It should be studied by all teachers, for it presents principles that underlie not only manual training in its narrower sense but the endless possibilities of "learning by doing," - principles whose significance is only beginning to become known through the developments of modern science.

PHYSICAL CULTURE.

The old saying, mens sana in corpore sano, embodies the general belief in the close connection of mind and body. Modern science expresses the same idea in a variety of detailed ways. The mental output, it asserts, is directly related to the bodily conditions; there are physical standards such that pupils above them can do more and pupils below them less than than those who barely attain them; sound anthropometrical systems show with almost unerring certainty what children surpass, what equal and what fall below the standard of their age; prolonged strain may harm growing children for life; the more rapid the growth, the greater the danger from physical excesses, abuses or negligence. In propositions like these we find abundant reasons for attending to physical culture in the schools, in short, to everything that, like pure air, evenness of temperature, sufficiency of light, properly adjusted seats and desks, corrective and developing exercises, tends to promote the health, comfort and mental vigor of the children.

To cite a single class of facts that call for correction, the faulty positions taken in standing and sitting are more numerous than commonly thought. Some carefully made observations showing the prevalence of these faults in school have recently come to the office. They were conducted in three places, two of them in Massachusetts. Those of the first set were made by the regular teachers of the children under rules from their director of physical training, an expert in such matters, and repeated by the latter in the way of verification. Those of the other two sets were also made by the regular teachers under the same rules that governed the first set. The expert mentioned is a college graduate, also a graduate of the Boston Normal School of Gymnastics, and, by way of special preparation for this peculiar investigation, has had some years of hospital experience in treating crippled and deformed children.

The percentages given in these three sets show the proportions of the entire number examined that revealed well-defined faults of carriage or posture in the parts mentioned.

It is not claimed that all these departures from normal standards, or the majority of them, are to be viewed with alarm. They indicate a wrong trend, however, and some of them are unquestionably serious. Most of them are easily remedied and the worst of them helped, provided teachers are competent to recognize them and to conduct the simple exercises that are fitted to counteract them. One of the many reasons for employing professionally trained teachers is the increasing likelihood of securing just this sort of competency.

But the object of physical training is something more than the mere correction of bodily faults and deformities; it is the promotion of health, strength and grace. Nay, it aims for something more than joy in physical well-being, for there is the mind whose vision it clears, whose power it enhances and whose endurance it prolongs. Moreover, vitally linked with physical soundness and mental vigor are those remoter blessings which such conditions insure in the lives of others.

Of our thirty-one cities, eighteen have introduced the Ling system of gymnastics. In the remaining cities the systems are mixed or partial; or perhaps it is nearer the truth to say that, while physical exercises are practised in them, and have their value, they reflect the varying ideas of the teachers, without rising to the comprehensiveness and consonance of a system.

Nine cities employ directors of physical training; the rest rely wholly on their regular teachers.

Of our normal schools, all have physical training in their courses of study, while four of them thus far have established normal courses in such training. The gymnasium of a normal school, therefore, is not simply a place for the recreation and training of normal school pupils, however essential it may be that they shall have a sound physical basis for their exacting future; it is a part of the general equipment for enhancing their teaching power.

The solution of the physical culture problem in our schools is to be found, like the solution of so many other problems, in well-trained teachers under competent supervision. The duty that appalls the teacher who has never studied the principles and methods of physical training sits lightly on the teacher who knows what to do and how to do it, from the start.

TEMPERANCE INSTRUCTION.

During the latter part of 1895 a special agent, Mrs. Ella B. Hallock of New York, was employed to help the teachers of the State in physiology and hygiene, with particular reference to methods of temperance instruction. During the latter part of 1894 she had been employed by the Board in similar service, giving fifty-nine addresses in all, and reaching some three thousand teachers. In 1895 she gave forty addresses in thirtysix towns and cities to about twenty-five hundred teachers, and visited between fifty and sixty schools. Her work was profitable to the teachers and greatly appreciated by them. The expense was met in 1885, as in 1894, out of an unexpended balance for agents' salaries.

Mrs. Hallock reports that with scarcely an exception she was cordially received by the teachers and school authorities. They were not only willing but anxious to listen to her. She found the reluctance of teachers to deal with the subject due, not to any prejudice or spirit of antagonism, but to a consciousness of inability to teach it properly.

In primary schools the matter presented to children was too advanced for them. In the majority of the schools visited, the children were found to be repeating accurate statements about

the human body, its structure and vital processes, the meaning of which was utterly beyond their grasp. Leading children to repeat words, however important the truth expressed, is not true teaching.

In grammar grades a conspicuous difficulty is found in the quantity of matter assigned to be conquered each year, which is frequently nothing less than the entire physiology as presented in some text-book. Moreover, through lack of knowledge, lack of time, or lack of suitable helps and facilities, there is undue reliance on old text-book methods. The trend in teaching other subjects is to apportion parts of them to successive years to be taught progressively, to increase the means for studying them objectively, and to make text-books subsidiary to the main instruction.

In primary grades it is enough for the children to study the external parts of the body and their uses, to learn how to care for them, and to compare them with the corresponding parts of lower animals. Such study will include in a simple way the senses. A conspicuous feature in primary instruction is the forming of habits that lead to cleanliness, temperance, health, strength and grace. This may be done through songs, games, physical exercises, daily attention to simple health rules, and other devices.

In grammar grades habit-forming should continue to be a prominent end, while pains should be taken to give the children a clear general idea of the internal structure of the body and of the adaptation of each organ to its function, as an intelligent basis for the habits already formed or in process of forming.

In both grades the methods of study should favor mental training as well as the acquisition of knowledge. That is, there should be observation, investigation, inference, thought, oral and written expression, pictorial representation, and the like; hence the need of suitable teaching appliances.

To cap all, the children should be led by methods academic and moral to frame a high ideal of a strong, wholesome, unabused body as best fitting one for successful and happy living.

An important principle in temperance instruction, as in all other, was set forth in last year's report, as follows:

There is great danger that the wrong thing a child is cautioned against may make the deeper impression upon him, and sway him more than the right thing. Of course, since the child goes frequently astray, it becomes the duty of the teacher to look sharply after his blunders, and in this way attention is necessarily focused for a time on departures from good standards. But this does not affect the

main principle that, in the initiative of all instruction, the sound thing, the wholesome thing, the right thing, should be presented first; that the minds of children should be directed upward, and not downward; that love of higher things is a stronger motive than fear of baser things, or if, unfortunately, not a stronger motive, a better motive for first presentation; that, in short, the true way to keep bad things out of the mind is to put good things into the mind.

Applying this principle to instruction in temperance, it seems to be psychologically a bad method to make the woes of intemperance the main reliance in an endeavor to save people from them. The sad fact, indeed, remains that innocent children are frequently exposed to the repulsive pictures of intemperance, and that, in certain cases, effective lessons for good can be drawn from such experiences; but, as a general principle, there is more virtue in setting before children the joy of right living, with the scientific basis therefor, than the sorrow of wrong living. It is difficult to draw a satisfactory line between the two policies, but the principle is sufficiently conveyed if we say that, whatever attention it may be necessary to give the diseased, the criminal and the awful in intemperance, these are pictures upon which the curtain, if raised at all, should be quickly let fall. The main policy should still be the higher one of filling the soul with good ideas, and of inspiring the pupil, through the exercise of his will, to strive for their attain:nent.

It must not be overlooked that lessons have a deeper meaning and weight for children if they are given and enforced by teachers whom the children respect and love; so that we finally get back in temperance instruction, as in every other kind of instruction, to the living teacher as the most potent influence for good.

It is not enough that we have laws requiring scientific as well as moral instruction in temperance. It is not enough that school committees say "yes" in answer to the official query whether these laws are observed. The efficiency of the instruction is the important thing, and this is dependent on the knowledge, the wisdom, the teaching skill and the moral power of the teacher. So long as this dependence exists, the field is clear for considering what sort of facts should be presented to