Natural Method of Physical Training by Edwin Checkley, (09) A WORD ABOUT CHILDREN, Notes

Post date: Apr 9, 2017 2:57:40 PM

Natural Method of Physical Training

IX. A WORD ABOUT CHILDREN

• • • The muscles have a memory distinct from functions of the brain. In the same manner that first impressions affect the brain most permanently, first habits in the muscular system affect muscular memory most. Habits of walking and carriage formed in childhood are very difficult to shake off. They are all but impossible to get rid of entirely save by serious mental effort.

    • Thus, nothing is more important than that children be taught the general principles of right development. All movements should be meaningfully performed through full ranges of motion and with full vigor and exhilaration. Proper breathing should be taught and practiced.

    • Proper carriage of the body should be emphasized. What is wanted is forward carriage of the chest. The shoulder should not be drawn back of the hip joint line. There is no force in shoulders excessively drawn back. The shoulders are in a position to acquire all necessary strength when they are drawn far enough back to give the fullest freedom to the development of the chest.

    • Most children are wont to protrude the abdomen in standing, and when school begins the shoulders soon come forward . Teach a child to assume the correct position, giving up whatever time may be necessary to teach the proper line of chest and shoulders. Children are quick to forget the correct position, but, when reminded by a touch or word, will soon learn to assume it, if only for a few moments, and the habit will gradually be formed. That the child should know how to stand correctly, and should assume the position at intervals, will of itself have a good influence.

    • Breathing is the most important of all features of training. Children need specific and continued instruction in breathing. Under an artificial condition of life the body will not acquire right habits of performing all its functions. Induce children to take long breaths while dressing in the morning and again before going to bed, if not oftener. Developing this habit at regular intervals will increase the frequency of taking involuntary deep breaths to the immense improvement of the child’s lung power and general health. The sternum, or breastbone is divided into eight pieces. Its whole material is soft, and very little training will give a fine, swelling chest to a youngster that might otherwise grow up flat and weak in that region.

    • Children should be allowed the greatest possible freedom of posture and movement. Children should know how to sit upright and be able to assume these postures for a few moments on occasion but should not be kept that way for long periods of time. If they bend over a table in sitting, teach them to bend from the hips and not from the middle of the back. Do not restrict their variety of movement.

    • Girls need exercise as greatly as boys. Physical freedom hurts nobody’s ‘manners,’ and provides grace in deportment, variety of poise and readiness in emergency.

    • Children need very little studied exercise aside from breathing, and nothing artificial is a substitute for outdoor sport. Nothing makes better lungs than running and climbing. Excessive running is as injurious as any other excess. But frequent and easy running is one of the finest of exercises. Arm and leg climbing is of tremendous benefit to the entire lung region and the entire physique.

    • Children are in particular need of diverse exercise. They should not be allowed to acquire hobbies, that keep them in one line of exercise to the exclusion of other useful movements. Habits and surroundings interfere with the body’s natural tendency to distribute strength and develop symmetrical growth. Useful exercise (spading, shoveling or sweeping) ranks above all others, because it means something and has a double influence.

    • Neither girls nor boys should be compelled to think of clothes at all during play hours. Do not avoid kneeling positions.

    • “Housing children during the winter months, as a precaution against them taking cold, is a very great mistake. Very few colds are contracted in the open air if the feet, limbs and body are sufficiently protected, and if children are permitted to follow out their own inclinations of running, skipping and having free motion of the arms, and are not exposed for too long a time in the cold...Children should be accustomed to daily exercise in the open air in all weather, unless, of course, it is very stormy or the cold is severe, and even when delicate they should not be deprived the tonic effects of outdoor air, and of strengthening the muscles by exercise in it. The first effect of cold air on the system is a tonic, as may be seen by the bright color in the cheeks and a feeling of exhilaration after walk on a crisp day in autumn...If a child is chilled or cold, it should instantly be brought into the house to be warmed and sent out again--taking the fresh air and outdoor exercise in installments, instead of all at once. “--Dr. Francis H. Ranking, “Hygiene for Children”

    • Endeavor to guide rather than restrict children’s exercise. They are certain to begin jumping sooner or later. To avoid the chance of serious injury to the system teach little children to bend the knees, lean forward and jar the spine as little as possible when jumping. Tumbling about brings all the muscles into play, produces a general glow to the body and wearies it evenly.

• • If children sleep properly, eat properly and breathe properly the rest of their training is scarcely worth talking of.