CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION GV / REPORT OF THF. UC-NRLF Ml State Supervisor OF Physical Education January 16, 1918 to June 30, 1918 a in c\/ o 42S63 CALIFORNIA STATE PRINTING OFFICE SACRAMENTO 1919 GIFT OF CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION REPORT OF THE State Supervisor OF Physical Education January 16, 1918 to June 30, 1918 CALIFORNIA STATE PRINTING OFFICE SACRAMENTO 1919 42963 CONTENTS. PAGB LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL 3 REPORT OF THE STATE SUPERVISOR OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION., 5 DUTIES UNDER THE LAW 5 THE NEW DEMAND FOR PHYSICAL EDUCATION AND ITS FUNCTION IN THE SCHOOL PROGRAM (> THE PROGRAM 17 THE DEVELOPMENT AND ADMINISTRATION OF THE STATE PROGRAM__ 21 LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL. To the Honorable State Board of Education. LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: In accordance with your request I have the honor to submit to you the report of the State Supervisor of Physical Education for the period beginning with his assumption of duties, January 16, 1918. Very respectfully yours, CLARK W. HETHERINGTON, State Supervisor of Physical Education. 393284 REPORT OF THE STATE SUPERVISOR OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION. The duties of the State Supervisor of Physical Education as defined (in chapter 668, statutes of 1917) by the "act to provide for the organization and supervision of courses in physical education in ele- mentary, secondary and normal schools of the state" are stated as follows : "The supervisor of physical education * * * shall exercise general supervision over the courses of physical education in elementary and secondary schools of the state; shall exercise gen- eral control over all athletic activities of the public schools; shall advise school officials, school boards and teachers in matters of physical education ; shall visit and investigate the work in physical education in the public schools and shall perform such other duties as may be assigned to him by the state board of education. ' ' The duties of the state supervisor in supervision, advice, visitation and investigation are indicated by the provisions of the law: 1. That boards of education and high school boards shall prescribe courses of physical education in accordance with aims which are stated in the law. 2. That the superintendents of schools, boards of education, boards of school trustees and high school boards shall enforce the courses of physical education thus prescribed. 3. That all pupils enrolled in the elementary schools who are not excused, shall attend such courses during periods which shall average twenty minutes in each school day and that all high school pupils who are not excused shall attend such course for at least two hours each week. 4. That when the number of pupils in any city, county or school dis- trict is sufficient, such city, or county, or district shall employ a com- petent supervisor and such special teachers of physical education as may be necessary. The law makes it the duty of the State Board of Education: 1. To appoint a State Supervisor of Physical Education. To compile or cause to be compiled and printed a manual in physical education for distribution to teachers in the public schools of the state. 3. To adopt such rules and regulations as it may deem necessary and proper to secure the establishment of courses in physical education in secondary and elementary schools in accordance with the provisions of the act, and 242963 6 CAUFORNIA STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION. 4. To prescribe a course in physical education and make the com- pletion of such course a requirement for graduation in the several normal schools of the state. By request, the duty of the State Board of Education to compile or cause to be compiled a manual in physical education, was added to the duties of the State Supervisor of Physical Education, who was therefore required 1. To interpret physical education as the basis for a state program in physical education. 2. To present the program in the manual for the guidance of school officials and teachers. 3. To develop and administer the program through "supervision," "advice," "visitation," and "investigation," as required by law. This report will cover each of these duties. I. THE NEW DEMAND FOR PHYSICAL EDUCATION AND ITS FUNCTIONS IN THE SCHOOL PROGRAM. The California state law requiring physical education in all the public schools of the state represents a final expression of public opinion which has been developing for several years. Seven states* have recently enacted physical education laws and in many other states similar laws are being agitated. This is a new demand. The causes of the past neglect will illuminate this new demand. First: The school, as an institution, developed to teach the written language, the three R's, and the cultural content of books. All the rest of education, including physical education, was left to the natural discipline of the home and the community. The book curriculum still holds its traditional sway, though the "practical" and vocational activities are about to change the balance. Physical education is still in a difficult position. The theory of it has been neglected by schools of education. The school man has not thought of it as his problem. He does not understand it. Second: Public opinion has not gained strength to command an efficient organization of physical education, because only within a few years have we come as a nation out of the dominating influences of pioneer life. In the youth and the traditions of the generation which until recently controlled public opinion, life was more generally in the open, more strenuous, varied and exciting. Children had a natural, outdoor life which stimulated play and they entered directly into the simple multitudinous activities of the home and the com- munity and they imitated these activities in dramatic play. Adult *New York, New Jersey, Nevada, Rhode Island, Maryland, Delaware, Illinois. STATE SUPERVISOR OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 7 recreative customs were closely knit into the domestic, industrial and social life and children entered into these activities. Hence, there has ~been no general consciousness of the need for an institutionally organized play or physical education. Third: American Puritanism with its fear of pleasure and play, established prejudices which fostered the neglect of physical education. American children have suffered from the common idea that play was synonymous with fooling or activity that was not worth while". Closely associated with those feelings are the subtle survivals of mediaeval asceticism with its contempt for the physical, and mediaeval scholasticism with its exaltation of the intellect. These have many ramifications of attitude and feeling in educational and cultural thought, especially in our universities, and have fostered the neglect of the "physical" side of education. Fourth: As traditional educational thought and research have been directed to the intellectual side of education and its psycho- logical foundations, and the corresponding philosophy of physical education and its physiological functions have been neglected by the schools of education, school officials have been left without criteria for judging the functions or values of physical education and have tolerated in many cities cheap adaptations of gymnastic systems which grew in foreign soil, and which had no relationship to American life or ideals and which were as barren of results in developing efficient American citizens as they were in intelligible purpose. This common procedure has not inspired enthusiasm. THE NEW DEMAND AND IDEALS. In contrast to these older attitudes in physical education, a great social change and several social movements have been in progress which have created a new public opinion and a new practical procedure in physical education indigenous to the soil of American life and needs. These may be stated briefly. THE SOCIAL CHANGE. Since 1860 a complete change in our national social life has taken place through the introduction of machinery into modern industry. This has caused a shift of population to the city with its specialized mechanical life, and reflex influence on rural life. It has wrecked the old home. The old home was an industrial and social center as well as a center of domestic life. It was a great educational institution. But, the modern city, built without consideration for the physical or moral welfare of the children, has stripped the home of occupations of educa- tional value, specialized the occupations of parents until they are meaningless for the children, and left the children to play on the 8 CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION. streets without organization or leadership. Parents can not meet the new need for organized occupations and leadership. They do not have the space, the equipment, the time or training. These are the problems of the expert. These influences have extended to rural life until rural children are worse off than city children. As a result of these social changes the whole burden of education and the welfare of children has been shifted to the school and no power in our social life can change the responsibility. THE ATHLETIC MOVEMENT. Among the social movements which have created our national ideals and incipient procedure in physical education, the oldest is the athletic movement. Starting before the Civil War, gaining momentum as a result of the outdoor life of the war, and favored by the American spirit and the close proximity of colleges and academies, athletics began a development which stretched across the continent in the eighties and nineties and which made them practically universal in colleges, high schools, Y. M. C. A. 's and clubs. Neglected by college and school men as vacant lot amusements, they developed as spectator athletics icith a string of evils. These evils caused several waves of reform and the gradual development of faculty control. But in spite of the evils, the tremendous interest excited by the interschool and especially the great intercollegiate contests, contributed forcefully to the creation of national ideals of physical development, training, sportsmanship, etc. The nar- row-chested, pasty-faced dig, as the ideal of a student, went out of existence ; the athlete took his place. Further, during the last eighteen years there has been a development of forms of athletics and organizations of athletics for all boys and girls above ten years of age and a steadily increasing demand for athletics for the masses. At the outbreak of the World War all of these athletic tendencies were seized upon as aids in training fighting men and made to function tremendously in winning the war. Public opinion has changed accord- ingly. It seems certain that the young soldiers will return to civil life with a feeling concerning physical development and athletics as a means of training which will make athletics the core of our American procedure in physical education. THE PLAY AND RECREATION MOVEMENT. In 1906 a systematic propaganda for play and recreation began with the organization of the Playground and Recreation Association of America. The original emphasis in this movement was on playgrounds for children, but the association extended its propaganda to cover the STATE SUPERVISOR OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION. whole of adult recreation and the organization of community life. Even in these larger movements the outing and physical recreations and the physical welfare of the people have received their emphasis in the development of public opinion. Still the playground propaganda con- tinues as a great national, even world-wide movement. Starting with the idea of establishing play spaces for children in the congested parts of our cities, experience quickly demonstrated that playgrounds were essential for every section of the city and country, that their significance for morals and the development of citizenship was as important as their values for physical development and health and that proper leadership was even more important than the space. In this movement the traditional chasing games of children, almost forgotten, were 'revived, the folk games of our immigrants nationalized, dancing put on a new and educational basis and athletics for boys and girls enormously developed. On many playgrounds, other play activities than physical training activities were organized. Such playgrounds were really children's social centers and performed some of the functions neglected by the public school, but the emphasis was always on the playground activities proper, i. e., the space, equipment and leadership for vigorous games, apparatus, gymnastics, dancing, athletics, swimming, etc. In this sense the playground is essentially a physical training plant and the activities of the playground essentially physical training activities, hence, the playground movement has created a public opinion in favor of essential elements in an American program of physical education especially for children as distinct from youth. Until recently, playgrounds have been developed largely under park boards or special playground or recreation commissions, but now the movement is in full swing to bring these new educational institutions under their proper administrative control the school boards. Public opinion is realizing that the school is the natural extra-home center of child life and that a school without a large playground is an educational monstrosity. Economic necessity, which will not allow a duplication of public expense, will compel recreation commissions to deal more espe- cially with adult recreation and stand guard perhaps for some time to come to see that boards of education do not neglect the child by failing to provide large playgrounds for each new school building and around or near old school buildings. EDUCATIONAL RECREATION MOVEMENTS. Closely related to the play and recreation movement has been the development of several associations for an educational organization of recreation. The most conspicuous of these are the Boy Scouts of America and the Camp Fire Girls. 10 CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION. These movements have emphasized and demonstrated the pedagogical soundness for the early adolescent years of the social organization with its membership and ideals, the program of achievements with symbols of achievement, the group leadership, the tactical control of the group, the development of protective skills, first aid and resourcefulness in the open, through a systematic organization of outing activities, etc. The programs of these associations cover other than physical training activities, but the form of social organization, the idea of the program, the citizenship aims, the first aid, the outing activities, the leadership, the tactical control, etc., have emphasized in public opinion essential elements in a program of physical education for the adolescent years. THE HEALTH MOVEMENT. The health movement has raked public opinion fore and aft. This movement has had its popular and its scientific sides. Some twenty years ago the increasing strenuousness and confinement of their occupations began to develop among business and professional men a widespread consciousness of a personal, physical need. It had no scientific leadership. The extent of the feeling of need is illustrated by the host of advertising ''Physical Culturists" who arose to supply a demand for physical exercise. The advertising columns of any of the popular magazines will illustrate the point. Some of these people made large sums of money in a single year. The need has not yet been met by an adequate procedure. Newer expressions of it are seen in the great development of golf and other recreations and the war efforts to keep "fit." This all represents a development of public opinion in favor of the first essential element in physical education, physical exercise. The scientific health movement arose on the foundation of bacteri- ology. Several of the dreaded diseases of history have come under sanitary control through the discovery of the germ or the germ carrier and have lost their terrors. The death rate from contagious diseases has steadily declined. Medicine has changed its emphasis in part from the cure of disease to the prevention of disease. Federal and state departments of health have carried on active, educational campaigns until every intelligent citizen knows that preventable diseases are an index of community ignorance, selfishness and filth, and that the country can free itself from most contagious diseases when it has the intelligence, the conscience and the conviction. While there has been a steady decline in the death rate from contagious diseases, there has been in the last thirty years a steady rise from the degenerative diseases, i. e., disease of the heart, lungs, kid- neys, liver, nervous system, etc. Many reasons have been assigned as the STATE SUPERVISOR OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 11 iuse for this increase in organic diseases, but it seems clear that the main cause and the one that is peculiarly related to the results, is the decrease during the last half century in out door life and vigor- ous physical activity. Physical training, therefore, is the preventive measure. As a part of this great health movement, educational hygiene (school hygiene) started as an extension of the function of boards of health in controlling contagious diseases. Later, study showed that the long hours indoors and at the desks were hurting the child's health. Hence, heating, lighting, ventilation, cleanliness, etc., became important school problems, and the hygiene of the school environment and school activi- ties arose. The movement then passed on to the physical condition of the child. Investigation showed that many children were handi- capped in their school progress by defective teeth, eyes, ears, nose, throat, nutrition, etc., so preventive and corrective measures were undertaken. This movement is not yet completed. All these efforts for the care and welfare of the child are preventive, or corrective. They need to be supplemented by a constructive, educational program. THE WAR AND THE NATIONAL PHYSICAL CONDITION. For several years the public has been learning that the national physical condition was not satisfactory. But it took the statistics of the physical examinations for the war draft to arouse public con- science. These statistics struck like a bomb. Thirty-five per cent } of the young men were found unfit to serve their country. The older statistics of the army and navy where eighty per cent and ninety per cent, respectively, of the applicants for enlistment were rejected, were given little consideration because of the class of the applicants, but in the draft the whole citizenship of the most virile age was represented. "When told that ninety per cent of this physical inefficiency was the product of the neglect of a rational procedure in physical education during childhood and youth, and therefore avoidable, it was considered a national disgrace. This has gripped public opinion. America has become thoroughly awake to a serious national physical need. THE EDUCATIONAL INTERPRETATIONS OF THE MOVEMENTS. These tendencies in public opinion indicate what earnest parents and those interested in child welfare want. The demands are clear, but they need formulation in educational objectives, which may be translated into a practical administrative procedure that the public can understand and school men execute. 12 CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION. The functions of physical education may be considered under three broad headings : 1. The constructive educational aims. Physical education is concerned primarily with the functions of big-muscle activities in the growth and development of the child. By "big-muscle activities" is meant the activities of the playground, the athletic field, the track, the gymnasium, the swimming pool, the lawn, the open country, etc. The functions of these big-muscle activities are developmental and constructive and must be set up as definite educational aims which may be enumerated as follows: a. Organic development. On big-muscle activities, organic development or the development of the organs and functions of nutrition and elimination depend. This means a development of the heart, lungs, digestive system, heat- regulating mechanism and the nutritive processes in general, through the heightened activity or exercise of these organs and functions in vigorous, big-muscle activities as indicated by the heart throbbing, panting, sweating, increased appetite, assimiliation, elimination, etc. Organic development begins in the random movements of the infant and continues in the creeping, walking, running and all the vigor- ous plays and games of childhood and youth all activities which cause a quickening of respiration or heart action. The process is conspicuous in the development of the athlete. Experience and the comparison of those in the late-life periods who have had this vigorous activity through childhood and youth with those who have not had it, have convinced us that organic train- ing is the developmental source of vitality and health, the capacity to stand the wear and tear of strenuous living and resist many of the deteriorating influences of infection. The exact parallel between the rise of organic diseases in the last thirty years and the decrease in outdoor vigorous activities, indicates that the lack of the latter bears a causal relation to the former. It seems clear also that some of the physical defects of children are due to a lack of the necessary stimulus to nutrition of big-muscle activities. Developed organic power is essential for efficiency in every phase of 'life adjustment and it is a power which must be gained by the accumulation of development all through childhood -and youth. The neglect of this development for either childhood or youth is fatal. The developmental results of exercise cannot be "made up." Organic education is the most fundamental, the least understood, and the most neglected of all phases of education. STATE SUPERVISOR OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 13 b. Development of the nervous system. In big-muscle activities the nervous system is developed. Every movement from creeping and walking to the complex activities and skills exhibited in games, gymnastics and athletics, must be learned and every learned movement represents a developed nervous center. Every group of muscles has a nervous center which controls it. There are nervous centers which control the big muscles of the trunk and limbs and there are nervous centers which control the small muscles of the fingers, the tongue or the eye. The nervous centers controlling the big muscles were made to carry the burdens of life, not the nervous centers controlling the small muscles. Yet our civiliza- tion is throwing the burden of activity on the finer muscles and the nervous centers controlling them. The big muscles and controlling nervous centers are relatively little used, except in play and organized recreation, and on this fact the physical problem of civilization largely depends. Objection is frequently made to the development of large muscles as our civilization does not require such development. This is a social argument without knowledge of the relation of muscular development to nervous development. Muscular development is a symbol a symbol of nervous development and power. The nervous centers controlling the muscles can be developed only through exercising them by exer- cising the muscles. A thorough development of the big muscles means a large development of the nervous centers controlling these muscles. This is the source of strength and skill, but vastly more important, it is the source of developed nervous vitality and staying power. Every developed nervous center means so much will power and capacity to endure. Nervous instability has increased in recent years as the higher nervous centers have been compelled to carry new burdens without a thorough development of the supporting fundamental nerv- ous centers. Like organic development, this nervous development must be gained through the whole period of childhood and youth. It cannot be gained after maturity, and it cannot be gained in any one year or group of years either in childhood or youth. No process of training can give the boy of eight the development possible to a boy of eighteen. And no training will give the boy of eighteen the development that should naturally be his, if the training of previous years has been neglected. The growth order in the child must be observed, and the normal devel- opment possible for each age must be secured or there is incomplete physical citizenship. Not only does development require activity at each age period, but it requires huge amounts of this activity espe- cially during late childhood and the early years of adolescence. 14 CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION. After maturity, it takes but little exercise relatively on the part of an adult who has had a thorough development, to keep fit. The function of exercise becomes merely a hygienic function. c. Character development. In the natural big-muscle activities of childhood and youth, funda- mental qualities of character and citizenship are developed. There is no such thing as the development of morals, character or citizen- ship that is not centered in activities which express instinct ten- dencies and emotions. The worth of the activities for moral or char- acter development is determined by the nature of the emotions exer- cised. In games and athletic activities all the fundamental social instincts and emotions are exercised and trained. The social contacts cause the expression of good or bad manners. There is rivalry, co-operation, leadership and subordination, the rules or laws of the game and the laws of eligibility, victory or defeat and the group disci- pline in all of these. Sportsmanship is the golden rule applied to the ethics of social competition. In no other activities does leadership have such power. In this leadership we have the laboratory method in moral education. d. The development of the intellect. In big-muscle activities, the intellect functions in learning move- ments. Great skill in judging and executing movements is developed. Every learned movement or skill means so much motor will power. These powers, developed in the natural play activities of childhood and youth, give economic and great protective and recreative motor adaptability. Thinking out problems of skill and physical efficiency and problems of health and recreation are the higher forms of this intellectual functioning. The intellect functions also in the social problems of play. . Human nature and the problems of social intercourse are thought about first hand. It has* been said that two men never know each other until they play together. In the child's and youth's big-muscle competitive plays, they think the actions and reactions of human nature and gain insights essential for democratic sympathies. These constitute the broad social consciousness which is the tap root of developed general intelligence. They do not take the place of cultural information but they are the foundation for it and make culture less arrogant. The higher reaches of this intellectual functioning are indicated below under Teaching Efficient Living. To summarize, the functions of big-muscle activities are to develop the fundamental capacities underlying all phases of human adjust- ment. Put in their broad educational relationships, education is the STATE SUPERVISOR OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 15 leadership of activities which give development and adjustment accord- ing to racial ideals; physical education is that phase of education concerned with the functions of big-muscle activities in the educational process. It is the foundation upon which all the rest of education is built. 2. Control of growth handicaps. Physical education is concerned in the second place, with the con- trol of growth influences, especially growth handicaps. This is essen- tial if the developmental results of educational activities outlined above are to be secured. The individual's growth and therefore development is determined by the following influences: 1. By the individual's own habits, moulded by home and community conditions, as for example: a. Food (quality and quantity). &. Sleep and rest. c. Cleanliness of the teeth, mouth, nose, skin and clothing. d. Elimination. e. Air and sunshine. /. Temperature, clothing and housing. g. Vices. h. Mental moods. V . 2. By the physical environment of the school and the home, such as ventilation, lighting, heating, cleanliness, etc. 3. By physical defects, such as defective eyes, ears, nose, throat, etc., causing a. Depressed activity. fr. Maladjustment. c. Reflex irritations. d. Sources of infection. e. Poor nutrition, etc. 4. By contagious diseases. 5. By the work and duties of the child, both school studies and home duties. These influences in the case of any child may be favorable or unfavorable for growth and development or for any of the results of education. They condition the child's opportunity for progress. If they are favorable, growth is normal and educational effort may proceed without hindrance. If they are unfavorable, even in what 16 CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION. has been popularly considered some trifling matter, the child's happi- ness, progress or success in life may be handicapped or even ruined. Educational effort is wasted in so far as it proceeds without a con- trol of unfavorable growth influences. Control is an educational necessity. This is the preventive and corrective function in guiding the child's growth, development and adjustment. It should be noted, however, that this control of growth influences is merely preventive or corrective. It is permissive for it makes pos- sible the natural tendencies of Nature in growth to proceed normally and without handicaps. It does not develop power of any descrip- tion. It is not constructive. The constructive development and adjust- ment according to racial ideals is purely the product of educational activities. Activity is the sole means of education. Therefore, pre- ventive and corrective measures cannot take the place in producing efficient citizens, of the developmental influences of educational activi- ties. This important fact is not generally recognized. It is the most important fact in present day thought concerning national efficiency. 3. Teaching efficient living. The third phase of physical education is concerned with teaching efficient living, i. e., teaching certain phases of the capacity for self direction according to laws or standards of right living which naturally arise out of the experiences in big-muscle activities and the control of growth handicaps. The human infant is the most dependent creature that lives. The developed adult citizen is the most resourceful creature that lives. He can control his behavior according to information. The transition from infantile dependence to adult independent self direction is very gradual. While the child is dependent or relatively dependent, his activities must be directed to gain educational ends and his growth influences must be rigidly controlled. But education is a success only in proportion as it converts complete dependence into independent self direction according to knowledge of standards or laws of living. This is the highest product of the teacher's function in leading activities to gain development and adjustment according to racial ideals. All through the educational process ideals have been guides. In teaching self direction this whole procedure must be turned over gradually to the individual being educated. It is as though the teacher said finally: "I have protected you and guided your develop- ment and adjustment according to these ideals. Now you must take over the procedure and direct it yourself." This deliverance, however, must be done gradually. It is a product of the whole educa- tional procedure and arises directly out of the procedure. STATE SUPERVISOR OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 17 The self directing capacities which physical education should estab- lish are concerned especially with the laws of health and certain fundamental laws of social behavior. II. THE PROGRAM. The three broad functions of physical education outlined above, when translated into a practical program for the public schools give three phases of effort as follows : 1. The constructive, educational effort: The program of physical training activities. 2. The preventive and corrective efforts : The program for con- trolling growth handicaps. 3. T-he establishment of the capacity for self direction: The pro- gram in teaching efficient living. All of these efforts require admin- istration. THE PROGRAM IN PHYSICAL TRAINING ACTIVITIES. In setting up the program of physical training activities, three broad principles have controlled the whole plan: 1. The selection of activities that will get physical training results under present-day social conditions. 2. The organization of the activities according to the time limits imposed by present-day school conditions. 3. The organization of the social tendencies of the age periods. THE ACTIVITIES SELECTED. On the program of activities all the constructive or developmental results depend, and the development is always in proportion to the intensity and duration of the daily activities, within the normal limits of exhaustion. During childhood and youth the only activities that will be carried on with intensity for any length of time are the play activities, such as self-testing activities on the apparatus, the dramatic activities, the folk games, the chasing games, the athletic activities, boxing, fencing and wrestling, the water activities, especially swimming, rowing and paddling, the winter sports, etc. These activities tend to be continued because of the pleasure they give. Formalized and artificial activities, such as marching and gymnastic drills are fatiguing and particularly uninteresting after the novelty has worn off and they cease to go on as soon as the compulsion is dis- continued. While they have value and a place in the physical train- ing program, the value is limited, largely dependent upon the skill of 18 CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION. the teacher and at best only supplementary to the larger values of the play activities. A third division of big-muscle activities, arises out of the daily need of getting from place to place, the outing impulses and the industrial activities. These activities become important for physical training purposes in the adolescent years, but they are very difficult to organize systematically for physical training results except at week-ends or on holidays, while physical training must be a daily procedure. They are valuable to supplement and expand the more easily organized play activities. For these reasons the natural, pleasure driven, disciplining big- muscle play activities of childliood and youth have been made the core of the state program of activities and the formalized and related activities organized to support and expand these. THE TIME PROBLEM. The time problem in physical training must be solved by a procedure that works. The amount of time necessary to get physical training results in the production of efficient citizens amounts to between four and five hours per day during childhood, between two and three hours a day during the high school period or early adolescence and between one and two hours a day in the college period or later adolescence. This is not a question of conflict of interests in subjects of study. It is the time essential if children are to reach maturity with the devel- opment of organic power necessary to stand the strain of the functions of life. Without this development the higher phases of education are futile. But as the elementary and high schools are organized it is impossible to get the necessary amount of time within school hours. Hence, in the state program an instructional period covering the min- imum time of the law and coming within the school hours on the one hand, and a play or athletic period covering the time before school, after school, during recess and on Saturdays and holidays have been defined. This is simply an organization for school conditions of the procedure of learning and practice that has always gone on in chil- dren's play. The. instructional period is the period primarily for instruction in those activities that will function during the play or athletic period. Only as these two periods are looped together, can the time and there- fore the physical training results necessary for citizenship be secured. They should function as one. It has been demonstrated that if chil- dren under present-day social conditions are to play efficiently, they must be taught and if the play at school and at home is to fulfill its natural functions, the activities must not only be taught in the instruc- STATE SUPERVISOR OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 19 tional period, but a part of the play time out of school hours must be] so organized that the activities taught will be established as habits. Associated with these two main periods the state program provides for a relief period to counteract the detrimental influences of the school activities and a special corrective period for special cases. THE SOCIAL ORGANIZATION. A successful program of physical training activities requires social organization by age periods. Previous to ten years of age, children must be divided according to age needs and capacities and assigned to places to play with equipment and proper leadership. Opportunities and leadership are all that is essential. After ten years of age, for three or four years, children act in social groups and crave achievement. The outing activities also have a great appeal. This is the age, therefore, for group organization in simple contests which can be scored to visualize achievement, and for outing enterprises with records of achievement in outing arts. With adolescence, especially after fourteen or fifteen years of age, group social achievement becomes equally important with individual achievement and interest awakens in adult achievement. In this age, the spirit in the organization of the social group and in group enter- prises and achievements becomes all important. It is the transition period in youth before the full assumption of real adult functions when the activities and the organization must be pre-recreative, pre- civic, pre-military and be prophetic of adult functions. In a word, the physical training activities of youth must bear the dignity of the functions of adult life while still remaining essentially the natural competitive enterprises of youth. 2. The Procedure in Control of Groivth Handicaps. The program for the control of growth handicaps must be effective for the children of the rural or poorer districts as well as for the chil- dren of the city or wealthy and progressive districts. For this reason the program must be built up in the elementary schools around the class room teacher and the instructor or director of physical education in the high schools. The growth influences to be controlled as indicated above are of five classes, as follows : 1. The child's own health habits and home influences, i. e., food, bathing, clothing, outdoor air and sunshine, posture, elimination, etc. 2. The physical environment of the school and the home, i. e., desk 20 CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION. adjustments, ventilation, cleanliness, lighting, heating, drinking water, bathing facilities, toilets, care of wraps, etc. 3. Physical defects which handicap growth and development, i. e. t defective eyes, defective ears, defective teeth, nose and throat, mal- nutrition, nervous conditions, etc. 4. Contagious diseases. 5. Work and duties. The procedure for the control of these influences in the elementary school is centered in a daily class and individual inspection. This form of inspection has been developed in the schools of the State of New York with very wholesome effects. So far as the child is conscious, this inspection is largely a matter of cleanliness and health habits, such as cleanliness of face, hands, finger nails, teeth, handkerchief, clothing, shoes, etc., and such items as amount of sleep, ventilation in the sleep- ing room, time in the open air, sunshine, etc. These items may be scored on the blackboard. This general class inspection is supplemented by an individual inspection to note more private items such as signs of disease, condition of teeth, ears, scalp, bathing habits, etc. Detecting signs of physical defects that the teacher can note is a special part of the individual procedure. The control of the sanitary environment of the school is organized with the children themselves carrying the program under the direction of the teacher, especially concerning such items as ventilation, lighting, heating, cleanliness, etc. Desk adjustments and the seating of children according to eyesight and hearing are reduced to rules. It has been demonstrated that the elementary teacher can carry effective inspection in all these items, but his efforts must be supple- mented by expert help in suspicious cases. Where illness, contagious diseases, or physical defects are suspected, a procedure is presented for referring these cases according to local conditions, to the home and the family physician, the district supervisor, the school nurse or school physician. The procedure in the school is of similar character with adjustments to the age periods but centered in the physical examination given or organized by the physical director. 3. Program in Teaching Efficient Living. The program in teaching efficient living is built directly upon the procedure in the leadership of physical training activities and the control of growth handicaps, supplemented by courses, finally, to sys- STATE SUPERVISOR OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 21 tematize more thoroughly the information and perfect thoughtful judgment. By teaching efficient living is meant teaching living according to law. To live according to law presupposes knowledge of the law. But knowledge of right is notoriously inefficient as a regulator of right behavior. Behavior is controlled primarily by instinct tendencies which develop through experience into habits, impulses, emotional attitudes, prejudices, etc., ranging up into ideals. Even the teaching of efficient living must be based on the development of habits. On the other hand, even good habits without the support of thoughtful judg- ment may break down under new conditions. The program in teaching efficient living or the laws of health and social behavior is in the early grades merely a guide to help the teacher develop out of the experiences of the child in the daily physical train- ing activities and out of the daily inspection in the control of growth handicaps, the right emotional attitudes and understandings. This procedure is continued in the later grades and the high school, but in these age periods and especially in the high school the great mass of habits, attitudes and practical information gained in the daily activ- ities must be supplemented by the organization of courses which will cause the pupils to think through and complete the rationalization of the habits, attitudes and information. This requires co-operation between the courses in biology, home economics, civics, etc, III. THE DEVELOPMENT AND ADMINISTRATION OF THE STATE PROGRAM. The development and administration of the state program is largely fixed by the duties of the State Supervisor of Physical Education as denned by law. Restated according to the necessities of the state situation, the duties are : 1. To give "advice" to and solve problems for the teachers and school officials of the state. 2. To "supervise" and give field instruction to teachers, directors and supervisors in carrying out the program as outlined in the manual. 3. To "inspect" and "investigate" the efficiency and results of the physical education as conducted in the various schools of the state. 4. To pass upon teacher qualifications and promote the teacher training courses in the normal schools and colleges of the state. First Duty: To give advice to and help superintendents, principals and teachers to solve local problems. These problems cover the inter- pretations and requirements of the law; the difficulties in organizing 22 CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION. physical education in old buildings and under bad local conditions; the organization of the children, the physical examinations, excuses, etc.; the appointment of teachers; the construction of gymnasiums, athletic fields and the equipment necessary and cost of the same, etc. This information must be given either by correspondence or con- ference. It is largely "office work." As the physical education requirement is new, most of the schools have their problems, and these problems are complicated by the fact that most of the trained physical directors, especially men, are in war service. The amount of work involved in this service requires one person's full time. Second Duty: To teach the teachers and directors how to carry out the state program. This is the most important immediate task of this department as the teachers of the state have not been trained adequately in physical education. The work on the manual in addi- tion to the office work made it impossible for the State Supervisor to meet this critical need. To meet it, two assistant state supervisors Avere appointed. We tried first to work through teachers' institutes but the small time allowed and the conflicting interests in these institutes made results very unsatisfactory. Therefore, we have developed the plan of making trips through each of the counties where interpretations and practical demonstrations with children and teachers are given in a series of communities in which all the teachers in the surrounding districts are drawn together. Superintendents and teach- ers have praised the results of this work most highly and striking results were being gained when the influenza epidemic interfered with the schedules. Third Duty: To inspect and investigate the efficiency and results of the physical education in the various schools of the state. For the present this duty is associated with the field instruction: Later inspec- tion and efficiency surveys will be conducted both to estimate the local conditions and needs of the children and the efficiency of the program in the local schools in meeting these needs. Fourth Duty: To pass upon teaching qualifications and promote the teacher training courses in physical education in the normal schools and universities. Physical education in the schools of the state, involving the physical welfare of the rising generation, will be effective just in proportion as elementary teachers are trained by the normal schools to perform their functions adequately on the physical and moral as well as the intellectual sides of education ; and in propor- tion as universities train directors. Considerable time has been spent in promoting adequate teacher training courses both in the normal schools and universities. Several of the normal schools stressed the training of elementary teachers for STATE SUPERVISOR OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 23 physical education in the summer sessions. The University of Cali- fornia organized physical education courses in Los Angeles as well as at Berkeley and the University of Southern California also organ- ized a summer session course. None of the normal schools, however, are meeting the needs of the state in the regular school year, either from the standpoint of the future functions of the teacher candi- date in teaching physical education, or from the standpoint of the personal health, vigor, energy, buoyancy, etc., of the candidate himself, which is so important for the wholesome influence of the teacher on the children. Further, not one of the universities has anything that approaches an adequate organization of professional training courses for the production of district directors or supervisors of elementary schools or instructors or directors for the high schools. The children of the state will suffer severely until these institutions perform their functions properly in giving adequate training to the teachers of the state in physical education. Considering the importance of physical education for the develop- ment and welfare of the children of the state and the breadth of the work of the state department, it is evident that the budget provided by the law is entirely inadequate. 42963 1-19 1500 THIS BOOK 2/520 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY