Emerson College - Emersonian Yearbook (Boston, MA)

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centration and repetition. One of the things that are held up as commendations of some systems of physical culture, I look upon as a serious objection to them, namely, the very great variety which they advertise. In such systems there can be but little chance for repetition. It is said H the child wants something new, it does not want to go over the same thing. lt loses heart, it loses interest, and we must have a system which will command the interest of the child, because We are looking not merely to the restoration of adults, but to the improvement of children, and so we must have novelty in all forms of education. Let this be the novelty'-'seeing something new in the old. YVhen the feeling is fresh the story is new! Xvhy do we all rise up and declare for the Greeks? lVhy do we give them the laurel, as the best educated people that ever graced the earth? YVe do not pretend-no one Will pretend- to attain to the level of the Greeks, circumstances will not admit of it. Men try to ind reasons for Greek superiority in nationality, and in the times in which they lived. The reason is, simply, that educators have not so arranged our different studies as to make suitable provision for repetition. is repeti- tion that develops power in the boclyf' Hence, 1ny object has been, While formulating a method of physical culture, to have just as few exercises as possible and 6

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lung troubles, from nervous prostration, from general debility. Emerson College system of physical culture comprises about three hundred movementsii Some of these movements are repetitions. These are not a great number of movements, when We consider that some systems advertise several thousands. One of the merits of having as fevv movements as possible is, that one may be allowed to repeat, gr it is in repetition that good comes in any method of edueottionfi, The one great fault of modern systems of education is, that they do not provide sufficiently for repetition. I say 4'II1OCle1'1177 - I might say American, but it would not be true of America o11ly. It is a fault which is as common in European methods of education as it is in American methods. There are leading scholars in Germany, Who, as individuals, follow out the old classic idea of repetition as a method of culture, to a greater extent, perhaps, than do eminent American scholars. But the prevailing tendency is to dissipation 5 for desultory study leads to dissipation of thought and thought power. HBy dividing his time among too many objects, a man of genius often becomes diamond dust instead of a diamond. Many a person misses of being a great man by splitting into tvvo middling ones. We must never lose sight of the educational value of con, i 5

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reach the results, so that we may have a chance to repeat those exercises. Each exercise is so arranged as to attain the sum of the results of several exercises. According to observations, it will take a close student about four years of daily study and practice to attain perfection in execution of the movements required by the system. One need not divide it up and say, H I will stay so long on one part, and I will stay so long on another 3 but if he practises faithfully, in a reasonable length of time valuable results will appear in his person 3 for increasing health and beauty will continue to reward his perseverance. His endurance of hard- ship and fatigue will be correspondingly augmented. This system of physical culture provides always for an ideal, therefore, there is no such thing as reaching the end, because the exercises are in their nature with- out limitation. Something better can be done each day as long as they are practisedg that is, they are ever leading out and leading onward rather than coming to any point of limitation. There is always the possibility of education toward something beyond what we have attained. This system of exercises is entirely unique- entirely unlike as a system and in its methods, any other in the world. Be it a right one or a wrong one, it stands upon its own merits, and not upon the merits 7