presented as bearing upon the subject under consideration :

Gymnastics not only give fulness and strength to the muscles, but they increase force, flexibility, and dexterity of movement, and thus contribute to grace of person and skill in the use of the hands, and other limbs.

Gymnastics, by expanding the chest, and increasing the size and action of the lungs, give a tone and vigor to the whole organism.

Gymnastics, by increasing the circulation of the blood in the skin, renders its complicated system more active in carrying off the seeds of disease, while its nerves become less impressible to the heat and cold, and other changes in the atmosphere.

Gymnastics act on the courage, and produce independence and presence of mind.

Gymnastics produce cheerfulness, and regulate fancy and imagination, and thus diminish the tendency to moral faults.

Gymnastics strengthen the intellectual faculties. If you would develop the mind of a pupil, you must not neglect to exercise his body; if you would make him prudent and reasonable, you must make him healthy and strong.

Grace of deportment, elegance of manners, ease of motion, strength, activity, dexterity, and all that is attractive and pleasing in the physical nature of man depend, in a great measure, on well-directed muscular exercise.

Gymnastic exercises afford the most effective means of cultivating and improving the muscular system, and the locomotive organs. These exercises, and all sports

which demand physical activity, call the muscles and bones into action, strengthen the limbs, and impart a healthy tone to the organs; under their influence the blood circulates freely, the respiration is quickened, and the redundant fluids are driven off by perspiration.

Such exercises are not destitute of moral influence; for they generate courage, perseverance, self-control, and, in giving the power, they foster a disposition, and excite a desire to assist our fellow-creatures in danger. Nor is gymnastic training destitute of mental action; for, although the exercises of the muscles and limbs chiefly tend to physical improvement, the mechanical operations in which these are engaged, cannot, in the commencement, be performed independently of attention, memory, judgment, and imagination.

It should be observed, however, that in the practice of gymnastic exercises, regard must be had to the constitution, strength, habit, temperament, age, and sex of the pupil. For want of proper attention to these circumstances, injury rather than benefit has sometimes resulted from these exercises. This remark is applicable only to that system of gymnastics which requires violent exercises, such as vaulting, summersaults, climbing, etc. The system invented by Prof. Ling, of Sweden, which is called Free Gymnastics, is not liable to this objection. It consists of a variety of motions of the head, chest, trunk, and limbs, performed with energy and vigor, without the use of any fixed apparatus. Indeed, most of the exercises which it embraces, and, perhaps, sufficient for the purposes of our public schools, require no apparatus whatever, and no special

room set apart for its practice. It is adapted both to the open air and to the schoolroom.

This system of free gymnastics, or calisthenics, in a modified form, it is deemed both desirable and practicable to introduce into all our schools, and it is recommended that it be made an obligatory branch of education.

To accomplish this important object, it will require but a trifling expense, and no material change in the existing regulations.

The following recommendations are submitted as the plan which seems to your Committee most feasible:

1. That a Standing Committee on Physical Training be appointed, who shall have the general supervision. of the sanitary provisions and arrangements of the schools.

2. That this Committee be authorized to appoint and nominate to the Board, a suitably qualified person to aid and instruct the teachers in the training of their pupils in physical exercises, — the system of exercises to be practised in all the schools, to be prescribed by the person so appointed, and approved by the Committee on Physical Training.

3. That the time devoted to these exercises shall not exceed half an hour each half day, nor be less than a quarter of an hour.

The accompanying Orders are submitted for the purpose of carrying into effect the recommendations of your Committee.

Ordered, That Sect. 2, Chap. I., be amended by inserting after the words, "on Music," the words "on Physical Training."

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Ordered, That Chapter IV. of the Rules be amended by inserting after Section 9, a new section, as follows:

The Committee on Physical Training shall appoint and nominate to the Board for confirmation a suitably qualified person as a teacher of gymnastics and calisthenics, and shall have a general supervision of the sanitary provisions and arrangements of the schools, and submit a semi-annual report thereon at the quarterly meetings in March and September.

Ordered, That the teacher of gymnastics shall devote his time, during school sessions, in aiding and instructing the teachers in training their pupils in gymnastic and calisthenic exercises, under the direction of the Committee on Physical Training.

Ordered, That the salary of the teacher of gymnastics be fixed at per annum.

Ordered, That the teachers in all the public schools be required to devote a part of each school session to physical exercises, not exceeding half an hour and not less than a quarter of an hour.

All of which is respectfully submitted.

For the Committee,

DECEMBER 10, 1860.

GEO. W TUXBURY, Chairman.

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