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REPORT OF THE SCHOOL OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 171
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To the President of Wake Forest College:

SIR:-There are enrolled in the Physical Culture classes 275 stu-
dents, and the attendance has been the best the best in the history of the
Gymnasium. The students have taken special interest in the new
work introduced, and the extra time given in the contest for the
Gymnasium jerseys proved beyond a doubt that more interest is
being taken in the work than ever before.

The following students were awarded the six jerseys for the best
work on the high bar, horse, parallel bar, and mats: B. O. Meyers,
W. R. Ferrell, P. E. Sprinkle, L. N. Weston, C. F. Smith, M. D.
Phillips.

It is the plan of the Director for next year to supplement the usual
exercises with class lectures on the different phases of Physical
Education.

Some improvements have been made in the building and new
equipment added as follows: Two chest weights, two mats, wands
with cabinets, dumb-bells, new steel bar, equipment for the physical
examination room. We are still in need of more mats, new pieces
of apparatus and more lockers for the dressing room; and it is
hoped that each year somehing can be added as the wear and tear
on the present equipment amounts to a great deal.

The Director wishes to impress the fact of the need of more and
better bathing facilities. The enrollment is gradually increasing,
while but little has been added to the first plant installed, which in
the beginning was inadequate for the students enrolled. There are
plenty of showers openings, but the stove for heating the water can
not supply them, and at present only two showers of running hot
water are in use, and these must accomodate the entire student
body three times a week. Classes averaging 40 rush three times a
day to the bathroom to bathe in time for the next period. We are
greatly in need of a steam heating plant for the Gymnasium.

There is an impression that "Athletics" and "Gymnasium" de-
partments are the same. The Director may be permitted to show
the difference between them. The latter should be called the De-
partment of Physical Education.

What class of men make up the two departments? In "Athletics"
the men competing must be trained athletes, as the coaching only
teaches them systematic team work and the finer points. These
men have had the good fortune to inherit a strong body, or by con-
stant training since early youth have developed a strong physique

18 Wake Forest College.

and a proficiency for the various forms of athletics in which they
have become interested. This class of men are generally the ones
who constitute the various squads from which the athletic teams
are picked.

On the other hand, the Gymnasium reaches the very man who
needs physical development most. Sometimes he has inherited a
weak body, or possibly acquired it by not being interested in the
physical side of his education, or by not being encouraged as he
should be by his parents. When he enrolls for the Gymnasium he
is given a physical as well as a medical examination. His defects
are pointed out to him, certain exercises prescribed for the weakest
parts, and he is stimulated with a desire to be strong and well de-
veloped like others around him.

The attendance is compulsory in the Gymnasium and the student
is graded as in other departments; for unless he is particularly
interested in athletics he will not join any of the squads, and the
usual result will be, even if he was strong and just from the farm,
the habit of hovering over his books without exercise, and ulti-
mately attacks of indigestion, constipation, and nervousness, which
in a short while make a physical wreck of him.

The exhibition given in the Gymnasium this spring by a class of
some fifty men was made up entirely of men who were not members
of any of the athletic teams, showing that the Gymnasium classes
reach the men who are not interested in athletics sufficiently to
join the athletic squads but who need the Gymnasium work.
Respectfully submitted, J. RICHARD CROZIER,
May 1. 1918. Director.

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