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It is interesting to note in connection with the oust Fevdval of popular
interest in education that new —t is being placed upon physical
excellence. ;

In this matter we are but imitating many of the nations of the past, because
keen interest in this matter can be traced back to remotest antiguity--the
Persians insisted upon it, the Scythians planned for it, and the Greeks went
even so far as to conceive of the human body built in the image of the gods.
To them physical excellence involved something bordering upon worship and

in consequence they built 4 system of education in which physical perfection
was the rallying point around which the whole scheme of educational activity
centered. Through all the intervening ages recurrent emphasis has been
placed upon physical excellence in spite of the tidal waves of asceticism
which from time to tim®;jthreatenjto engulf the concept. Within the past
decadesunder a new wave of humanistic thinking, however, the conviction of
need of health and physical perfection has once more emerged as a dominant
interest in human affairs. The consequence is that at present no system of
education is thought of as being adequate or modern which does not provide
soundly scientific and efficient training in this field.

 

A few basic ideas may perhaps be urged as forming necessary components of a
forward-looking and efficient program of physical education. In the first
place the sciences that contribute to form the modern science of dietetics
have shown definitely the vital relationship existing between foot, both as

to quantity and guality and normal growth and efficiency. We now know that

we need not only proteiaS, carbohydrates, and minerals, but the modern lore
of vitamins has amazingly expanded our insight into the fundsmental conditions
underlying humen well-being and no program of physical education is complete
which does not impart to the child right knowledges and reliable habits with
reference to this mass of information.

ULI dil tg alti cae ected

Secondly, we have at our disposal at present an ever-increasing mass of in-
formation in the field of physiology and bio-chemistry which beers directly
upon effective functioning of the human body and which when practically
applied in the form of principles of hygienic living will serve to enhance
beyond all earlier concepts of possibility a state of physical and mental

youth but all through maturity and on to an extended period of old-age.

In the third place, we are beginning to appreciate increasingly the human
contact-mekine results of bodily skills of the play variety, the bearing

upon mental alertness, the relationship of health to moral and mental stability,
the sanitary values of vigorous physical activity, and the economic and

social implications of contacts made in connection with group play. The
so-called minor sports--golf, swimming, tennis, handball, and other similar
activities appropriate for early middle and later life--are gradually being
recognized as desirable components of the total repertoire of one's life

and are being thought of as necessary adjuncts of the life program of the
modern man and woman.

pes

‘ rena BANE ST IAG RTI SO: ine

I have said nothing thus tar Goncossing ‘the place ‘oad function of public
athletic spectacles. They form an important, defensible, and age-old component
of our group life, but they are not what we have in mind when we speak of
physical education. They constitute a problem of highly technical, guasi-
professional character of their own, and it is not our purpose in this