
on account of their insufficiency. the German system has been diligently
built up during almost a century by men of science, especially physicians,
physiologists, and pedagogues of high reputation. It is in practical use
since that time, and is to-day in vogue in many European countries, in a more or
less modified form. In the army, as military gymnastics; in the education
of our youth, as school gymnastics; in the halls of the German turners, as
popular gymnastics.
It is practices in classes by hundreds at the same time, as
well as by single individuals as home exercises.
The German system embraces all the different branches of
gymnastics: exercises with apparatus, light gymnastics or calisthenics, and also
all those exercises known as out-door sports, as running, leaping, jumping,
throwing, the stone and the use of all hand-apparatus, as wands, dumbbells, and
clubs.
The German system has three marked features which no other
system can claim in so predominant a manner.
I. It aims at general physical culture, and not at the
culture of one special branch. Therefore it declines the development of a
certain organ or faculty at the expense of others. In regard to this we
may call attention to the fact that all who have gone through a regular course
of exercises in accord with this system have been thoroughly developed, and rank
as high in proficiency as any person educated in another system. The
contest among the turners are thus arranged, that exercises in all the different
branches must be performed. This is also the case when testing scholars in
regard to their proficiency. The numbers gained, added together, decide
the grade of development. The strife for specialties is even not permitted,
and a partial or one-sided development is therefore unknown. Yet this does
not prevent individual skill and inclination form bringing about a greater
result in a certain branch; this result, however is not gained by a loss or lack
of any other branch.
II. It allows, or rather, induces the exercises in
classes. The classes are selected by a careful investigation as to
strength, ability, age, etc., and for that reason it suits as ell those who practice
merely for physical development as those who aim at a proficiency of a higher
grade. The exercise in classes are a source of endless pleasure,
refreshment of mind, and joyfulness not only to children, but even to
adults, They desire to keep step with other scholars. They act as a
stimulant for greater exertion. It is an undeniable truth that all those
who have continually practiced in a German gymnasium, or in a school in which
the German system of gymnastics has been introduced, acknowledge that the hours
spent there count among the happiest of their childhood or manhood. The
variety and great number of exercises of the German system and their scientific
arrangement allow new and indefinite combinations. The teacher can always
select a certain number of exercises suitable for his class which are as
agreeable as instructive and interesting to every one of the classmates.
Not only the body, but also the mind is kept in a wholesome and refreshing
activity which will keep away all weariness and tediousness which are so often
found in other systems. The class exercises of the German system
allow also the instruction of a large number at the same time, providing
sufficient room is at hand.
III. The instruction begins with the most simple and easy movements and
proceeds gradually to a higher degree. All fear of danger or harm to the
body is a priora excluded. The apparatus used in school practice is
not at all complicated or expensive. A number of climbing poles, ladders,
and some light apparatus for the high and long leap are sufficient. They
may even be omitted altogether if the necessary room for such could not be
provided for. In this case, however, we cannot call the training a
complete one, as the aim of training is not only the achievement of a
development of muscles, limbs and organs, but also the achievement of courage
and self-reliance. It is a fact that many a man or woman could have
avoided danger or saved their lives had they been courageous or resolute enough
to risk a leap or to take hold of a ladder in a moment of need.
The great variety of useful exercises that may be made with
the above-named apparatus, together with the utilization of the almost endless variety
of simple and complicated free exercises, with or without the common
hand-apparatus, as wands, dumbbells, clubs, etc., which may be executed in the
schoolroom, bring about as satisfactory results as any other system. In
addition to this we may proudly assert that its scientific and educational value
has met with approval wherever it was allowed a fair trial. And we also
may assert that no other system has so large a variety of exercises and
combinations as this. And for that reason alone it is more qualified for introduction
wherever gymnastic exercises are wanted, especially in the schools.
The German system is not in vogue only in the halls of the
turners and their schools. It has already gained its ground in some of the
colleges and athletic clubs, in private and in public schools, where teachers
educated in the seminary of the North-American Turnerbund act as instructors.
The German system does not claim to have any special exercise
of its own, or to be the sole proprietor of any, that no other system may also
produce; no. But it may properly claim that is has correctly and practically
arranged the gymnastic material for the use of any one who seeks health,
strength, or refreshment of mind and body.
In the German gymnasia and schools the lessons begin
regularly with a series of free and order exercises. Every scholar has to
participate in them. The rhythmical order in which they are produced calls
forth absolute attention, and allows no backwardness. They impress on each
a feeling of responsibility toward his associates. The mistakes or errors,
or an insufficient execution of any one, injures the impression of the whole,
and thus tends to greater carefulness and prevents negligence on the part of the
scholar.
Class exercises on apparatus follow the free exercises.
A change of apparatus takes place, and then the lesson ends with some exercises
left to individual inclination. The latter, however, are limited to a
short time according to the ability of the scholars, or may be prohibited altogether
to beginners. Thus liveliness is exhibited, which the educator will look
upon with satisfaction and delight.
In consideration of the above-stated facts a careful
examination and a fair trial of the German system of gymnastics, free of all
prejudice, may properly be demanded when the question is practically to be
decided which of the different systems is best apt to be adopted in the
programme of our public schools. The German system has not been influenced
by any other. Since the days of Guts-Muths, Jahn, and Eiselen, the
founders of German gymnastics, and Adolph Spiess, the founder of the elaborate
structure of school gymnastics, it has had material enough to give freely from
its wealth to other systems, and many of the latter boast features of German
origin. May the decision of the question be based on a fair and close
examination. Neither this paper, which states but a few points of merit of
the German system, nor a short exhibition of exercises by scholars is sufficient
to show the educational value of it.
But whatever the result of this agitation may be, let us hope
that wise and cautious observation and study, uninfluenced by prejudgment or
prejudice, will bring about the decision.
Allow me to close this brief sketch with the remarks of Dr.
Edward Mussey Hartwell of Johns Hopkins University in the "Circular of
Information," written in 1885 for the National Bureau of Education.
He writes: "If physical training should ever be pursued
intelligently an systematically in the schools of any American state or city,
many of the same problems with which the educational authorities in Germany,
Switzerland, Sweden, and France have been so deeply engaged inevitably present
themselves." I am far from thinking that such problems can be satisfactorily
solved by the attempted introduction of any unmodified foreign system of
gymnastics or athletics. But I am firmly convinced that whoever may
be impelled or called upon to attempt to provide an adequate remedy for the
present lamentable neglect of physical training in American schools and colleges
can readily save money, time, time and trouble if they will but study the German
system of turning; "for there can be no doubt," to borrow the words of
Professor Du Bois-Reymond, "that German turning, in its wise mingling of
theory and practice, exhibits the happiest, yes, the most adequate solution of
the great problem with which pedagogues have been busy since Rousseau,--a truth
which, after a short obscurity, is now hardly contested, but the physiological
principle of which a few are beginning to understand." Discussion
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Dr. William T. Harris, LL.D., United
States Commissioner of Education
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Edwin P. Seaver, Superintendent of
Public Schools, Boston
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Edward Mussey Hartwell, Ph.D.,
M.D.,
Associate in Physical Training and Director of the Gymnasium, in the Johns
Hopkins University, Baltimore
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Edward
Hithcock, M.D. Formerly of Amherst College.
Dr. Harris--the German movement is a
movement which looks most to the conscious development of the muscles through
the will. Over against it stands the English system of developing muscle unconsciously
by athletic sports. I suppose we shall have the distinction between these
two principles presented, and I hope their claims may be adjusted. It is
an important question to decide whether we should make physical training a
matter of special effort of the will, subordinating the will of the pupil to the
will of the instructor, or whether we shall seek such physical training in free
play from games. That is indeed the chief practical subject that we have
before us now. I suppose that every one acquainted with medicine knows
that physical training by the exercise of the will, instead of re-enforcing the
vital processes, may thwart them and inure them. I know of chronic
cases of dyspepsia, for example, that have never been cured by gymnastics; but
there are certain kinds of voluntary and involuntary movements that certainly
help digestion. It is known that horseback riding is beneficial, a
favorable reaction being caused by the jolting movement of the horse. This
is supposed to be especially a kind of exercise that helps the healthy action of
vital organs. Some have contended that it is the best exercise for consumptive
people. I call attention to this, not to indorse the theory, but to
indicate one of the trends which I hope the debate will take. I call first
on Dr. Hall of Baltimore. Dr.
Hall begged to be excused till after the paper on the Swedish system should be
read, as that was the system in use in Baltimore. The
President called on Mr. E. P. Seaver, Superintendent of Schools in Boston. Mr.
Seaver--I came here to learn. I freely confess that I know very little about
this subject, and it would be a piece of presumption on my part to occupy the
time. I will make one request, however, for further light. Dr.
Hartwell, in his very interesting paper, quoted come well-known medical writers,
and he mentioned one book from which, if I understood him aright, something
might be learned about the proper classification of the nerve-centres and about
the proper kinds of exercise to be applied to bring these centres into full development
and activity. My hope was that before that paper was concluded we should
have from him a little information as to the literature on the subject, so that
laymen like myself and pedagogues like myself might be able to make up the
deficiencies of our knowledge by reading as well as by listening to papers. Dr.
Hartwell--I am sorry to say that the literature in English upon systematic
physical education is not very voluminous or satisfactory. The German and
Swedish systems, although springing out of the exercises of the Turnvereines,
have been moulded and built up as the result of a good deal of thought and
effort on the part of educators and scientific men. the German system owed
its start as popular gymnastics chiefly to the work of "Father Jahn,"
as he was called. he conceived the idea of using physical training as a means
of bettering the youth of the nation, and making them strong, courageous, and
able defenders of their country at the time of Prussia's deepest humiliation and
trial. Before Jahn came Guts-Muths, who, enamoured of the Greek
gymnastics, began writing about gymnastics for school about a hundred years
ago. He taught gymnastics for many years in Salzmann's Philanthropium in
Schepfenthal.
But the gymnastic movement under Jahn was the first of a
political rather than of a pedagogical character; and when the war of liberation
came in 1813, the Turners were found, almost to a man, in the ranks of those who
broke the Napoleonic yoke. that gave great popularity of the exercises,
and paved the way for school gymnastics. the ideas and methods of Jahn
still survive in many of the exercises use by popular societies known as
Turnvereine. the consolidated Turnvereine constitute the organization
known as the Deutsche Turnerschaft, which numbers between four and five thousand
gymnastic societies in Germany and Austria, and has a membership of nearly four hundred
thousand. The principle of the Jahn turning was the doing the best one can
according to bodily ability, under the lead of amore accomplished gymnast called
a "Vorturner." It became necessary, later, to modify the methods
of popular gymnastics in order to meet the more formal methods of school
training. that was accomplished chiefly by Adolph Spiess, who was, like Jahn,
a school teacher, but, unlike Jahn, not a popular agitator. Spiess wrote an
elaborate book on the subject of school gymnastics. Jahn's book, or a portions
of it, was translated into English by Dr. Beck, one of his students. the
translation was published in about 1828, in Northampton, Mass., when dr. Beck
was a teacher in the famous Round Hill School. Most the German literature
on this subject has not been translated. the same may be said of the
Swedish literature. There are gooks enough on all branches of gymnastics in both
of those languages, and in each of them you may find periodicals devoted to the interest
of school gymnastics.
The physiological effects of exercise to which I have
referred with most emphasis in my paper, are generally not touched upon in the
hand-books put into hands of medical students and the teachers of Turning,
whether those hand-books be printed in German, Swedish, or English. It is
only the scattered writings of specialists that you will find anything
approaching to an adequate exposition of the effects of muscular exercise upon
the nervous system. In Ross's "Diseases of the Nervous System"
the difference between the fundamental and accessory parts of the nervous system
is clearly set forth, and the proper order to be followed in their training is
alluded to. In "The book of Health," edited by Malcom Morris,
and published by Cassell & Company, you will find a valuable and original article
by J. Crichton-Browne on "The Nervous System in its Relation to
Education." The best general exposition of the whole subject is that
given by Professor Du Bois-Reymond of the University of Berlin, in his
"Physiology of Exercise," which appeared three or four years ago, in
translated form, in the "Popular Science Monthly." But the
criticism of gymnastic methods, German or Swedish, in just the light I have
presented this morning, I do not think is to be found in any of the ordinary
books. Certainly it is not in Maclaren's "Training in Theory and
practice," or the ordinary American and English text-books on physiology.
A good deal more than is given in Mr. Metzner's paper could
be brought out in regard to the German system. the first attempt to
introduce gymnastic training into this country was bade by Dr. Beck and Dr.
Follen, who had been friends and pupils of Jahn. the attempt was made in
1825, at the round Hill school at Northampton, where Beck and Follen were
teachers. But the inducements for them to become professors at Harvard
College were greater than to engage in any crusade for gymnastics.
gymnastics apparatus of the German sort was put up on various college greens,
and there was an enthusiastic outburst in schools and academies in favor of
physical training. The interest was but superficial and shortlived.
When the machines grew old or became warped by exposure to the weather, they
were not renewed, and the interest died out. there were some doctors in
Boston then who exerted themselves in behalf of gymnastic training. Dr.
John C. warren was the President of the Tremont Gymnasium, the first gymnasium
of any size started in this country. That was in 1826, I believe. It
is interesting to note that they made an attempt to get Jahn to come over and
take charge of it. He was then in exile from the capitol, and in political
disgrace. Failing to secure him, they did secure Dr. Francis Lieber, the jurist
and publicist of later days, who came to this country to teach swimming and
gymnastics here in Boston. He took charge of the Tremont Gymnasium for
awhile; but that gymnasium finally died a natural death, and Dr. Lieber's fame
rests in his career as a publicist, not as a gymnasiarch. A large number
of gentlemen, however, experienced benefit from that gymnasium,--men like Dr.
Francis Gardner, Dr. John Reynolds, and others. It is also interesting to
note that Father Jahn's son has lived for many years in Baltimore, and that the
son of the latter is now one of the special teachers of gymnastics in the
Chicago public schools. The grandson was adopted by the North-American
Turnbund, and very largely educated at its expense.
A dozen years or so ago efforts were made to provide physical
training for the boys in the Boston Latin School. Doubtless these efforts
were due, in a measure, to the influence of the Tremont Gymnasium.
Then, just before the war, came Dio Lewis, who adopted a part
of the German system, and invented bean-bags and rings, and substituted wooden
dumbbells for iron in class exercises. A part of his outfit was an iron
crown for the head, which was decorated with the stars and stripes. He had
a school of gymnastics, which lived at Lexington for a few years. I
remember that Superintendent Philbrick said of the Lewis gymnastics, "the
problem is now solved; here are exercises that can be used in the school-room
without fixed apparatus." But it did not turn out so. I do not
believe that you can introduce fully or satisfactorily either the German or
Swedish systems of training, unless you have buildings our rooms fitted and
furnished to meet their requirements. You may introduce free movements,
such as we shall see here, which can be performed in the class-rooms, and you
may accomplish great food with them. such a movement, to do this, has
gained already considerable headway in other parts of this country.
American educators have given so little attention to German
gymnastics that I hope I may be pardoned for relating a personal experience
here. Some years ago I had occasion to prepare a report for the United
States Bureau of Education on this matter of physical training. In getting
material together, I visited all the principal college and Christian Association
and other gymnasiums of the country. This brought me into many different
cities. I had, too, at my disposal all the literature in the library of
the Commissioner of Education in Washington; but I did not anywhere come across
any allusion to the German system of Turning as it exists here, and has existed
since 1848. On one even suggested a visit to a Turnhalle. It was
only after I went to Germany, when I completed my report, that I learned what
the German-American Turners were doing, and what they have done. I was,
unfortunately, enabled to revise my report before it was printed. It is
worth while to remember, in undertaking to do anything toward organizing the
introduction of gymnastics into school, that the German Turners in this country
have maintained for may years a school for the teaching of teachers. The
North-American Turnerbund, which numbers more than thirty thousand members, owns
property free from debt worth more than $2,000,000, including one hundred and
sixty gymnasium halls, and libraries aggregating fifty-three thousand volumes.
It has one hundred and forty teachers, who have graduated form its Normal Seminary,
at the end of a well-considered course of training. The gentleman whose
paper you have heard read, Mr. Metzner, and the gentleman who read it, Mr.
Eberhard, and Mr. Groener, the teacher of the Boston Turn Schule, are graduates
of that seminary. There are some fifteen thousand boys and six thousand
girls in the Turn Schules of the North-American Gymnastic Association, who are
regularly taught gymnastics by approved German methods. This teaching goes
on every week in New York, Boston, Milwaukee, St. Louis, and other cities, but
so quietly that most educators pay little attention to it. I hold that the
best-trained body of gymnastics teachers in this country, not excepting those
engaged in our colleges, are those trained and maintained by the
Turnerbund. the Turnerbund was founded by exiles from Germany. Their
aims are not only those of which we have heard, but one of their aims is to discuss
political, social, aesthetic, and ethical questions. For instance, the New
York Turnverein maintains classes in drawing and modeling, and it also has a
theatre, which its theatrical club and singing society use for their special
purposes, and schools where upwards of nine hundred children are taught the
German language and literature on certain days, and on other days have gymnastic
and domestic training. The same Verein also has a cadet battalion of
ninety boys, who are trained in target-shooting, as well as in the manual of
arms. More than this, since 1885, the German system of gymnastics, as
represented by the free movements, which are simple movements without apparatus,
or light gymnastics in which hand-apparatus, such as wands, rings, and
dumbbells, are employed, has made great progress in certain sections of our
country. As a general thing, special gymnasiums have not been
provided. The exercises are performed in the class-rooms. But it
cannot be said that the system has been introduced as a whole. Neither it
nor the Ling system can be fully adopted until specially fitted gymnasiums are
provided. But in the courts of the school buildings,
in the halls and school-rooms, free and light gymnastics have been introduced in
the cities of Chicago, St. Joseph, Rock Island, Davenport, and in other Western
cities. They have also been introduced, to some degree, I am told, into
the schools of Holyoke, of this state, and of Orange, N.J.. The school population
of the towns and cities where this sort of gymnastics is in successful working I
estimate to be about four hundred thousand. In Chicago they have fourteen
special teachers who teach gymnastics, at salaries ranging from $750 to
$1800. In many of the other cites instruction is given by a director of gymnastics
to the ordinary teachers, who in turn instruct their scholars. Gymnastic
exercise is obligatory in the schools of all grades in Kansas City and in
Chicago. I had, not long ago, a letter from the chairman of the committee
on physical culture in Chicago schools, saying that the system worked admirably,
and to the satisfaction of the Board, the teachers, and the pupils alike.
Dr. Hitchcock--I want Dr. Hartwell to answer the question as to the literature
accessible on this subject, better than he has done. He was always a good
boy in college, and I do not want to see him floored now.
Dr. Hartwell--If Superintendent Seaver will repeat his question, I will try to
answer it.
Mr. Seaver--I was quite well satisfied with Mr. Hartwell's answer. It is
always interesting to hear a man talk who is full of his subject. What I
wanted specially to know was, what books there are from which one can get a criticism
or critical estimate of these different systems of gymnastics, having in view
this classification of the nerve centres into fundamental and accessory so that
we may reach a more clear conclusion as to which is the better system.
Dr. Hartwell--I do not know of any. Very much of what I said was gathered
from many quarters, from monographs and special works brought together by
myself.
Mr. Seaver--Then Dr. Hartwell will have to write such a book himself.
Mr. Dunton of the Normal School--To what extent are gymnastics in the common
shc0o0ls in Germany taught by regular teachers, and to what extent have they
special teachers for this department? If we had proper rooms and proper apparatus,
would it be practicable for the regular teachers to conduct the exercises?
Dr. Hartwell--German schools are divided into two classes. the higher sort
leads to the University in the Technical School; they are the Gymnasien and the
Real-Schulen. Most of these have special teachers of Turning, who have
received their training at a normal school for training teachers of gymnastics.
There are such normal schools in all such capitals as Berlin, Dresden, Munich,
an Stuttgart. In the lower, or primary school, -- the Volks-Schulen, -- it
is a more common practice for the pupils to be taught gymnastics by the ordinary
class teachers. But these teachers have professional training. The same
holds good with regard to the Swedish schools. The higher schools for boys
correspond to the German Gymnasien or Real-Schulen. In them special
teachers are installed. The number of teachers in schools of this grades
is, I think, about thirteen hundred men; but of this number ninety-five are
specially trained and fully installed teachers of gymnastics. In the
lower, primary schools, corresponding to the Volk-Schulen, the teaching is
carried on by the teachers themselves, who, like those in Germany, have had
instruction in teaching gymnastics in the normal schools. Dr.
John P. Reynolds was asked to speak. Dr.
Reynolds--I ought no to speak upon this subject. I am too little familiar
with its details. But my interest in every branch of it is very
warm. Perhaps I may be permitted to say a word about gymnastics in
Germany, education of the body, no less than of the mind, is compulsory for
every man-child, from the son of the sovereign to the son of a
day-laborer. He must be trained in walking, in running, in leaping, and in
a host of other bodily exercises. With us, the great obstacle to all this
is, that we cannot bring the community, and especially teacher, to recognize the
immense importance of such instruction. Teachers largely make up this
assembly. Even if I appear to any of them an unfriendly critic, I deeply
appreciate the attainments of the worth of the instructors of the Boston
schools, and I hold their calling the most sincere admiration.
Nearly twenty years ago, members of the School Board, eager
to advance the interests of the Latin School, attempted, among other changes, to
introduce there, in a very tentative way, the teaching of gymnastics, hoping
thus to make an entering wedge for its general recognition in the public schools.
A young instructor, rarely qualified, was found, It would have done your
hearts good to see the spirit with which the boys took hold of the gymnastics at
the Johns Hopkins, will know what a magnificent teacher the Latin School has
secured. But in a year or two the Latin School gymnastics came to an end;
and from that date; if we except the excellent light work of Professor Monroe, which
shortly after his death ceased, bodily culture has found no place in our
schools, Yet through all those years, German boys, by hundreds of thousands,
have had, every one of them, unceasing care that their bodies be made supple,
hardy, and strong. In that same period nearly a million children have
passed through the Boston Schools. Had our children no equal right to his priceless
help? I will not say who robbed us of Mr. Hartwell. No interest in gymnastics
existed. Nobody had leisure to take in the need of watching and
strengthening the body. Instructors needed the whole time for Greek, for
Latin, and for Mathematics. School hours were too crowded to admit
gymnastics. Taxpayers were reported to hold such exercise an idle
luxury. Not many years since the teachers of Southern Germany made just
these objections. There, too, the schools could spare no time for training
the bodies of the boys. But the new German Empire gave no quarter, and by
its answer, "you shall," at once silenced all resistance. A
despotic, tyrannical authority might secure this exercise for every Boston boy
and girl. I have no belief that anything else ever will.
Traveling in Germany many years ago, I had the privilege of
entering various German schools, and one day watched with interest an hour of
gymnastics at Frankfort-on-the-Main. That school took especial pride in
its teacher, another Hartwell in build, fresh from his normal training in
Berlin. It was a rare pleasure to see him give his first lesson. A small,
bare yard and a most unpretending shed, with simple apparatus, made up his
resources. In the yard the older boys, of seventeen and eighteen, were
soon leaping, after a short, quick run, from a spring board, over a high horse;
while in the shed the younger fellows, divided into small squads, were rapidly
set at work at one piece or another,--going over the horses, shooting the bars,
trying all the feats that we so long to see grown common among us.
It has been found no light matter to bring home to those with
whom the decision rests the inestimable value of training like this.
Only one other word: Someone intends shortly to exhibit, as
an object-lesson, the exercise of the boys that occupy the front seats.
Gymnastics in a room hot as is this seems to me unreasonable. Gymnastics
exercise in air above fifty (fahr.) degrees ought to be held a piece of
barbarism. A
class exercise was then given by about twenty boys, under the direction of Emil
Groner, of the Boston German Turnverein.
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